My heart skips a beat, and I fold the letter closed as I look at the door. I grab the handle and twist it slowly, pulling the door open an inch to peer out. Cyrus stands there in an entirely new outfit. No formal white coat, vest, or pants.
Instead, a cream-colored, long-sleeved shirt falls over his shoulders, the top few strings closing it are loosened, exposing his collarbones and chest. It cinches at the waist by a thick black belt, with his legs in tight black pants and matching knee-high boots. His long, wavy hair had been partly pinnedback and combed through at the ball earlier tonight. But now, it’s down. Falling about him in a halo of silver.
He tilts his head to the side with a timid smile. “I wasn’t sure…if you were still awake. And part of me feels guilty for asking after such a long day, but…” He sighs. “I couldn’t help myself. I figured if you were struggling to sleep as I was, perhaps we could—” He shrugs before blowing out another breath.
Holding out a hesitant gloved hand to me, he tries again. “If you want to see the gardens at night…I’d love to show you.”
My eyes widen. I was not expecting him to be on the other side, ready to sweep me off into the night. But as I toss a glance behind me into my room…Marcella. She said she’d be here in my room by midnight. Perhaps to continue our conversation from earlier.
Based on the sliver of moon in the sky, we have a few more hours until she’s to meet me.
Despite my nerves, I can’t possibly turn him down. It feels wrong to. So I gather my shoes and slip my sore feet back into them. Cyrus waits quietly, shutting the door after I’ve exited. Offering his elbow, I thread my arm into his, and we saunter down the quiet, dark hallway. Sconces are still lit, and yet not entirely enough to completely illuminate the paths.
He leads me throughout the castle, and I can’t help tossing nervous glances down every hall, room, and door we pass. I’ve never been out this late. The way the shadows wash the castle in a deep darkness is almost haunting. And for a split second, part of me fears Lady Bethany’s wrath if she finds out I’m out past curfew.
“Are you normally up this late?” I whisper, sliding a side glance to him.
His eyes are set on the path ahead. “Yes. I don’t sleep very well.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
Flicking those white eyes to me, he grins. “Don’t be. I find it quiet at night. Peaceful to settle into when everyone else is sleeping.”
“What do you typically do to pass the time, then?”
He opens a windowed door to the outside, and a wave of fresh air wafts over me. The cold night air chills my skin. After he closes the door behind us, he leads us toward the gardens, murmuring, “This. This is what I typically do. I find it comforting to be out in the night air.”
As we turn a corner onto the main pathway through the gardens, the sky shrouded by treetops and our surroundingscrowded by flowers and bushes, the sound of sputtering water fountains and harmonic crickets fills the silence. But most notable is the comforting smell of fresh flowers, of earth and soil, welcoming me.
I can’t help but close my eyes for a moment as I pull in a breath. The one thing aside from singing that could still my nerves was gardening. Of digging my hands into the dirt, working it until it produced something beautiful. And yet, singing was the opposite. Rather than digging into something else, I excavated something beautiful from the dirt inside of me. Let it free until it transformed from guilt and pain into something else entirely.
We pass peonies, tulips, lavender, marigolds, and snapdragons. My gaze glides over every gentle, colorful cluster. A small smile on my lips knowing that he nurtured them. The pavers are set respectfully away from the flower beds to admire all the growth. Ivy hangs from trellises overhead, stars peeking out through the leaves and scattering lights and speckled shadows upon our path.
Cyrus doesn’t say a word. Allowing me to drink it all in. I’ve been out here plenty of times, but there’s something different about a garden at night. While the colors are washed in blue hues, it only makes me appreciate everything else. Shapes and textures, lights and darks.
We get to the end of the tunnel of trellises, and the space empties out to a part of the garden I’ve never been in before. But it’s a dead end, walled off by rose bushes surrounding us.
“This was…” I sigh as I shake my head. “Incredible. I see now why you say it’s your favorite place at night. I’d risk backaches in the mornings to stay out here.”
He turns to me, smiling. “I’m glad you enjoyed it and appreciate it as much as I do. Though…” He turns his attention to the stone wall in front of us, his expression mixed with an emotion I can’t quite place. “Do you want to see more?”
“More?” I echo, following his gaze to the wall.
“The best part is on the other side of this wall,” he whispers.
When I tilt my head back to assess the top of the wall, I almost chuckle. Surely he isn’t expecting us to scale it and find more on the other side. Right?
Finally he turns back to me, expression calm and serious. “I know you’ve only known me for a little while, but do you trust me?”
Blinking at such a serious question, I stutter, “I-I suppose I do?”
He takes a few steps away from me toward the wall, pulling his arm out of mine and instead snagging my hand in his. His touch is soft, warm. For the first time, he isn’t wearing gloves. But I don’t have long to admire his elegant fingers because he leads me to the wall beyond the roses. “Where are you?—”
His figure ripples as he steps through the wall, and I hear him say, “Don’t let go of my hand.”
Gasping, I’m pulled in after him. Bracing myself as the wall rushes toward my face. As I expect myself to slam against the stone, it wriggles like I’m stepping through water. As soon as I’ve broken its surface, the sensation snaps away, and I’m on the other side.
The gardens have given way to long, rolling hills. The Serahaven mountains spike from the background, but they’re from a different angle entirely. The waterfalls pouring in from the mountains around Vitalis are gone. So are the pools gathering into a massive lake beyond the castle.
