“Snuck out, did you?” Jesstin’s eyes widened in mock surprise.
She giggled. It was not a sound he’d expected, and it was delightful. “Like a deviant child.” Her mirth disappeared. “I needed air. One thing about Whitechurch, I could always wander. Never for long, but sometimes it was long enough.”
“You can’t wander at Nightwood?”
“And be murdered by forest nymphs?” It was her turn to play shocked.
Jesstin laughed, already more relaxed than he’d been all night. In a while, actually. “Now that you’re home, you can toss his ass out.”
“My mother would never allow it.” Elloven signaled the barmaid and ordered an ale. She looked at Jesstin to see if he wanted a refresh, but he shook his head and fingered his untouched mug. “So you come to Mythgarde a lot then?”
“Most nights.” He almost took a sip of the now-warm drink to uphold the act, but something about her made the deception feel unnecessary. Instead he pushed it to the side. Emboldened, he told her the truth. “I own an establishment on the Row. The Azure Haunt.”
Elloven’s mouth fell open in amusement. “You’re a proprietor?”
Jesstin nodded once.
“What an intrigue you are.” She was still watching him when she took her first drink. “So why are you here, at...”
“The Ivory Rogue? This end of the Row is where most newcomers begin their nights.”
She grinned from the corner of her mouth. “You were waiting for me?”
Jesstin shrugged, neither willing to commit to it nor refute it.
“How did you know I’d come?”
“I didn’t.”
“I see.” Elloven’s mouth furrowed. “So, am I the only one who’s curious about these young women drifting around in white gowns?”
“They’re all curious about the Virtues, but they read the rules when they entered.”
“What rules?”
“Tell me you’re joking.”
“Not much for rules.”
Jesstin chuckled. Everything she said added another layer of novelty, offering not only a window into who she was but also a door. “They’re meant to represent ‘purity’ and are forbidden to touch. You can speak to them, flirt with them, but a misplaced hand could land you on the gallows. Most just pretend they don’t exist. You might say they’re a test for newcomers. Can they handle the rules of the Row, or have they lapped too deep at the well of society’s expectations?”
Elloven absorbed this for a moment. Her eyes never left his, which was as disconcerting as it was alluring. Most women would look away. She wasn’t raised to be artless, so it was a choice. “Would it be a fair guess that you have no such representations of purity at the Azure?”
He snorted, shaking his head. “We maintain no illusions at the other end of this road.”
“Illusions are just pretty lies.” She took another drink. “I want to go there.”
Jesstin cocked his head. “Now?”
Her shoulders lifted. “Why not?”
“No reason, just ah...” Why was he hedging? He’d invited her with the hope she’d show up, and she had. “Why did you come, Lady Elloven?”
Her face screwed tight in disgust. “Just Elloven.” She dropped his gaze finally, turning her eyes on her hands, wrapped around her mug. “You invited me, Jesstin.”
“I suggested?—”
“You invited me,” she asserted and turned her piercing eyes back on him. “Can we not be direct with one another? Be real? It seemed we could in the carriage.”
