“Has wisdom ever stopped you?”
“Not my own, but yours might. It seemed polite to ask. I mean, he’syourcousin.”
“Third cousin.”
“And adopted, which is the point.” Faraday took an anxious little breath. “Did you two ever…”
She was waiting for me to complete the question, as if that would soften it. I wondered why everyone was asking for my approval today. Ashton with his repayment, Gertie with her cat’s name, now Faraday with her crush.
“Did we ever what?”
We had kissed once, when we were children, a few months before Uncle Max’s havoc. The day Sebastian completed his mors curae, a vivisection, a test of surgical skill—revealing Ratface’s still beating heart, then extinguishing it with a pinch.
He came to my room, shivering with triumph, streaked with blood. We stared at each other, uncertain what would happen. I’d already given him my curae gift—a winter cap knitted from red yarn.
Sebastian took a step inside, closed the door behind him, then kissed me. He pulled away, radiant. He smelled of iron and sweat.
I stared at him, full of something new and aching. But his grin of conquest brought me back to myself.
Was that kiss about his mors curae? Or me?
“Salty,” I’d said, wiping the rabbit’s blood from my lips.
“Jessica!” Faraday spluttered, here on the balcony. “You know what I mean! Have you ever—”
“Kissed?” I ended her torment.
“For starters, yes.”
“We haven’t.”
“You haven’t but you will?” Faraday offered. “You do but you don’t?”
We are but we haven’t. We might but we can’t.
“None of it,” I said, recalling Hiromi’s uncalculating smile.
Faraday turned back to the sunset. “Why am I always wrong about everything? The world’s never as interesting as I want it to be.”
“You just answered your own question, dear.”
“Butwhyshould things be boring?”
“I thought you wanted to kiss Sebastian yourself.”
A shrug. “Maybe not anymore.”
“Was this your first bottle tonight?”
“So many questions.” Faraday let out a dramatic sigh. “I hope you get that New York thing. I’d love a glamorous summer job!”
“You have a family to run.”
“Yes, but I could come down and visit you—and Garrett.”
“He has lots of beautiful art.”
“Well, then.” Faraday poured out the rest of her glass over the rail. She leaned out to watch the drops tumble into the darkness. “I shall buy some, to pay you back.”
