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Taly followed his gaze. Huh. They really were perkier.

She grinned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Hmm.”

Another drink landed on the bar. She nudged it towards him and slid off the stool. “I’m going to the toilet. If I don’t make it back to the table, it’s safe to assume Ren and I eloped.”

“Not funny,” Skye grumbled, taking a moody sip.

“I know the world’s a little crazy right now,” she said, fluffing her hair, “but afterward—I figure we’ll start up a little butcher shop together. He’ll do the messy bits while I work the counter and taste test the product.”

“Still not funny.”

“Goodbye forever!” she called over the din of the crowd.

Looking back, she finally saw Skye crack a smile.

Chapter 25

The good weather finally gave out, rain misting down in a slow, steady sheet as Taly and Skye walked hand-in-hand through the empty streets of Ryme.

The night had stretched long with laughter and conversation, the drinks flowing, the music a steady pulse beneath it all. At some point, Skye pulled her onto the dance floor, and Taly let him, despite herfirmno-drinking-and-dancing rule.

The first song was quick, all rhythm and percussion. The kind of tempo that grabbed you by the ribs and didn’t let go. The crowd surged, feet stomping in time, bodies jostling shoulder to shoulder, and Skye carried her through all of it. Turn, step, twist, laugh. She didn’t have time to think, just feel.

Then the music changed to something slower and thicker. She started to step back, but he didn’t let her. Just pulled her back in. They’d danced before, plenty of times. But back then, they didn’t hold each other like this. Not with his hand pressed so low, or her head on his shoulder, swaying in time to the beat.

One by one, their friends drifted off. Aimee disappeared with Swift, and Aiden called it a night soon after. By the end, only Kato remained at their table, nursing a final drink with Eula, fresh off her shift.

Bronze streetlamps lined either side of the wide avenue leading to the townhouse, fire crystals flickering within.

“So,” Skye said as they started up the hill, “was it everything you dreamed it would be? Taly’s big night out, full of drinking and dancing…”

She laughed and let him twirl her in the middle of the road before tugging her body close to his. “You had fun.”

“Maybe a little,” he admitted. Grudgingly. “More importantly—did you have fun?”

“I… I think so.”

“You only think?”

Taly shrugged, not quite knowing how to put the feeling into words. There was something about being around people again. Something she hadn’t realized until she’d walked into that bar and been bombarded by the chatter and laughter, the tangle of scents, the heat of so many bodies packed tight.

“At the palace,” she said, “every day was just like the one that came before it. There was no forward motion. Tonight, though… tonight, it felt like I was finally moving again. Like I wasliving. I think—I think I’d forgotten what that felt like.”

The words sounded as stupid coming out of her mouth as they had in her head, but the hand at her waist gave a squeeze. “Worth it then.” He kissed her hair, whispering into it, “Even if there are other things I would’ve rather been doing.”

Taly didn’t miss the suggestive lilt to his voice. “Like what?” she asked, glad that her cheeks were already flushed from the cold. “Chess?”

Skye’s lips twitched. “Not quite.”

“Checkers?”

“No.”

“Penumbra?”

“Neither of us knows how to play Penumbra.”