Crescent

17

You need to return to the Moon Court, Zeno said, his face grave. Behind him, the gray clouds thickened and rumbled with the distant crash of thunder. Trees swayed in the winds, a dark silhouette that created a halo around him. In the darkness, he glowed like a bright star. I'll cast a barrier over you like I did for the house. It will keep the unseelie from being able to hurt you.

"I can still support you." Vera grabbed his arm and held firm. His wrist was frail beneath her grip, thin enough that she could wrap her whole hand around it. "Heal me, Zeno."

His face flickered with something unreadable, a look that was neither pity nor disgust but crinkled his eyes the same way. With a simple twist, he wrenched free of her grasp and jerked his hand back. The air crackled, glittering with the faint presence of magic, and her vial flew out of her pocket into his hand. Using one hand, he popped the cork. The other grabbed her sword and drove the tip into the soft earth between them. In one smooth motion, he sliced the palm of his hand across the edge of her sword, spilling silver blood onto the grass.

Vera gasped, shooting forward to check his wound. "Zeno!"

He didn't so much as flinch, but instead calmly lifted the vial to catch the flow of blood. It filled the little bottle slowly with thick liquid. The runes painted on the side of the glass lit up as the fluid reached the edge of the rim where the cork rested. When it was full, he capped the vial and held it out to her.

She stiffened. "What are you doing?" she hissed. "Do you want to fight that monster wounded? How is that any different from the state I'm in?"

His glare hardened, and he thrust the vial at her chest. He didn't wait for her to take it before he let go, leaving her fumbling to catch it before it slipped out of reach. It was strangely warm in her calloused hands, humming with energy much like the key resting calmly against her.

Zeno signed again, quicker this time but still deliberate with violent cuts and shakes. This is what you wanted, isn't it? the earring translated in eerie silence, no more than words dropped into her mind by an unseen force. You need a piece of a powerful magical creature to have a chance at developing magic of your own. I am a magical creature, Ve. My blood is as good as the unseelie's flesh. Take your prize and go. You've done your part.

In spite of herself, she curled her fist tighter around the vial. "Why are you trying to send me away? What are you keeping from me?"

Go home, Ve. He shoved the vial and her hands into her bag with a warning look, one that was almost sharp enough to cut her to the quick. Though his words came in silence, they landed with a harsh blow, each one more vicious than the last until she was reeling with the force.

The wind raked her exposed face, howling in her good ear beneath the constant ring. It tasted of blood and the earthy scent of incoming rain. The cold did little to quell the rising heat inside her chest.

"No!" she hissed. She jerked out of his grasp but not before slipping the vial into the main pocket of her bag. Gritting her teeth, she shoved him away. "You're planning to run away, aren't you? You never intended to kill the unseelie—that's why you want me to leave!"

The look on his face spoke a thousand words faster than his deft fingers ever could. His jaw ticked with barely concealed frustration, and his white eyes narrowed so that he was sneering down at her through predatory slits. Yet despite the iron exterior, guilt squirmed beneath it when he flicked his gaze away. Like a child whose lies had been exposed, he hunched his shoulders and bowed his head in shame. She was right on the mark.

Vera pushed her shoulders back despite the fresh wave of nausea that washed over her. "So it's true," she croaked. "You're a coward."

He let out a sharp breath, as close to a scoff as he could get, and snapped his head up. Already, his hands were moving again, so fast that the earring struggled to keep up. Why do you care if the fae-killer is dead? The death of other fae and the loss of magic doesn't affect you. Even if you accept my power, the waning moon will never be able to take that away.