Wystwood

64. All kinds of secrets

It started as a whisper of a kiss, easily mistaken for the brush of a night's breeze had Ada not been bound against Raeph's chest. His arms were taut around her back as her lips touched his, hardly breathing, before she drew back, the tip of her nose tracing the hollow of his cheek.

Raeph pounced, one hand coming up to tangle in Ada's hair as his other dragged down to her hip. She gasped as they tumbled into the alcove, their boots still sticking out into empty air, as if they were holding each other at the edge of the world.

Raeph's mouth captured her own with such fervour that Ada felt the tips of his teeth scrape the inside of her lip. She ran her hands across his shoulders and down his arms, the hard muscle moulding into place around her body, urging her closer. Ada's fingers clutched at Raeph's shirt and he groaned, the noise rumbling up from some animal place in the back of his throat.

They clung together, fae and human, impossible and inseparable. Ada felt the tingle of Raeph's breath across her neck, warming her to her toes. He gazed down at her, their fingers weaving together as he kissed her again, and the clock ticked on towards sunrise.

Ada and Raeph left the alcove before light could leak fully into the valley. The sun was just emerging over the Wystwood as they clambered back down into the city, their hands occasionally finding one another upon roof slates and around chimney pots.

Morning proper had begun by the time they reached the canal. Raeph kept his head bent low, not wanting to be seen by the fae setting up their shopfronts. There seemed to be a particular air of caution swirling through the inner city, as though the fae were afraid a Hound might stride down the street at any moment.

"Why is everyone acting so oddly?" asked Ada, casting a furtive look behind them before pulling up her hood.

"The Harvest Moon rises two nights from now," Raeph replied. "It once was a time when plants could be reaped to produce the most potent forms of agrestal magic, but now the Hounds use it to celebrate their own triumphs over Casting."

"Celebrate?" Ada repeated. "How?"

"They will come together in the central court of their Barracks for a banquet, along with their families and other high-class supporters of the Lady."

Ada came to a stop by the bridge into the outer city. "The Barracks are where they're holding Solen."

Raeph frowned, shaking his head slightly. "No... they wouldn't just keep some bandit under such high security."

"Min told us," insisted Ada, and then thought of the healing calendula flower a Hound had seen them with. "Besides, what if the Hounds think Solen is using magic? Or connected to the Stone Circle?"

Raeph still seemed in disbelief, his hands clenching together, releasing, then clenching again. Ada tried not to dwell on what that could mean for the state of the Barracks.

"Will you also be attending the banquet?" she asked instead.

"I am usually made to go." Raeph didn't meet her stare and ran a hand through his hair, the darkened skin beneath his eyes seeming to grow harsher in the sunlight.

"Then if the Stone Circle will help us enter, we can all work together to break Solen out," Ada said, remembering Edmere's uneasy agreement to aid Lark.

Raeph's eyes twitched back to Ada at her mention of the Stone Circle, and she could see the corners of his lips curl back as he grasped her shoulders.

"If there is any time the Stones will be planning something senseless, it will be the night of the Harvest Moon," he said. "Do not get involved with their foolish plots. You will just be placing yourself in unnecessary danger."