Nocturna

“I can’t just go around telling people where I’ll be. I’m still a wanted woman! Many wanted women, actually. And some men too.”

“I know.” Alfie regarded her with a sad sliver of a smile. “You are very much wanted. More than you know.”

“Where will you go?” he asked, his voice soft and desperate. Finn wanted to bottle the sound so that she might uncork it and listen to it whenever she needed a reason to smile. Or frown. He cleared his throat.

Luka leaned forward. “I know your type.”

“My type?” She snorted. “I’m afraid there’s only one of me. I’m a bit too original to warrant a type.”

But if you could die in a moment, then maybe you could live in one too. And if she could choose a moment to suspend, to hold gently between her palms, she thought, it might be this one: with the prince’s eyes on hers and the knowledge that she was not who Ignacio had said she was. She was herself

Another guard surged into his place, his fist raised, and before Alfie knew it, he’d pulled a coil of water from the lake and frozen it into a globe about his fist. He landed a punch to the man’s cheek, sending him staggering away.

Then Finn was at his side, her brows raised as she looked at his ice-coated fist.

Alfie relished the bit of pride he saw curving her lips. “Learned from the best.”

Listen to me!” Alfie shouted. “We’re not here to hurt anyone.”

“Speak for yourself,” Finn murmured from her seat. Alfie shot her a look.

One guard stared up at Finn where she sat at the head of his carriage, his brows raised. “May I see your invitation?”

“Sure.” Finn raised her foot and kicked the man in the face. He fell onto his back and swore, his hands flying to his bleeding nose.

“All right,” she said. “Then we’ll go together.”

The thief and the prince rode on, the lacework of their fingers a promise that where one of them went, the other would surely follow.

She’d always imagined the weight of someone’s hand in her own to feel like an anchor, tugging her into a forced stasis when she only wanted to run, to be free. Yet now, she wanted nothing more than to stay. She felt more freedom in this moment than all her years combined.

Freedom, she was coming to understand, could be found in a person instead of a place.

After a beat of silence, a broken laugh parted his lips, and Finn was glad to hear it.

He did it so rarely that it felt hard-earned, sending a surge of pride through her.