Night Shine by Tessa Gratton

Author:Tessa Gratton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Published: 2020-09-08T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-SIX

DAWN WOKE NOTHING WITH a gentle caress against her lashes, reddening her dreams. She squeezed herself into a tighter ball and sighed. It was cold on the mountaintop, but she’d nestled into her dress, the loose volcanic gravel, and thin grasses.

She opened her eyes to find a little blue flower nodding at her. It was the size of her smallest fingernail, clustered with a handful of others. Nothing drew a breath to seek a scent: the only perfume in the air was ice.

Her tongue tasted a little sour, and she wondered if demons ever had bad breath.

Probably only if they wanted to. They didn’t need to breathe at all.

Slowly she stood and stretched, feeling remarkably rested. Her body was ready for anything, not sore or tired or stiff. She licked her lips and shifted so she could grasp at the rocks edging this natural balcony and peer over.

The Fifth Mountain spread downward in jagged peaks and tumbling boulders and sheer drops. The mirror lake winked at her. She wanted a cold bath. Overhead blue skies rippled with lines of clouds sweeping away from the mountain. The sun was up, a shining full disk, and Nothing wondered if demons could look straight at it without a headache.

Blinking, she went back to the cave entrance and climbed down, letting herself be swallowed again by the shade.

Once she’d made it down the ladder to the stairs, she choose a spot in the wall that seemed shaped the right way and correctly tall: she closed her eyes, reached out, and her hand touched the many-petaled knob.

Inside her bedroom she was alone, and she washed her face, cleaned her mouth, relieved her bladder, and without changing, headed for the mirror lake.

To Nothing’s surprise Sky and Kirin were there too, along with the spirit of the Selegan River and what seemed to be a hundred dawn sprites.

The Selegan was shaped like a youth, half-naked and teasing the dawn sprites by lifting handfuls of water and splashing them. The sprites fled, screaming like tiny birds, but swooped around for more, splashing the dragon back by fluttering wet wings at them.

Sky stood farther into the lake, completely naked, and seeming unbothered by the chill of the water. He glistened, scrubbing at his hair, and called to Kirin on the shore.

The prince stood among the alders in trousers and a plain tunic, his hair loose to his waist. Elegant gray-brown alder branches cut across him like prison bars between them. But he glanced toward Nothing and his bright eyes caught hers.

She walked to him, never letting go of his gaze, and Kirin waited.

“I want to know what I can become,” she said. “It matters more than what I was.”

“Isn’t that why you’ve agreed to stay with the sorceress these two more days?” he asked. “To let her fill your head with magic.”

Nothing crossed her arms over her stomach. “Are you so insecure to be nervous at what she may say?”

“Jealous, Nothing.”

The admission thrilled her.

Kirin pressed his mouth into a line.

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