“I heard what you said. I’m not the silly romantic you think. I don’t want the heavens or the shooting stars. I don’t want gemstones or gold. I have those things already. I want…a steady hand. A kind soul. I want to fall asleep, and wake, knowing my heart is safe. I want to love, and be loved.”
―
Shana Abe
“You do speak." It came out as an accusation."When there's someone around worth speaking to.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“My dowry is thirty-five. A year.” His brows climbed. “You’re joking.” “I would never joke about money with a notorious thief. Just imagine, in a mere two years you’re at a profit.” “How I adore a woman who does mathematics in her head.”“I can forge signatures as well.” “Splendid. Exactly the bride I’ve been hoping for.” ― Shana Abe
“You’re naught but a human man. You couldn’t possibly understand.” He lifted a brow, still smiling. “Liar.” “Cutpurse.” “Runaway.”“Swindler!“Coward,” he said softly, and she jerked back.“Bastard!”“Undoubtedly true.” He made a short bow.” ― Shana Abe
“You’d better marry her before she reaches eighteen and the spell wears off,” I said.“Spell?”“Yes. The one that’s hiding her fangs and pincers from plain sight.”“I don’t find them especially hidden,” he said mildly.“Then perhaps you’re a pair.”His brows lifted. “Now, that’s the cruelest thing you’ve said so far.”Mrs. Fredericks cleared off, and Chloe took her place before the piano. A beam of sunlight was just beginning its slide into the chamber, capturing her in light. She was a glowing girl with a glowing face, and Joplin at her fingertips.“Give me time,” I muttered, dropping my gaze to my plate. “I’ll come up with something worse.”“No doubt.” Armand pulled a flask from his jacket and shook it in front of my nose. “Whiskey. Conveniently the same color as tea. Are you game, waif?” I glanced around, but no one was looking. I lifted my cup, drained it to the dregs, and set it before him.He was right. It did look like tea. But it tasted like vile burning fire, all the way down my throat.“Sip it,” he hissed, as I began to cough. His voice lifted over my sputtering. “Dear me, Miss Jones, I do beg your pardon. The tea’s rather hot; I should have mentioned it.”“Quite all right,” I gasped, as the whiskey swirled an evil amber in my teacup.Chloe’s song grew bouncier, with lyrics about a girl with strawberries in a wagon. Several of the men had begun to cluster near, drawn to her soprano or perchance her bosom. Two were vying to turn the pages of her music. She had to crane her head to keep Armand in view.He sent her another smile from his chair, lifting his cup in salute.“I’m going to kiss you, Eleanore,” he said quietly, still looking at her. “Not now. Later.” His eyes cut back to mine. “I thought it fair to tell you first.”I stilled. “If you think you can do so without me biting your lip, feel free to try.”His gaze shone wicked blue. “I don’t mind if you bite.”“Biting your lip off, I should have said.”“Ah. Let’s see how it goes, shall we?” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“She was too compelling to look at directly. Bright like the sun, bright and terrible. Only one other being could look upon her, and that was Death. And so…they became lovers.”He said the word like a caress, like velvet again, and my face began to heat.“Together they forged great and hellish things,” Jesse murmured. “Lightning and waterfalls that churned into clouds off the tip of the world. Chasms so winding deep that daylight never traced their endings. They dreamed through golden days and silvered nights. All the other creatures envied or adored them, because Death and the Elemental were destruction and creation joined as One. In the natural order of things, they should not have been stronger joined. And yet they were.”He shifted, coming closer to me. A hand settled lightly atop my chest, directly over my heart. At our feet the seawater splashed a little, as if disturbed by something rolling over in the dark, distant deep.“Centuries passed, and mankind began to devour the earth, even the wildest places. They had tools to invent and wars to fight and grubby, short lives. Nothing about them dwelled in the magic of the ancient spirits. So although Death, the Great Hunter, prospered as he sieved through their villages, the Elemental, strong as she once was, thinned into a web of gossamer. Human lives simply tore her apart.”His hand was so warm. Warmer than I, warmer than the air, and still just barely touching me. The light behind my lids never lifted, so I knew he wasn’t glowing, but it felt as if he held a tame coal to my skin. It felt like something painless and ablaze, drawing my heart upward into it.“The time had come for them to divide. Like all the rest of her kind, the goddess would cease to exist; she had no other course. So Death and the Elemental severed their joined hearts. For a few generations more, she drifted alone through the last of the sacred places, deserts, and fjords, lands so savage no human had yet desecrated them.”Jesse’s voice dropped to a whisper. Without moving his hand, he bent down, his breath in my ear. “And Death, who had tasted her brightness, who would never cease to crave it-who knew her better than all the collected souls of all mankind’s weeping dead-became her Hunter.”I was hot and strange. I was light and lighter, and curiously my breath came so slow.“Until at last, one starry night beneath the desert moon, she surrendered to him. She allowed him to come to her, to make love to her. To unravel her…”It was happening. He sat next to her and bore witness to her change, her pulse slowing, her skin blanching, the fans of her lashes stark against the contours of her face. He kept his palm there against her chest, up and down with her respiration, and watched the smoke begin to curl around his fingers.“And by his hand, in the bliss of her unraveling, she touched the stars…”Lora’s breath hitched. Her heart skipped-then stopped.If I could take this from you, Jesse thought fiercely. If I could take this one moment away from you and keep the agony for myself-Her eyes opened, went instantly to his. Panic lit her gaze.Then she was gone.His fingers sank to the floor through her empty blouse, and the blue dragon smoke that was all of Eleanore Jones rose into strands above him.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“How good to see you, Miss Jones.”That debonair tone, the friendly press of his hand upon mine. It was such a contrast to our final moments in the cottage that I couldn’t help but smirk.“Thank you for having me,” I replied, loudly enough for the duke to hear.“But I haven’t,” said Armand under his breath. “So far.”I tugged back my hand. “Ever the gentleman, aren’t you?”“I try. Come aboard, waif. Come and experience a gentleman’s world.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“Don’t worry. If we sink, we’ll swim together to shore. We’ll use your bewitching chapeau as a float.”The nose of the yacht dipped hard, then rose. The wing began a low howl around us.“I’m not blotto,” he said, in response to my expression. He turned to the railing and chucked the empty flute to the waves. “Not yet, in any case.”I went to stand beside him. The flute had sunk beneath the surface already, on its way to an eternity of sand and tide.“That’s good. Because I can’t swim.”“Why did you go swimming in the grotto, then,” he asked too pleasantly, “if you can’t swim?”“I wasn’t swimming there. I was smoke, at the ceiling, when you came in. Falling into the water was an accident.”“You’re welcome,” Armand said.I refused to ask for what. We both knew.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“I would have done anything. Don’t you know that?” “No.” “Then you haven’t been paying close attention. I love you. Even more than gold and dreams, I love you. It seems insane you haven’t realized it. You were the one who first informed me of it.” “I broke your leg,” she said” ― Shana Abe
“I’d dreamed once of a forest of gold, and Jesse had done what he could to give it to me. His bedroom had been transformed into a wonderland of leaves and flowers, pinecones and branches of birch and oak, all of it glimmering, all of it singing. The bed was covered, his chest of drawers, the sill. Much of it was jumbled together, beautiful for what it was if not its presentation. Jesse had last left this room on the night of his death, right after he’d called to me, right before he’d gone to the castle. So he would have been scattering his final gift in haste, knowing he worked against the clock.Knowing, somehow, what was to come.Which meant he’d been making gold for weeks. When I’d seen him so tired, when he’d told me all those nights that we should rest apart…he had been doing this.For me.A folded note had been set upon the bed. My name had been scrawled upon it.I love you was all it said inside.I sank to the floor. I looked up and all around as the sun danced through the window and turned Jesse’s room into an ambered heaven of song and shimmer and sparks.That was how Armand found me, hours later. That was what he saw, as well, what he heard, as he walked slowly into the chamber and eased down beside me to rest his back against the bed.We sat there together, listening, marveling.In time, his hand reached out and took firm hold of mine.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“nothing helped tea. It simply was what it was, which was boiling hot and flavorless.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“Why do you want to know?”The shrug again. “Just wondering.”“Really. You’ve skipped your lawn tennis or duck hunting or whiskey drinking or whatever else people of your sort do all day, only to come all the way out to the island to ask me about the piano piece. Because you were just wondering.” I pushed away from the door. “Coming here to kiss me would have been more believable.”“Well, it was second on my list.”“I’m not intimidated by you,” I said, blunt. “If you’re hoping I’ll turn out to be some pathetic, blubbering little rag-girl who begs you not to ruin her, you’re in for a surprise.”“That’s good.” Lord Armand met my eyes. “I like surprises.”We gazed at each other, he on the bed and me by the door, neither of us giving quarter. It seemed to me that the room was growing even more dim, that time was repeating the same ploy it had pulled in Jesse’s cottage, drawing out long and slow. The storm outside railed against the castle walls, drowning the air within. It layered darkness through Armand’s eyes, the once-vivid blue now deep as the ocean at night.Beyond my window the rain fell and fell, fat clouds weeping as if they’d never stop.“Nice bracelet,” Armand said softly. “Did you steal it?”I shook my head. “You gave it to me.”“Did I?”“As far as everyone else if concerned, yes. You did.”“Hmm. And what do I get in return for agreeing to be your…benefactor?”“The answer to your question.”“No kiss?” he asked, even softer.“No.”His lips quirked. “All right, then, waif. I accept your terms. We’ll try the kiss later.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“Stop,” Jesse said.I stared up at him, almost panting with fear.“Stop, beloved,” he said more gently, and took up my clenched fist with both hands. “I’ve upset you, and I shouldn’t have. I don’t want you to dread yourself. I don’t want you to dread what is to come. Like I said, you’re exceptional, so there may be nothing to worry about at all. But whatever happens, whatever you face, I’ll face it with you. Do you hear?”“How can you say it? It nearly happened on the roof today. You can’t know-““I will be with you. We’re together now, and the universe knows I won’t let you make your sacrifice alone. Dragon protects star. Star adores dragon. An age-old axiom. Simple as that.”I looked down at our hands, both of his curled over mine. I unclenched my fist. Blood from the thorn smeared my skin. “The universe,” I muttered. “The same universe that has produced the Kaiser and bedbugs and Chloe Pemington. How reassuring.”With the same absolute concentration he might have shown for turning flowers into gold, Jesse Holms smoothed out my fingers between his, wiping away the blood. He turned my hand over and lifted it to his lips. His next words fell soft as velvet into the heart of my palm.“Those nights, in the sweetest dark, we shared our dreams. That’s you answer. I was stitched into yours, and you were stitched into mind, and that was real, I promise you.” I felt his lips curve into a smile. The unbelievably sensual, ticklish scuff of his whiskers. “Very good dreams they were, too,” he added.It was no use trying to cling to mortification or fear. He was holding my hand. He was smiling at me past the cup of my fingers, and although I couldn’t see it, the shape of it against my skin was beyond tantalizing, rough and masculine. I was a creature gone hot and cold and light-headed with pleasure. I wanted to snatch back my hand and I wanted him to go on touching me like this forever. I wanted to walk with him back to his cottage, to his bed, and to hell with the Germans and school and all the rest of the world.But he looked up suddenly.“They’re searching for you,” he said, releasing me at once, moving away.They were. I heard my name being called by a variety of voices in a variety of tones, all of them still inside the castle, none of them sounding happy.“Go on.” With a few quick steps, Jesse was less than a shadow, retreating into the black wall of the woods. “Don’t get into trouble. And, Lora?”“Yes?”There was hushed laughter in his voice. “Until we can see each other again, do us both a favor. Keep away from rooftops.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“How long have you known about him?” I asked Jesse, using my free hand to gesture toward his guest.“Forever. Nearly as long as I did about you.”“God, Jesse. Why didn’t you say anything?”“He was a shadow of you.” Jesse shrugged. “His background is diluted, his dragon blood les strong. Even with you in his proximity, I wasn’t certain any of his drakon traits would emerge. He hasn’t anywhere near your potential.”“Pardon me,” Armand said, freezingly polite, “but he is still right here with you in this room.”“Do you mean…I did it?” I asked. “I made him figure it out? What he is?”Jesse gave me an assessing look. “Like is drawn to like. We’re all three of us thick with magic now, even if it’s different kinds. It’s inevitable that we’ll feed off one another. The only way to prevent that would be to separate. And even then it might not be enough. Too much has already begun.”“I don’t want to separate from you,” I said.“No.” Jesse lifted our hands and gave mine a kiss. “Don’t worry about that.”Armand practically rolled his eyes. “If you two are quite done, might we talk some sense tonight? It’s late, I’m tired, and your ruddy chair, Holms, is about as comfortable as sitting on a tack. I want to…”But his voice only faded into silence. He closed his eyes and raised a hand to his face and squeezed the bridge of his nose. I noted again those shining nails. The elegance of his bones beneath his flawless skin.Skin that was marble-pale, I realized. Just like mine.“Yes?” I said, more gently than I’d intended.“Excuse me. I’m finding this all a bit…impossible to process. I’m beginning to believe that this is the most profoundly unpleasant dream I’ve ever been caught in.”“Allow me to assure you that you’re awake, Lord Armand,” I retorted, all gentleness gone. “To wit: You hear music no one else does. Distinctive music from gemstones and all sorts of metals. That day I played the piano at Tranquility, I was playing your father’s ruby song, one you must have heard exactly as I did. Exactly as your mother would have. You also have, perhaps, something like a voice inside you. Something specific and base, stronger than instinct, hopeless to ignore. Animals distrust you. You might even dream of smoke or flying.”He dropped his arm. “You got that from the diary.”“No, I got that from my own life. And damned lucky you are to have been brought into this world as a pampered little prince instead of spending your childhood being like this and still having to fend for yourself, as I did.”“Right. Lucky me.” Armand looked at Jesse, his eyes glittering. “And what are you? Another dragon? A gargoyle, perchance, or a werecat?”“Jesse is a star.”The hand went up to conceal his face again. “Of course he is. The. Most. Unpleasant. Dream. Ever.”I separated my hand from Jesse’s, angling for more bread. “I think you’re going to have to show him.”“Aye.”A single blue eye blinked open between Armand’s fingers. “Show me what?” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“I’ll start in the air,” I said, far more steadily than I thought I could, considering. I knelt to tie the shirt around his thigh, cinching it tight above the wound; he stiffened but let me finish the knot. “The air first, the airship, and then-then I’ll dive.”“You can’t swim,” broke in Armand. “You told me that you can’t.”“Maybe I can now. If I’m a dragon.”“Don’t be an idiot! If you can’t swim, you can’t swim, Eleanore! You’ll drown out there, and what the bloody hell do you think you’re going to do anyway to a U-boat? Bite it open?”I stood again. “Yes! If I must! I don’t hear you coming up with a better-““You’ll die out there!”“Or we’ll all die here!”“We’re going to find another way!”“You two work on that. I’m off.” I fixed them both with one last, vehement look, the Turn rising inside me.Remember this. Remember them, this moment, this heartbreak, these two boys. Remember that they loved you.Armand had reached for my shoulders. “I forbid-Eleanore, please, no-““No,” echoed Jesse, speaking at last. “You’re not going after the submarine, Lora. You won’t need to.”Armand and I paused together, glancing down at him. I stood practically on tiptoe, so ready to become my other self.Jesse climbed clumsily to his feet. When he swayed, we both lunged to catch him.“Armand will take me to the shore. I’ll handle the U-boat.”“How?” demanded Armand at once.But I understood. I could read him so well now, Jesse-of-the-stars. I understood what he meant to do, and what it would cost him.I felt myself shaking my head. Above us, the airship propellers thumped louder and louder.“Yes,” said Jesse, smiling his lovely smile at me. “I already sense your agreement. Death and the Elemental were stronger joined than apart, remember? This is our joining. Don’t waste any more time quarreling with me about it. That’s not your way.” He leaned down to me, a hand tangled in my hair. His mouth pressed to mine, and for the first time ever I didn’t feel bliss at his touch.I felt misery.“Go on, Lora-of-the-moon,” he murmured against my lips. “You’re going to save us. I know you will.”I glared past him to the harsh, baffled face of Armand. “Will you help him? Do you swear it?”“I-yes, I will. I do.”I disentangled Jesse’s hand, kissed it, stepped back, and let the Turn consume me, smoke rising and rising, leaving the castle and all I loved behind me for the wild open sky.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“I pulled at the knot again and heard threads begin to pop.“Allow me, Miss Jones,” said Armand, right at my back.There was no gracious way to refuse him. Not with Mrs. Westcliffe there, too.I exhaled and dropped my arms. I stared at the lotus petals in my painting as the new small twists and tugs of Armand’s hands rocked me back and forth. Jesse’s music began to reverberate somewhat more sharply than before.“There,” Armand said, soft near my ear. “Nearly got it.”“Most kind of you, my lord.” Mrs. Westcliffe’s voice was far more carrying. “Do you not agree, Miss Jones?”Her tone said I’d better.“Most kind,” I repeated. For some reason I felt him as a solid warmth behind me, behind all of me, even though only his knuckles made a gentle bumping against my spine.How blasted long could it take to unravel a knot?“Yes,” said Chloe unexpectedly. “Lord Armand is always a perfect gentleman, no matter who or what demands his attention.”“There,” the gentleman said, and at last his hands fell away. The front of the smock sagged loose. I shrugged out of it as fast as I could, wadding it up into a ball.“Excuse me.” I ducked a curtsy and began my escape to the hamper, but Mrs. Westcliffe cut me short.“A moment, Miss Jones. We require your presence.”I turned to face them. Armand was smiling his faint, cool smile. Mrs. Westcliffe looked as if she wished to fix me in some way. I raised a hand instinctively to my hair, trying to press it properly into place.“You have the honor of being invited to tea at the manor house,” the headmistress said. “To formally meet His Grace.”“Oh,” I said. “How marvelous.”I’d rather have a tooth pulled out.“Indeed. Lord Armand came himself to deliver the invitation.”“Least I could do,” said Armand. “It wasn’t far. This Saturday, if that’s all right.”“Um…”“I am certain Miss Jones will be pleased to cancel any other plans,” said Mrs. Westcliffe.“This Saturday?” Unlike me, Chloe had not concealed an inch of ground. “Why, Mandy! That’s the day you promised we’d play lawn tennis.”He cocked a brow at her, and I knew right then that she was lying and that she knew that he knew. She sent him a melting smile.“Isn’t it, my lord?”“I must have forgotten,” he said. “Well, but we cannot disappoint the duke, can we?”“No, indeed,” interjected Mrs. Westcliffe.“So I suppose you’ll have to come along to the tea instead, Chloe.”“Very well. If you insist.”He didn’t insist. He did, however, sweep her a very deep bow and then another to the headmistress. “And you, too, Mrs. Westcliffe. Naturally. The duke always remarks upon your excellent company.”“Most kind,” she said again, and actually blushed.Armand looked dead at me. There was that challenge behind his gaze, that one I’d first glimpsed at the train station.“We find ourselves in harmony, then. I shall see you in a few days, Miss Jones.”I tightened my fingers into the wad of the smock and forced my lips into an upward curve. He smiled back at me, that cold smile that said plainly he wasn’t duped for a moment.I did not get a bow.Jesse was at the hamper when I went to toss in the smock. Before I could, he took it from me, eyes cast downward, no words. Our fingers brushed beneath the cloth.That fleeting glide of his skin against mine. The sensation of hardened calluses stroking me, tender and rough at once. The sweet, strong pleasure that spiked through me, brief as it was.That had been on purpose. I was sure of it.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“My, my,” Chloe murmured, studying the chocolate she held. “I do believe this one’s gone off. It stinks like a cesspit.” Her eyes lifted. “Oh, wait. It’s only the guttersnipe.”“Or perhaps it’s your perfume,” I said cordially. “You always smell like a whore.”“It’s French,” retorted Runny-Nose, before Chloe could speak.“Then she smells like a French whore.”“Aren’t you the eloquent young miss.” Chloe’s gaze cut to Sophia, standing close behind me. “Slumming, little sister? I can’t confess I’m surprised.”“I’m merely here for the show,” Sophia said breezily. “Something tells me it’s going to be good.”I took the brooch from my pocket and let it slide down my index finger, giving it a playful twirl. “A fine try. But, alas, no winner’s prize for you, Chloe. I’m sure you’ve been waiting here for Westcliffe to raise the alarm about her missing ring, ready with some well-rehearsed story about how you saw me sneaking into her office and sneaking out again, and oh, look isn’t that Eleanore’s brooch there on the floor? But I’ve news for you, dearie. You’re sloppy. You’re stupid. And the next time you go into my room and steal from me, I’ll make certain you regret it for the rest of your days.”“How dare you threaten me, you little tart!”“I’m not threatening. You have no idea how easy it would be to, say, pour glue on your hair while you sleep. Cut up all your pretty dresses into ribbons.”Chloe dropped her half-eaten chocolate back into its box, turning to her toadies. “You heard her! You all head her! When Westcliffe finds out about this-““I didn’t hear a thing,” piped up Sophia. “In fact, I do believe that Eleanore and I aren’t even here right now. We’re both off in my room, diligently studying.” She sauntered to my side, smiling. “And I’ll swear to that, sister. Without hesitation. I have no misgivings about calling you all liars right to Westcliffe’s face.”“What fun,” I said softly, into the hush. “Shall we give it a go? What d’you say, girls? Up for a bit of blood sport?”Chloe pushed to her feet, kicking the chocolates out of her way. All the toadies cringed.“You,” she sneered, her gaze scouring me. “You with your ridiculous clothing and that preposterous bracelet, acting as if you actually belong here! Really, Eleanore, I wonder that you’ve learned nothing of real use yet. Allow me to explain matters to you. You may have duped Sophia into vouching for you, but your word means nothing. You’re no one. No matter what you do here or who you may somehow manage to impress, you’ll always be no one. How perfectly sad that you’re allowed to pretend otherwise.”“I’m the one he wants,” I said evenly. “No one’s pretending that.”I didn’t have to say who.She stared at me, silent, her color high. I saw with interest that real tears began to well in her eyes.“That’s right.” I gave the barest smile. “Me, not you. Think about that tomorrow, when I’m with him on the yacht. Think about how he watches me. How he listens to me. Another stunt like this”-I held up the circlet-“and you’ll be shocked at what I’m able to convince him about you.”“As if you could,” she scoffed, but there was apprehension behind those tears.“Try me.”I brought my foot down on one of the chocolates, grinding it into a deep, greasy smear along the rug.“Cheerio,” I said to them all, and turned around and left.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“You snore.” “I don’t!”“Only a little. Very ladylike snores. I found them charming.” ― Shana Abe
“I would give up all the summers of eternity for you. I love you. Forever and my summer days, I'll love you.” ― Shana Abe, The Treasure Keeper
“You do speak." It came out as an accusation."When there's someone around worth speaking to.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“My dowry is thirty-five. A year.” His brows climbed. “You’re joking.” “I would never joke about money with a notorious thief. Just imagine, in a mere two years you’re at a profit.” “How I adore a woman who does mathematics in her head.”“I can forge signatures as well.” “Splendid. Exactly the bride I’ve been hoping for.” ― Shana Abe
“You’re naught but a human man. You couldn’t possibly understand.” He lifted a brow, still smiling. “Liar.” “Cutpurse.” “Runaway.”“Swindler!“Coward,” he said softly, and she jerked back.“Bastard!”“Undoubtedly true.” He made a short bow.” ― Shana Abe
“You’d better marry her before she reaches eighteen and the spell wears off,” I said.“Spell?”“Yes. The one that’s hiding her fangs and pincers from plain sight.”“I don’t find them especially hidden,” he said mildly.“Then perhaps you’re a pair.”His brows lifted. “Now, that’s the cruelest thing you’ve said so far.”Mrs. Fredericks cleared off, and Chloe took her place before the piano. A beam of sunlight was just beginning its slide into the chamber, capturing her in light. She was a glowing girl with a glowing face, and Joplin at her fingertips.“Give me time,” I muttered, dropping my gaze to my plate. “I’ll come up with something worse.”“No doubt.” Armand pulled a flask from his jacket and shook it in front of my nose. “Whiskey. Conveniently the same color as tea. Are you game, waif?” I glanced around, but no one was looking. I lifted my cup, drained it to the dregs, and set it before him.He was right. It did look like tea. But it tasted like vile burning fire, all the way down my throat.“Sip it,” he hissed, as I began to cough. His voice lifted over my sputtering. “Dear me, Miss Jones, I do beg your pardon. The tea’s rather hot; I should have mentioned it.”“Quite all right,” I gasped, as the whiskey swirled an evil amber in my teacup.Chloe’s song grew bouncier, with lyrics about a girl with strawberries in a wagon. Several of the men had begun to cluster near, drawn to her soprano or perchance her bosom. Two were vying to turn the pages of her music. She had to crane her head to keep Armand in view.He sent her another smile from his chair, lifting his cup in salute.“I’m going to kiss you, Eleanore,” he said quietly, still looking at her. “Not now. Later.” His eyes cut back to mine. “I thought it fair to tell you first.”I stilled. “If you think you can do so without me biting your lip, feel free to try.”His gaze shone wicked blue. “I don’t mind if you bite.”“Biting your lip off, I should have said.”“Ah. Let’s see how it goes, shall we?” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“She was too compelling to look at directly. Bright like the sun, bright and terrible. Only one other being could look upon her, and that was Death. And so…they became lovers.”He said the word like a caress, like velvet again, and my face began to heat.“Together they forged great and hellish things,” Jesse murmured. “Lightning and waterfalls that churned into clouds off the tip of the world. Chasms so winding deep that daylight never traced their endings. They dreamed through golden days and silvered nights. All the other creatures envied or adored them, because Death and the Elemental were destruction and creation joined as One. In the natural order of things, they should not have been stronger joined. And yet they were.”He shifted, coming closer to me. A hand settled lightly atop my chest, directly over my heart. At our feet the seawater splashed a little, as if disturbed by something rolling over in the dark, distant deep.“Centuries passed, and mankind began to devour the earth, even the wildest places. They had tools to invent and wars to fight and grubby, short lives. Nothing about them dwelled in the magic of the ancient spirits. So although Death, the Great Hunter, prospered as he sieved through their villages, the Elemental, strong as she once was, thinned into a web of gossamer. Human lives simply tore her apart.”His hand was so warm. Warmer than I, warmer than the air, and still just barely touching me. The light behind my lids never lifted, so I knew he wasn’t glowing, but it felt as if he held a tame coal to my skin. It felt like something painless and ablaze, drawing my heart upward into it.“The time had come for them to divide. Like all the rest of her kind, the goddess would cease to exist; she had no other course. So Death and the Elemental severed their joined hearts. For a few generations more, she drifted alone through the last of the sacred places, deserts, and fjords, lands so savage no human had yet desecrated them.”Jesse’s voice dropped to a whisper. Without moving his hand, he bent down, his breath in my ear. “And Death, who had tasted her brightness, who would never cease to crave it-who knew her better than all the collected souls of all mankind’s weeping dead-became her Hunter.”I was hot and strange. I was light and lighter, and curiously my breath came so slow.“Until at last, one starry night beneath the desert moon, she surrendered to him. She allowed him to come to her, to make love to her. To unravel her…”It was happening. He sat next to her and bore witness to her change, her pulse slowing, her skin blanching, the fans of her lashes stark against the contours of her face. He kept his palm there against her chest, up and down with her respiration, and watched the smoke begin to curl around his fingers.“And by his hand, in the bliss of her unraveling, she touched the stars…”Lora’s breath hitched. Her heart skipped-then stopped.If I could take this from you, Jesse thought fiercely. If I could take this one moment away from you and keep the agony for myself-Her eyes opened, went instantly to his. Panic lit her gaze.Then she was gone.His fingers sank to the floor through her empty blouse, and the blue dragon smoke that was all of Eleanore Jones rose into strands above him.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“How good to see you, Miss Jones.”That debonair tone, the friendly press of his hand upon mine. It was such a contrast to our final moments in the cottage that I couldn’t help but smirk.“Thank you for having me,” I replied, loudly enough for the duke to hear.“But I haven’t,” said Armand under his breath. “So far.”I tugged back my hand. “Ever the gentleman, aren’t you?”“I try. Come aboard, waif. Come and experience a gentleman’s world.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“Don’t worry. If we sink, we’ll swim together to shore. We’ll use your bewitching chapeau as a float.”The nose of the yacht dipped hard, then rose. The wing began a low howl around us.“I’m not blotto,” he said, in response to my expression. He turned to the railing and chucked the empty flute to the waves. “Not yet, in any case.”I went to stand beside him. The flute had sunk beneath the surface already, on its way to an eternity of sand and tide.“That’s good. Because I can’t swim.”“Why did you go swimming in the grotto, then,” he asked too pleasantly, “if you can’t swim?”“I wasn’t swimming there. I was smoke, at the ceiling, when you came in. Falling into the water was an accident.”“You’re welcome,” Armand said.I refused to ask for what. We both knew.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“I would have done anything. Don’t you know that?” “No.” “Then you haven’t been paying close attention. I love you. Even more than gold and dreams, I love you. It seems insane you haven’t realized it. You were the one who first informed me of it.” “I broke your leg,” she said” ― Shana Abe
“I’d dreamed once of a forest of gold, and Jesse had done what he could to give it to me. His bedroom had been transformed into a wonderland of leaves and flowers, pinecones and branches of birch and oak, all of it glimmering, all of it singing. The bed was covered, his chest of drawers, the sill. Much of it was jumbled together, beautiful for what it was if not its presentation. Jesse had last left this room on the night of his death, right after he’d called to me, right before he’d gone to the castle. So he would have been scattering his final gift in haste, knowing he worked against the clock.Knowing, somehow, what was to come.Which meant he’d been making gold for weeks. When I’d seen him so tired, when he’d told me all those nights that we should rest apart…he had been doing this.For me.A folded note had been set upon the bed. My name had been scrawled upon it.I love you was all it said inside.I sank to the floor. I looked up and all around as the sun danced through the window and turned Jesse’s room into an ambered heaven of song and shimmer and sparks.That was how Armand found me, hours later. That was what he saw, as well, what he heard, as he walked slowly into the chamber and eased down beside me to rest his back against the bed.We sat there together, listening, marveling.In time, his hand reached out and took firm hold of mine.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“nothing helped tea. It simply was what it was, which was boiling hot and flavorless.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“Why do you want to know?”The shrug again. “Just wondering.”“Really. You’ve skipped your lawn tennis or duck hunting or whiskey drinking or whatever else people of your sort do all day, only to come all the way out to the island to ask me about the piano piece. Because you were just wondering.” I pushed away from the door. “Coming here to kiss me would have been more believable.”“Well, it was second on my list.”“I’m not intimidated by you,” I said, blunt. “If you’re hoping I’ll turn out to be some pathetic, blubbering little rag-girl who begs you not to ruin her, you’re in for a surprise.”“That’s good.” Lord Armand met my eyes. “I like surprises.”We gazed at each other, he on the bed and me by the door, neither of us giving quarter. It seemed to me that the room was growing even more dim, that time was repeating the same ploy it had pulled in Jesse’s cottage, drawing out long and slow. The storm outside railed against the castle walls, drowning the air within. It layered darkness through Armand’s eyes, the once-vivid blue now deep as the ocean at night.Beyond my window the rain fell and fell, fat clouds weeping as if they’d never stop.“Nice bracelet,” Armand said softly. “Did you steal it?”I shook my head. “You gave it to me.”“Did I?”“As far as everyone else if concerned, yes. You did.”“Hmm. And what do I get in return for agreeing to be your…benefactor?”“The answer to your question.”“No kiss?” he asked, even softer.“No.”His lips quirked. “All right, then, waif. I accept your terms. We’ll try the kiss later.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“Stop,” Jesse said.I stared up at him, almost panting with fear.“Stop, beloved,” he said more gently, and took up my clenched fist with both hands. “I’ve upset you, and I shouldn’t have. I don’t want you to dread yourself. I don’t want you to dread what is to come. Like I said, you’re exceptional, so there may be nothing to worry about at all. But whatever happens, whatever you face, I’ll face it with you. Do you hear?”“How can you say it? It nearly happened on the roof today. You can’t know-““I will be with you. We’re together now, and the universe knows I won’t let you make your sacrifice alone. Dragon protects star. Star adores dragon. An age-old axiom. Simple as that.”I looked down at our hands, both of his curled over mine. I unclenched my fist. Blood from the thorn smeared my skin. “The universe,” I muttered. “The same universe that has produced the Kaiser and bedbugs and Chloe Pemington. How reassuring.”With the same absolute concentration he might have shown for turning flowers into gold, Jesse Holms smoothed out my fingers between his, wiping away the blood. He turned my hand over and lifted it to his lips. His next words fell soft as velvet into the heart of my palm.“Those nights, in the sweetest dark, we shared our dreams. That’s you answer. I was stitched into yours, and you were stitched into mind, and that was real, I promise you.” I felt his lips curve into a smile. The unbelievably sensual, ticklish scuff of his whiskers. “Very good dreams they were, too,” he added.It was no use trying to cling to mortification or fear. He was holding my hand. He was smiling at me past the cup of my fingers, and although I couldn’t see it, the shape of it against my skin was beyond tantalizing, rough and masculine. I was a creature gone hot and cold and light-headed with pleasure. I wanted to snatch back my hand and I wanted him to go on touching me like this forever. I wanted to walk with him back to his cottage, to his bed, and to hell with the Germans and school and all the rest of the world.But he looked up suddenly.“They’re searching for you,” he said, releasing me at once, moving away.They were. I heard my name being called by a variety of voices in a variety of tones, all of them still inside the castle, none of them sounding happy.“Go on.” With a few quick steps, Jesse was less than a shadow, retreating into the black wall of the woods. “Don’t get into trouble. And, Lora?”“Yes?”There was hushed laughter in his voice. “Until we can see each other again, do us both a favor. Keep away from rooftops.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“How long have you known about him?” I asked Jesse, using my free hand to gesture toward his guest.“Forever. Nearly as long as I did about you.”“God, Jesse. Why didn’t you say anything?”“He was a shadow of you.” Jesse shrugged. “His background is diluted, his dragon blood les strong. Even with you in his proximity, I wasn’t certain any of his drakon traits would emerge. He hasn’t anywhere near your potential.”“Pardon me,” Armand said, freezingly polite, “but he is still right here with you in this room.”“Do you mean…I did it?” I asked. “I made him figure it out? What he is?”Jesse gave me an assessing look. “Like is drawn to like. We’re all three of us thick with magic now, even if it’s different kinds. It’s inevitable that we’ll feed off one another. The only way to prevent that would be to separate. And even then it might not be enough. Too much has already begun.”“I don’t want to separate from you,” I said.“No.” Jesse lifted our hands and gave mine a kiss. “Don’t worry about that.”Armand practically rolled his eyes. “If you two are quite done, might we talk some sense tonight? It’s late, I’m tired, and your ruddy chair, Holms, is about as comfortable as sitting on a tack. I want to…”But his voice only faded into silence. He closed his eyes and raised a hand to his face and squeezed the bridge of his nose. I noted again those shining nails. The elegance of his bones beneath his flawless skin.Skin that was marble-pale, I realized. Just like mine.“Yes?” I said, more gently than I’d intended.“Excuse me. I’m finding this all a bit…impossible to process. I’m beginning to believe that this is the most profoundly unpleasant dream I’ve ever been caught in.”“Allow me to assure you that you’re awake, Lord Armand,” I retorted, all gentleness gone. “To wit: You hear music no one else does. Distinctive music from gemstones and all sorts of metals. That day I played the piano at Tranquility, I was playing your father’s ruby song, one you must have heard exactly as I did. Exactly as your mother would have. You also have, perhaps, something like a voice inside you. Something specific and base, stronger than instinct, hopeless to ignore. Animals distrust you. You might even dream of smoke or flying.”He dropped his arm. “You got that from the diary.”“No, I got that from my own life. And damned lucky you are to have been brought into this world as a pampered little prince instead of spending your childhood being like this and still having to fend for yourself, as I did.”“Right. Lucky me.” Armand looked at Jesse, his eyes glittering. “And what are you? Another dragon? A gargoyle, perchance, or a werecat?”“Jesse is a star.”The hand went up to conceal his face again. “Of course he is. The. Most. Unpleasant. Dream. Ever.”I separated my hand from Jesse’s, angling for more bread. “I think you’re going to have to show him.”“Aye.”A single blue eye blinked open between Armand’s fingers. “Show me what?” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“I’ll start in the air,” I said, far more steadily than I thought I could, considering. I knelt to tie the shirt around his thigh, cinching it tight above the wound; he stiffened but let me finish the knot. “The air first, the airship, and then-then I’ll dive.”“You can’t swim,” broke in Armand. “You told me that you can’t.”“Maybe I can now. If I’m a dragon.”“Don’t be an idiot! If you can’t swim, you can’t swim, Eleanore! You’ll drown out there, and what the bloody hell do you think you’re going to do anyway to a U-boat? Bite it open?”I stood again. “Yes! If I must! I don’t hear you coming up with a better-““You’ll die out there!”“Or we’ll all die here!”“We’re going to find another way!”“You two work on that. I’m off.” I fixed them both with one last, vehement look, the Turn rising inside me.Remember this. Remember them, this moment, this heartbreak, these two boys. Remember that they loved you.Armand had reached for my shoulders. “I forbid-Eleanore, please, no-““No,” echoed Jesse, speaking at last. “You’re not going after the submarine, Lora. You won’t need to.”Armand and I paused together, glancing down at him. I stood practically on tiptoe, so ready to become my other self.Jesse climbed clumsily to his feet. When he swayed, we both lunged to catch him.“Armand will take me to the shore. I’ll handle the U-boat.”“How?” demanded Armand at once.But I understood. I could read him so well now, Jesse-of-the-stars. I understood what he meant to do, and what it would cost him.I felt myself shaking my head. Above us, the airship propellers thumped louder and louder.“Yes,” said Jesse, smiling his lovely smile at me. “I already sense your agreement. Death and the Elemental were stronger joined than apart, remember? This is our joining. Don’t waste any more time quarreling with me about it. That’s not your way.” He leaned down to me, a hand tangled in my hair. His mouth pressed to mine, and for the first time ever I didn’t feel bliss at his touch.I felt misery.“Go on, Lora-of-the-moon,” he murmured against my lips. “You’re going to save us. I know you will.”I glared past him to the harsh, baffled face of Armand. “Will you help him? Do you swear it?”“I-yes, I will. I do.”I disentangled Jesse’s hand, kissed it, stepped back, and let the Turn consume me, smoke rising and rising, leaving the castle and all I loved behind me for the wild open sky.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“I pulled at the knot again and heard threads begin to pop.“Allow me, Miss Jones,” said Armand, right at my back.There was no gracious way to refuse him. Not with Mrs. Westcliffe there, too.I exhaled and dropped my arms. I stared at the lotus petals in my painting as the new small twists and tugs of Armand’s hands rocked me back and forth. Jesse’s music began to reverberate somewhat more sharply than before.“There,” Armand said, soft near my ear. “Nearly got it.”“Most kind of you, my lord.” Mrs. Westcliffe’s voice was far more carrying. “Do you not agree, Miss Jones?”Her tone said I’d better.“Most kind,” I repeated. For some reason I felt him as a solid warmth behind me, behind all of me, even though only his knuckles made a gentle bumping against my spine.How blasted long could it take to unravel a knot?“Yes,” said Chloe unexpectedly. “Lord Armand is always a perfect gentleman, no matter who or what demands his attention.”“There,” the gentleman said, and at last his hands fell away. The front of the smock sagged loose. I shrugged out of it as fast as I could, wadding it up into a ball.“Excuse me.” I ducked a curtsy and began my escape to the hamper, but Mrs. Westcliffe cut me short.“A moment, Miss Jones. We require your presence.”I turned to face them. Armand was smiling his faint, cool smile. Mrs. Westcliffe looked as if she wished to fix me in some way. I raised a hand instinctively to my hair, trying to press it properly into place.“You have the honor of being invited to tea at the manor house,” the headmistress said. “To formally meet His Grace.”“Oh,” I said. “How marvelous.”I’d rather have a tooth pulled out.“Indeed. Lord Armand came himself to deliver the invitation.”“Least I could do,” said Armand. “It wasn’t far. This Saturday, if that’s all right.”“Um…”“I am certain Miss Jones will be pleased to cancel any other plans,” said Mrs. Westcliffe.“This Saturday?” Unlike me, Chloe had not concealed an inch of ground. “Why, Mandy! That’s the day you promised we’d play lawn tennis.”He cocked a brow at her, and I knew right then that she was lying and that she knew that he knew. She sent him a melting smile.“Isn’t it, my lord?”“I must have forgotten,” he said. “Well, but we cannot disappoint the duke, can we?”“No, indeed,” interjected Mrs. Westcliffe.“So I suppose you’ll have to come along to the tea instead, Chloe.”“Very well. If you insist.”He didn’t insist. He did, however, sweep her a very deep bow and then another to the headmistress. “And you, too, Mrs. Westcliffe. Naturally. The duke always remarks upon your excellent company.”“Most kind,” she said again, and actually blushed.Armand looked dead at me. There was that challenge behind his gaze, that one I’d first glimpsed at the train station.“We find ourselves in harmony, then. I shall see you in a few days, Miss Jones.”I tightened my fingers into the wad of the smock and forced my lips into an upward curve. He smiled back at me, that cold smile that said plainly he wasn’t duped for a moment.I did not get a bow.Jesse was at the hamper when I went to toss in the smock. Before I could, he took it from me, eyes cast downward, no words. Our fingers brushed beneath the cloth.That fleeting glide of his skin against mine. The sensation of hardened calluses stroking me, tender and rough at once. The sweet, strong pleasure that spiked through me, brief as it was.That had been on purpose. I was sure of it.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“My, my,” Chloe murmured, studying the chocolate she held. “I do believe this one’s gone off. It stinks like a cesspit.” Her eyes lifted. “Oh, wait. It’s only the guttersnipe.”“Or perhaps it’s your perfume,” I said cordially. “You always smell like a whore.”“It’s French,” retorted Runny-Nose, before Chloe could speak.“Then she smells like a French whore.”“Aren’t you the eloquent young miss.” Chloe’s gaze cut to Sophia, standing close behind me. “Slumming, little sister? I can’t confess I’m surprised.”“I’m merely here for the show,” Sophia said breezily. “Something tells me it’s going to be good.”I took the brooch from my pocket and let it slide down my index finger, giving it a playful twirl. “A fine try. But, alas, no winner’s prize for you, Chloe. I’m sure you’ve been waiting here for Westcliffe to raise the alarm about her missing ring, ready with some well-rehearsed story about how you saw me sneaking into her office and sneaking out again, and oh, look isn’t that Eleanore’s brooch there on the floor? But I’ve news for you, dearie. You’re sloppy. You’re stupid. And the next time you go into my room and steal from me, I’ll make certain you regret it for the rest of your days.”“How dare you threaten me, you little tart!”“I’m not threatening. You have no idea how easy it would be to, say, pour glue on your hair while you sleep. Cut up all your pretty dresses into ribbons.”Chloe dropped her half-eaten chocolate back into its box, turning to her toadies. “You heard her! You all head her! When Westcliffe finds out about this-““I didn’t hear a thing,” piped up Sophia. “In fact, I do believe that Eleanore and I aren’t even here right now. We’re both off in my room, diligently studying.” She sauntered to my side, smiling. “And I’ll swear to that, sister. Without hesitation. I have no misgivings about calling you all liars right to Westcliffe’s face.”“What fun,” I said softly, into the hush. “Shall we give it a go? What d’you say, girls? Up for a bit of blood sport?”Chloe pushed to her feet, kicking the chocolates out of her way. All the toadies cringed.“You,” she sneered, her gaze scouring me. “You with your ridiculous clothing and that preposterous bracelet, acting as if you actually belong here! Really, Eleanore, I wonder that you’ve learned nothing of real use yet. Allow me to explain matters to you. You may have duped Sophia into vouching for you, but your word means nothing. You’re no one. No matter what you do here or who you may somehow manage to impress, you’ll always be no one. How perfectly sad that you’re allowed to pretend otherwise.”“I’m the one he wants,” I said evenly. “No one’s pretending that.”I didn’t have to say who.She stared at me, silent, her color high. I saw with interest that real tears began to well in her eyes.“That’s right.” I gave the barest smile. “Me, not you. Think about that tomorrow, when I’m with him on the yacht. Think about how he watches me. How he listens to me. Another stunt like this”-I held up the circlet-“and you’ll be shocked at what I’m able to convince him about you.”“As if you could,” she scoffed, but there was apprehension behind those tears.“Try me.”I brought my foot down on one of the chocolates, grinding it into a deep, greasy smear along the rug.“Cheerio,” I said to them all, and turned around and left.” ― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark
“You snore.” “I don’t!”“Only a little. Very ladylike snores. I found them charming.” ― Shana Abe
“I would give up all the summers of eternity for you. I love you. Forever and my summer days, I'll love you.” ― Shana Abe, The Treasure Keeper
