21 #2
Teo made a thoughtful sound before visibly deciding to move on.
He reached for one of the oars, only to snatch his hand back when it began to vibrate.
Seconds later, the oars were rowing by themselves, sending their boat into deep water.
Crafters, no doubt, working in tandem with morphers to create self-rowing boats that would spare them the burden of exercise.
Teo squinted at the oars for a moment and then placed his hands on his thighs. “Well… that’s certainly convenient.”
“That’s what magic is,” Marisol said, dipping her fingers into the moon-painted water and letting the midnight waves wash over her skin. “A convenience for people who already live easy lives.”
“My brother,” Teo began, and then stopped.
His mouth curled as if he’d smelled something unpleasant.
“Itzal used to believe that magic was a divine curse. That when we turned away from the old gods, they sent it as a plague of inequality where things like bloodlines and aptitude no longer mattered.”
Marisol blinked. “Used to?”
“Well, I don’t know much about what he thinks anymore.”
“You keep talking around it, so forgive me if this is too forward. But what’s going on between you and your family?”
The moon silvered Teo’s dark hair, outlining him in pale light.
He ran a hand through his curls, not meeting her eyes.
“My father began to train Itzal to take over for him, and Itzal… changed. Or maybe I did. He never goes out among the people. He refuses to see what I see. What use is a monarchy that doesn’t care for its people?
My father and brother would rather make monsters out of the neighboring witches than acknowledge the monsters they’ve become to our citizens. ”
“You think the monarchy is useless?” Marisol asked, trying to keep the surprise off her face.
“I…” He sighed. “I do. Magic and monarchy, they’re both ways of saying that some people can be born more powerful than others.
I want magic gone, but I think the witches have the right idea running Coventry by elected council.
My father… Itzal… they only care about crown and conquest. That’s no way to rule a country. ”
“How would you rule it? If you were next in line.”
“I wouldn’t. I’d never follow my own advice, so why would I expect anyone else to?”
Marisol smiled faintly. “You’re not as bad as you think, you know. You’re certainly not as bad as I thought.”
“A glowing review,” Teo said with a smile of his own. “You’re nothing like I thought you’d be, either.”
The boat eased to a stop, the oars still as they gently floated atop the calm waters.
Stars flecked the sky, most of them hidden by the lights of Rojanea, and the half-moon watched sleepily from on high.
Though the harbor was filled with boats like theirs, Marisol felt as if she and Teo were in a world apart.
Whispers and waves were all she could hear.
“I think you’re braver and kinder than you give yourself credit for,” she said.
“You’re sarcastic and spontaneous, but you’re not irresponsible.
You’re introverted and charismatic, but you’re not cruel.
I think you’ve had to create different masks to survive how you’ve been raised, but beneath them is a prince. In character, not just by birth.”
Teo’s lips parted in surprise. He looked, in that moment, younger and more vulnerable than Marisol had ever seen him. It felt like something she shouldn’t be allowed to witness, so she turned her head toward the water.
One by one, the lanterns in the boats came alive.
Lavenders and blush pinks, mint greens and ceruleans, straw yellows and pepper oranges, all glowed across the water’s surface, rising as the witches began to push the lanterns into the air.
Marisol had been given a lantern that was licorice red, and it sparked in her hand, warming from the fire.
She almost didn’t want to let it go, because the heat was a soothing balm against the crisp summer night.
But Teo was pushing a buttercup-yellow sky lantern upward until it lifted under its own power. So Marisol did the same.
The lights hovered above their heads, bathing them both in a brightness that only made the darkness around them more complete.
She blinked to allow her eyes time to adjust, but when she found Teo’s gaze again, it was already on her.
His stare had taken on a molten quality, as if he couldn’t believe that she was real.
Marisol bit her lower lip. Teo’s hand came up to cup her cheek.
“Thank you for saying that,” he said, his voice thick. “I know I shouldn’t, but I care what you think of me.”
“Why?” Her own voice was as fragile as glass. “We hardly know each other.”
“I know that you watch people with the kind of intense focus that makes whoever is on the other end of it feel like the center of the world. I know that you laugh like you’ve forgotten what it’s like to be happy, and you brood like you’ve grown accustomed to sadness.
I know you don’t trust easily, even though your instinct is to take care of those around you.
” His thumb brushed her lip, gently extracting it from between her teeth.
It lingered there, a warm weight that made her shiver.
“I may not know the details, but I know what I’ve observed. And I like it. I like you.”
Marisol swallowed. “This would be far more complicated if we didn’t like each other.”
But she knew, from his hooded gaze and shallow breathing, what he really meant. He had always been handsome, but the lantern light made him something aureate, something to be treasured.
This heat. His attention. This was what she’d wanted… wasn’t it?
This was true power, true control.
This was wrong.
Marisol pulled away, breathing as if she’d rowed the boat herself. The cloud of lanterns rose higher and higher, until they looked like multicolored stars, and the oars surged to life again to carry them back to shore. Teo made no attempt to touch her again, and Marisol didn’t dare look at him.
She was afraid of what she might see.
She was afraid of what he might see.
Her heart knocked against her chest, confused but frantic. Part of her wished that she’d let him kiss her. The rest of her was glad she hadn’t. Not yet. Not now, when what she felt and what she wanted changed from day to day.
Teo was a means to an end, but he was also one of the closest things she had to a friend. He was a necessary sacrifice, and he was a charismatic devil. It was easy, too easy, to like him—but she had never considered that she might…
The boat bumped against the shoreline. Marisol was the first one out.
Teo called her name only once, but all it did was make her run faster until she was swallowed by the dark.