11

11

S kinny jeans were the devil’s creation. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get them over my hips, let alone button and zip them. But with some shimmying and hopping around the room, I finally tugged them on, lying flat on my back on the bed to get them fastened. The tighter the better , Mira said. But these were beyond tight. I turned the black t-shirt with Thirteen scrawled across the breast in white lettering inside out and ran a brush through my hair. I didn’t bother with shoes. After a day prancing around in heels, my feet were killing me.

I quietly snuck out of my room, locking it behind me and tucking the key in my pocket. A staff member was kind enough to show me to the West Garden—somewhere I never would’ve found myself .

Tauren waited outside on a bench.

“I need a map,” I grumped, sitting next to him.

“A map?”

“Of the palace, yes. This place is a labyrinth. I have no idea how to navigate it.”

He gave a coy smile. “I should’ve left directions, but figured you were resourceful enough to find your way.” He scanned my clothing, and in an odd tone said, “You look different in those clothes.”

“You don’t like them?” I glanced down, wondering if something was out of place.

“No, I… I like them.” Tauren looked up at the sky, waiting a long moment before adding, “A lot.”

We were silent for a moment, staring at the twinkling stars.

“Why is your shirt inside out?”

“About that…” I readied myself for a fight. “I will not be wearing shirts or bracelets for your convenience. I find it demeaning. You know my name and sector. Learn the names of the other girls… Highness,” I added as an afterthought, to make sure he didn’t throw me in a dungeon or something.

He answered with a smile. “I’ll do that right away, Sable . The producers of the telecast thought it would be easier for the public to learn the girls that way at first. I actually do know all their names and sectors. I have voluminous files on each, thanks to my father’s snoops.”

“Each one but me,” I added.

“Each one but you. You, I’d rather take the time to learn on my own. ”

The moths fluttered again. I tamped them down, reminding them that this attraction, if it could be called that, didn’t and couldn’t mean anything.

“Was my father cordial?” he asked.

“He was.” I lowered my voice. “Did you know he knows quite a lot about witches? He knew my mother.”

Tauren’s brows furrowed. “When I was little, he used to tell me stories about the sectors. He knew a lot about Thirteen and I wondered how, since we never crossed the border. Throughout the years, we visited every sector except yours.”

“Well, witches can be a little unwelcoming, except for when it benefits them. On Equinoxes and Solstices, we’re happy to take money from whomever wants to give it to us.”

“Do you use currency in Thirteen?” he asked, a curious glint in his eye.

“No, we trade – food, goods, or services – but some like to travel out of Thirteen, most often visiting Twelve to see new things. I’ve never left before today, though.”

“And now that you have? What do you think of Nautilus as a whole?”

“From what I’ve seen, it’s beautiful. Far more interesting and diverse than I realized. I’d like to visit each sector,” I admitted, “and I’d like to see the ocean before I go back to The Gallows.”

He glanced down at his clasped hands and leaned forward. I gazed at the familiar stars, comforted by their consistency.

“I wish I could see the world as you do,” he said softly, watching me .

I blinked out of the daze I’d been in. “What do you mean?”

He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter.”

A brown and tan moth fluttered over the grass. I called her to me and she landed on my finger. “See?” Tauren said. “Whomever you choose when you arrive back home should cherish the year he’ll have with you, for it will be the most memorable and magical time of his life.”

I raised my finger and let the moth take flight again. “This is common for a witch.” I shrugged. “It would seem boring for my hand-fasted.”

“Nothing about you is mundane or common, Sable.”

I swallowed, looking back to the sky to center myself. For a moment, it felt like I levitated. I may have.

“Do you want to know my first reason for extending you an invitation?” His hand crept across the cement bench and the tip of his pinky grazed my skin.

“Yes,” I cautiously agreed.

“Because I’ve never met anyone I felt connected to so immediately, so… completely. I wanted you to accept, because I wanted you to consider me. Consider having me, that is. As your husband.” His dark lashes fluttered the more flustered he became, and the sight made something in my chest ache.

As your husband. The words reverberated through my heart like the beat of a heavy drum.

“I can’t,” I told him regretfully.

He hung his head. “I know that now. You told me the night of the Equinox, but I thought there might be a chance that… never mind. ”

The two of us were on opposite sides of a very dangerous line, but when he said such things to me, it made me want to tread closer to him. But like Thirteen’s boundary, this was a line we could never cross. There wasn’t enough magic in the world to pierce it.