He kissed me.
One moment I was ready to bring down the house if it meant keeping him here, the next I was pulled down against him in a rather expert embrace. His lips were so warm beneath mine, and only when a series of shudders ran through me did I realize how cold I had been. Or maybe I had been lacking him for too long—I couldn’t really think, too consumed with this kiss that filled my head with stars. Frissons of Sebastian rippled through me in every place our bodies met as he pulled me tighter. I could feel his heart pounding against my chest, and I wanted to take it and heal it and hide it away with mine.
Both his hands gently settled on my cheeks as we broke apart for a breath. In the dim moonlight, I could see his eyes darting across my face, trying to take it all in at once. “Thank you … for everything.”
I blinked a few times, my lips positively tingling, as though doused in peppermint oil. I tried to force my mind back to order, but his sentence still did not make sense and I was so aware of every part of him, of every part of me, that I really was not able to come up with anything beyond, “Including dragging you to the floor? And sitting on you?” My voice managed to be too scratchy and too breathy together and I cleared it a few times.
He looked around as if realizing for the first time that we were still on the floor. An actual smile broke out on his face and it was all I could do not to kiss him until he had no facial expression besides smiling. Until he was nothing but happy.
“Yes. And for constantly rescuing me.” His eyes glistened. “I do not deserve your trust.”
“I trust approximately three and a half people, Sebastian. I do not give it lightly.”
“That makes it all the more valuable. And I am sorry I am not worthy of it.”
“You are,” I said, finally releasing my hold on him and climbing to my feet. “So stop being so … you-know-what.”
“After you,” he said, taking my hand and standing.
I kept his hand in mine. “Promise me you won’t just turn yourself in to Captain Goode.”
He looked behind him at the door, longingly, then back at me, torn. “I won’t. I promise.”
I tugged at him, leading him back up the stairs, just to be certain. We walked up quietly and slowly, our fingers intertwining, the overwhelming sensation somehow serving as a comfort. At my bedroom door, he kissed my forehead, and the feeling stayed with me long enough to crawl into bed and reach against the wall to find him. It was faint, but it was there, that current.
And for a moment, it was stronger. I imagined him on the other side, hand to wall, matching mine. And then, somehow, I was finally able to sleep.
Chapter Seventeen
A HEAVY THUMP ON the ceiling interrupted my sound sleep, the most peaceful night since the ball. I opened my eyes to see early morning sun streaming in through the gauzy curtains. Another loud thump reverberated above me, and the more I thought about it, the more it sounded like someone dead on the floor.
I scrambled out of bed, yanking on a robe. Rose looked up sleepily, stirred awake by the noise, and I opened our door to find Miss Chen opening hers across the hallway.
“Whose room was that?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I whispered.
My mind was full of horrible imaginings as we made it up the flight of stairs and to the end of the corridor, where I found one imagining come true. Tuffins emerged from his bedroom, his nightshirt bearing streaks of blood.
Oh God.
“Tuffins, are you all right?” I asked.
“Only a bit startled,” he said, looking completely composed. “Your guest, Miss Rao, has climbed into my room.”
A heavy breath left my body. He wasn’t hurt.
“Miss Rao?” I asked, as he opened the door and ushered us inside.
It was her. She had collapsed in a corner chair, her head lolled back, her clothes covered in blood, a bag of her belongings strewn on the floor. Her eyes slid over to me. She was still conscious.
“I need to be healed,” she rasped, as if that wasn’t apparent.
“Someone help me,” I said.
With Tuffins’s and Miss Chen’s help, I carried her out of his room and to the last empty bedchamber, setting her down gently on a clean coverlet. Tuffins hastened downstairs to get supplies, employing Rose’s and Catherine’s assistance, while I took a chair next to Miss Rao and held her hand. Miss Chen yawned and leaned on the wall by the window.
“What happened?” I asked.
Miss Rao gritted her teeth. “I was ambushed. The night before last.”
“How?”
“The power remover. He filled the India Secretary position with someone from your Society,” Miss Rao said. “They were with two others, waiting for my attack.”
“He’s … taking over the government now,” I said in disbelief.
“He must have used Miss Fahlstrom to predict the attack,” Miss Chen said. “And you still escaped from them.”
“I used my fog. But he took my power from me.” Miss Rao looked away from me, her face stricken, then flushed with anger. “Again.”
A chill ran through me. When she was in the Society prison, I hadn’t been able to fully understand what it was like to lose such an essential part of ourselves. Now I knew. “I’m sorry.”
“How did you get in here?” Miss Chen was looking doubtfully out the third-story window.
“I did not have strength enough to find my way here until this morning. Then I climbed through the window.”
“Of course, that’s something most people can do with extensive injuries.” The look Miss Chen gave Miss Rao was somewhere between fear and worship.
“You’re welcome to rest here for however long you need,” I said. “Your powers should return in a day and a half.”
Miss Rao turned from me, her lips thinned, looking unhappy about the time frame.
“Is there a chance that you might have been followed?” Miss Chen asked.
“I do not think so, destroyer,” Miss Rao answered. “But I am not certain.”
“Destroyer.… I should put that on my cards,” Miss Chen muttered to herself, heading for the door. “I’ll wake Mr. Adeoti. We need him to take a walk around the house to check and make sure she wasn’t.”
Miss Chen left the room as Tuffins brought in a basin of water and Miss Rao’s bag.
“Thank you, Tuffins,” I said.
He nodded and left us.
“I like that man, Tuffins,” Miss Rao said. “If all Englishmen were like him, this country would be better off.”
“I can’t argue with that,” I said.
As the healing ran its course, I took one more survey of Miss Rao’s injuries. It was hard to tell through the crusted blood, but the wounds that were once visible to me seemed to have closed.
“Do you still feel pain anywhere?” I asked.
“No,” she said, testing her cuts. “Though I find I am still tired.”
“My healing doesn’t usually fix that,” I said. “You must not have eaten for some time. Breakfast will be downstairs when you’re ready.”
I rose up and slid out the door, giving her the privacy to clean up.
As I made my way down the stairs, I wondered if it were at all possible to persuade Miss Rao to join us. Despite our common enemy, despite the healing I’d done for her, she still didn’t seem to trust me. She’d called me selfish the last time she was here, and she had been right. I was still a risk.
When I entered the dining room, a sudden silence greeted me, hushed whispers abruptly cut short. Rose and Catherine stood at the table, hiding something behind their backs, both looking pale. Laura had Soot settled on her lap, and she was busy petting him repeatedly, as though only he could make everything better. Emily started digging into a plate of fresh eggs and slices of bread. I took the seat across from her.
“Ev, I—” Catherine started.
“Good morning, Miss Wyndham!” Mrs. Tuffins emerged from the kitchen with a plate of pastries and cakes and set it down on the table in front of me.