kiss in the hollow of my throat.
“Oh yes,” he assured me. “All my life has been moonlight and the stars. I can smell the sunlight racing through your veins from across a room. Sunlight and heat and salt. Always the salt.”
I cupped my hands around his cheeks, bringing his mouth to mine and silencing him. I nipped at his lower lip, surprised by my own daring. The kiss intensified then, and I opened my mouth, letting my tongue venture out to find his. He tasted crisp and cool, like the night’s dew across the garden or the first bite of a shiny green apple.
A shot of desire raced through me, burning my limbs like lightning. His hands snaked around my waist, pulling me flush against him, as when he first brought us here.
Fighting against every impulse sailing through my body, I pulled away, breaking the kiss, thoroughly breathless. “How did we get here?” I asked, desperately trying to rein in my heartbeat. It pounded, singing Cassius’s name through my veins so loudly, I was sure he could hear it. “Did we…did we fly?”
Cassius let out a bark of laughter and turned, showing me his back. “Do you see wings?”
“I don’t know what else to call it. You didn’t even have to use a door.”
His eyebrow quirked. “A door?”
“We use the one in the Grotto. To get to the balls.”
His head tilted. “I don’t…I don’t understand.”
“There’s a door we discovered on Salten. Pontus uses it to travel quickly through our world. We’ve been using it to leave the island.”
A flock of birds burst from the facade above us, a flutter of wings and chirps, breaking the intensity of Cassius’s stare.
“What’s it like, this door?”
I stepped down into the courtyard, feeling as though I’d said something wrong. “It’s at Pontus’s shrine. You twist his trident and the door just…appears.”
“Where does it take you?”
I raised my shoulders. “Anywhere you want. You just have to think very hard of the place as you walk into the passage. It’s how we got to Pelage that night.” I inhaled sharply, piecing everything together. “And that’s how you were able to get there so quickly but be back in Astrea days later! You…flew,” I said, still unsure of what to call it.
“I’ve been in Salann since I arrived to take care of my father. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I blinked. “You were there. At the castle with the wolves and the People of the Hunt.”
He nodded. “I know where Pelage is, but I’m telling you, I’ve never been. It wasn’t me.”
I frowned, recalling that night, that first ball. A smile rose to my lips as I remembered his hands at my waist. “I’m certain it was. You had on a mask but—”
His eyes narrowed. “It wasn’t me.” Cassius turned away, pacing across a mosaic of the night sky. The stars twinkled beneath his feet. He suddenly whirled around. “Your shoes!”
“My shoes?”
“I just realized—you’ve been using this door to go to parties…you’re dancing through the shoes!”
I nodded. “We were all going at first, but I stopped that day in Astrea with Edgar…. I didn’t feel like dancing after that.”
“That’s why yours was the only pair not worn out at First Night.”
“Yes, but…the shoes don’t have anything to do with my sisters’ deaths.”
“Don’t they?” he asked, peering at me. “You truly think the killer is from Salten?”
“It has to be someone at Highmoor,” I murmured unhappily. “There was that awful storm the night Ligeia and Rosalie went missing. No one could have left the island during that.”
“Not by boat, certainly,” Cassius said. “But what if you’re not the only ones using this door?”
I was caught off guard by his reasoning, and my breath hitched, chilling me. It had never occurred to me the very door we’d been using to visit faraway castles and estates could be used by others to get to us. If anyone in Arcannia could gain admittance onto Salten, how would I ever be able to narrow down the suspects?
The train of postulants left the abbey, cutting across the courtyard and stalling our conversation. This time they were all aware of Cassius’s presence, dipping into solemn curtsies as they passed. He lowered his head, giving a short bow in response.
Too keyed up to remain still, I made my way past the archways and out into the tall grasses leading to the cliff. A temperate breeze swished by, rippling the skirt of my robe out behind me.
“I want to see this door,”