“Then you can use this one! Here! Oh, I have this—I have—” He dove into the cart and came out with something wrapped in paper. It was candy, little balls swirled with pink and red, and Eli took one with a laugh that startled him.
“Go on,” Rey said. “Is it the best you’ve ever tasted?”
“It is,” Eli said, before he’d even popped it in his mouth. “What else do you have?”
“Whatdon’tI have?” Rey pushed up Eli’s cheeks with both hands and let go. “Eli de Valois, prepare to live the high life.”
Eli laughed again. Eating candy out of paper bags and drinking mislabeled lemonade wasn’t remotely like the fine dining of a noble house in Duciel, but in that moment, as Reynard pulled out a bottle of liquor disguised as a strengthpotion and gave himself a round of applause, Eli couldn’t imagine anything finer.
They emptied the bottle. They divided the candy between themselves and tossed the paper in the fire, and when Rey stood to drunkenly declare that he could reenact the best fiddle reels in Stariawithoutthe fiddle, Eli sobbed with laughter as Rey turned into a fox and madeeeeh eeh ehsounds into the moonlit sky.
“You’re ridiculous,” Eli said, as he climbed into Rey’s cart. He fell onto the bare mattress lodged between crates of supplies with a thump. “Oof. Not much room for you. So much of you. Why are you so tall for a man who doubles as a fox?”
“Simple misdirection,” Rey said, transforming into a man before falling on his face in the cart. “No one expects a tall, charming fellow like me to be the fox they’re hunting.”
“Oh, yes,” Eli said. “Very charming,”
Rey rolled over, staring up at Eli. “You don’t look like him, you know.”
“I’ve no idea what you mean,” Eli said, patting his cheek.
“Emeric,” Rey said. “You’re shorter, and you’re angrier. Nose is thinner, too. But it’s funny, I’m always following a de Valois.”
“Only twice,” Eli said. “Not always.”
“Twice matters.” Rey reached up to pat Eli’s cheek, too. “You’re all right, you know. You are.”
Eli paused, feeling almost touched. “And you’re drunk, Rey.”
“Yes, I am.” Rey let his hand drop. “Still true, though. I’d be your friend if I’d let myself have one.”
“Thanks, Rey.” Eli stroked his hair, and Rey closed his eyes, looking as content as a petted fox. “You’d be mine, too, I suppose, if I let myself have one.”
“Fine pairweare,” Rey murmured. He opened his eyes again. “And we can be one if you want, after it’s over. You can throw the sword off a cliff instead of fighting the king with it, and I can show you how to make magic soap. Or I can make magic soapand you can walk around being noble.” He picked up Eli’s hand and held it between them.
“I don’t know if I’d make a good companion,” Eli said.
“You’re being one now,” Rey said, and kissed Eli’s knuckles. Eli tensed, his whole body going taut, but Rey just lay there, lips pressed to Eli’s hand. After a minute, Eli slipped his hand free and Rey’s head drooped onto the mattress.
He’d fallen asleep. Eli held his hand to his chest, trying not to think of the way his knuckles tingled where Rey’s lips had touched them, until he too started to drift off.
It was amazingwhat a night on an actual mattress could do for a man.
Rey almost laughed when he saw Eli sprawled out in the cart after dawn, still snoring. He let him sleep late for once, drooling contentedly over his arm while Rey hitched Unicorn and set her on the track toward the road. He didn’t wake up until around noon, when he staggered, still shirtless and groggy, over to where Rey was loping along in the grass next to the cart.
“Oh spirits,” Rey said, holding up an arm. Eli squinted at him. “Have you been cursed again? You look hideous!”
“Ha.” Eli ran his hands through his tangled curls. “What was in that bottle?”
“Moonshine,” Rey said, and Eli groaned. “Oh yes, you hadtrueStarian whisky last night. Congratulations, you’re officially an adult.”
“I feel like I aged twenty years, so you’re probably right.” Despite his griping, Eli smiled slightly. “Thanks, though. You didn’t…I feel like last night, you…” He rubbed at the knuckles of his right hand, and Rey raised his brows.
“You might want to elaborate,” he said. “I barely remember a thing after I climbed into the cart.” He’d said something about Emeric, which was likely what Eli was wondering about. Thank the gods Rey hadn’t revealed too much about his involvement with the theft of the sword, or hehopedhe hadn’t.
“Oh.” A blush spread over Eli’s cheeks, and he looked away. “You don’t know if there’s a way to turn the sun off, do you?”
Rey grinned. “Poor babe.”
