“Allof them?”
“Well, all but one. I can do Oceansgate, if you like,” he said, his inflection so identical to mine that I forgot what I was doing.
He caught my shock in the mirror and grinned. “Or would you prefer Stormbow?” His voice had changed again, filling with stilted consonants. “Though I have to say Crystal Hollow is my favorite, without a doubt.”
My jaw slackened. I’d never even heard that last one. Ever. But I could see why he liked it. It was melodic. Like a song compressed into words.
When I managed to sift through my surprise, I said, “That’s incredible.You’reincredible.”
“Ah. You’ve finally noticed.”
I flushed. “But...after all that traveling, you ended up in Oceansgate?”
“I did.”
“Where you stayed a while?”
“Mmm-hmm,” he said.
“This was recent?”
A pause. “Yes.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Ten months.”
I chewed on that. Nearly a year. “But if you’ve been to ninety-eight territories, you can’t have stayed anywhere else for that long.”
“No. By the time my wanderings brought me here, I’d made myself into this and I liked it. It felt natural. Right. And, if I’m honest, I was curious about the nightmares. I’d heard the stories and...” He shrugged. “What can I say? I wanted every experience. Not just the pleasant ones.”
I refrained from gaping, but only just. “You came because youwantedto live through a nightmare?”
“Well, why not? At least, that’s what I thought. And then I had my first one and the confidence I’d spent a decade building fell apart so quickly. But I saw something there. Inside the eye of the storm.” Wonder snuck in, silvering his words. “I couldtastethe possibility. I thought...surely if I knew myself down to the molecule, if my self-belief was unflinching, if I could belong to myself in every sense, I might battle a nightmare and win. And I’d already worn so many faces. Played so many roles. But this was the most challenging yet. The most exhilarating. So I stayed, and made it my mission to conquer the storm.”
I scanned his reflection, dumbstruck. He perched at the edge of the bed, one elbow draped over a knee, the opposite palm propped against the mattress. The spare, hungry lines of his body radiated their usual power, yet I’d completely misinterpreted its source. Twice, now.
“It took me more than half a year,” he said, “but I managed.”
“But...that should’ve been impossible.”
He lapsed into a secretive half smile. Because clearly, it wasn’t.
The silence thickened to bursting. When I could stand it no longer, I pushed back from the vanity. This timeIwas the moth answering the beckoning shine of the flame. I went and stood before him, so awed I couldn’t think past my own amazement.
All his self-assurance was apparently...completely genuine.
No wonder my insults never affected him.
“I didn’t realize people like you existed,” I said.
“I could say the same.” He looked up at me, steady. So steady. “It’s funny. In plays, people are always risking themselves for others, but I’ve never actually met anyone with that kind of conviction. That kind ofloyalty. Not until you.”
Heat blossomed along my neck.
“It’s always men, too, in stories.” His smile turned wry. “I suppose it should come as no surprise that in reality, it’s women who have that kind of courage.”
I searched for words. “I think I’ve...catastrophically misjudged you.”
