62. Lost letters and lovers

Wisps of mist curled around her fingers as Ada reached out, her hand meeting Raeph's in the moonlight. He held tight as he pulled Ada to her feet. The canal softly lapped against its banks, reflections of stars caught between webs of algae. Ada had to tilt her head up to look at Raeph, and was surprised to see a small smile on his face.

"I thought you had all forgotten me," Raeph said, his smile fading.

"We didn't forget," Ada replied quickly, although thinking back to the previous days, she couldn't remember many conversations about Raeph past Yue's sharp words. Trying not to feel guilty she continued, "You were right about the Stone Circle, Raeph. I should have just stayed in the city with you."

Her cheeks flushed hot, even in the cool night's air, but she was glad to see Raeph wasn't looking at her as he cast a glance over his shoulder.

"It's too open out here," he said, now squinting across the canal. "I know somewhere more private."

He turned lightly on his feet, pulling Ada along behind him as he headed towards a cul-de-sac. Ada hadn't realised they were still holding hands, but Raeph's grip was warmer and safer than anything she had felt in days.

They stopped in front of a bakery with a red door, red rain spout, and a flat rooftop. Behind its long windows were bread baskets standing in the shadows, their wicker woven with cow parsley arranged to look like small dustings of flour. In front of the shop was a scattering of crumbs and a stack of empty wooden boxes.

"This way," said Raeph, letting go of Ada's hand as he stepped onto the boxes. "I'll reach down for you from the roof."

His long legs hardly had to stretch as he lifted his arms and grabbed hold of the brickwork above him. He pulled his body up in one go, swinging one leg onto the roof, followed by the other.

"Ok," he said, "take my—Ada?"

Having already climbed the boxes, Ada felt to one side for the rain spout. Keeping it tightly in hand, she balanced a foot on a windowsill and used her other to boost herself upwards. Ada wiggled onto the rooftop, not quite as gracefully as Raeph, but with a victorious puff.

Raeph looked down at her, eyebrows raised above his dark eyes. "You somehow manage to climb buildings better than garden walls."

Ada huffed a laugh, and Raeph's small smile returned, bright against the night's sky.

All of a sudden, Ada felt breathless from the climb. She struggled to her feet, wobbling precariously close to the edge of the roof and jumping forwards a few steps when Raeph reached out.

"So where are we going?" Ada asked, shading her eyes to look out into the city even though it was the middle of the night.

"This way," Raeph said, and Ada couldn't tell if he was still smiling as he turned and pulled himself onto the roof of the building next door.

"Stars sake," she groaned.

Raeph guided Ada across the rooftops of Wysthaven for several minutes. She was sure they weren't travelling very far, but with each building, they climbed higher and higher. When Raeph finally stopped they were not on a rooftop at all, but perched within a small alcove housing only an old, round clock.

"We can talk here," Raeph said, sitting down and swinging his legs over the ledge.

Ada turned around more cautiously, fumbling for the lip of stone beneath her before finally sliding down next to Raeph. For a moment, Ada thought the sky had fallen to the earth, for beneath her lay the stars. Bright white fires were strewn below them, like constellations mapped around her feet. But when Ada leaned towards the stars, the tower of Wysthaven crept into view, the only building reaching higher than their alcove.

Raeph looked down at the lights of Wysthaven, the windows of those still awake shining in the darkness.

"Is this where you come to hide away?" Ada asked, leaning back into the alcove as a low wind tugged at her cloak.

Raeph was silent for a moment. "It used to be. I don't come here so much anymore."

He didn't say anything else, so they sat in silence for a while, watching stars wink out in the city and clouds sail across the sky.

"The Stone Circle were the ones who brought me here," Ada whispered.

Raeph curled his fingers over the lip of the alcove. "I'm sorry."

Ada shook her head, but couldn't find any words. A cloud drifted over the moon, blotting out the light like a dragon come to conquer and destroy. Ada thought of Lucille, and of the games she used to play with her sister when they were just children. Her throat felt tight.

"It was the evening of the Spring Equinox and I'd argued with my family," Ada said into the night. "I went for a walk to clear my head and ended up falling down a damned wishing well." She felt Raeph become still beside her. "I came into this city thinking I could get the name of the Saltworn and return to my family. But I'm not any closer, and every day my chest aches a bit more when I think of everyone back home."

Ada broke off with a sniff and glared out over Wysthaven.

"I didn't even get to make a wish."

Raeph unclenched his hands from the stone ledge, stretching them out before him. His long fingers with their too many bones didn't seem strange to Ada anymore. In fact, there was a sort of elegant beauty to them. To everything about him.

"The fae are cruel and thankless," Raeph said, his hands disappearing into his jacket.

For a cold second, Ada wanted to agree with him. But then she thought of Min, and of all of the bandits who had helped and suffered for her.

"Not all of them," she said instead.

"Not all of them," Raeph repeated, not quite agreeing, and withdrew a hand from his jacket.

Between his fingers was a slip of paper, creamy white in the moonlight and fluttering in the air. Raeph held it out to Ada until she took it in her own hands, turning the paper over to see her delicately inked name.

"My grandmother's letter," she breathed, her name blurring as her eyes suddenly filled with tears.

"I swore to return it to you after you retrieved the iron dagger for me," Raeph said.

"But I haven't given you the dagger yet," Ada replied, feeling the weight of it against her ribs.

"No, but this way, I can bargain for interest when you eventually do," mused Raeph. "Besides, the name you've been seeking was also part of our deal. Consider the letter collateral."

Ada huffed a laugh, clutching her letter tightly with one hand as she rubbed her eyes with her other.

It had been so long since she had possessed any tangible memory of her family past her grandmother's cloak, but now she had retrieved Rosamund's locket and letter almost in one go. Ada lowered a finger to trace the shape of her grandmother's handwriting. Then she froze, staring down at the name that was not Ada, but Adalyn.

"My name," she said, not looking up. "You know my full name."

"I do." Raeph's voice was uncharacteristically low, as if ashamed. "But I would not ever use it against you, Ada. I swear it."

To her surprise, Ada believed him. He had spoken so sincerely, and when she looked up, meeting his eyes, she found them blazing like two darks coals within a hearth. He didn't even blink, his gaze too bright, and Ada fumbled for something else to say. She reached up and grasped the chain around her neck, pulling free the golden locket and clicking it open.

"Here's my grandmother—who wrote me the letter—and my grandfather. Although he died long before I was born."

Raeph looked away from her eyes, and Ada hoped her hands weren't trembling as he leaned in close to see the locket's small photographs. His hair brushed against her cheek, and she could feel his warm breath near her neck.

"They look happy," he said, placing his own hand beneath Ada's and tilting it towards the moonlight. "In love."

"Yes," agreed Ada, and felt herself smile for the first moment in a very long time. "Very happy."