Free Innocent Darkness by Suzanne Lazear

easy to procure. It would be simpler to say he lost it, but if his father discovered he’d lied and given it to Noli … well, only the Bright Lady could help him then.
    “If I don’t tell you, you can’t tell my father,” he replied instead.
    Quinn gazed at him with sharp eyes the color of flint. “I’ll get you another, but you have to pay attention. What has gotten into you?”
    He hadn’t anticipated Noli’s absence to affect him so much. But it had. According to her mother, he couldn’t even write her. “I promise to try.”
    “Good. Now, let’s get back to our lessons.”
    Once again, his mind wandered to Noli and that dreadful place. Should he hope she did well or poorly? Not that it would change anything either way. He just hoped she was safe.

Seven
    The Spark
    Should we go for a walk?” She shot Kevighn a winsome smile. Her name was Annette, or was it Maryanne? He couldn’t remember. Whatever the mortal called herself, she was charming, curvaceous, and flexible. Very flexible.
    Truly, he should be out hunting and not drowning his sorrows in opium and women. But after the last missive from the queen, he needed to indulge briefly. Essentially, the message read if you don’t find a girl soon, I’ll find someone else who can.
    Few possessed the ability to see the Spark in mortals, but he wasn’t the only one. He just happened to be good at tracking and seducing young women and stealing them away.
    Well, he used to be.
    There weren’t fewer girls with the Spark in the mortal realm. They were more wary of running away with him, especially with all this emphasis on virtue and chastity. What nonsense.
    Also, after Annabelle, he simply lacked the motivation.
    “Briefly, if you wish.” He’d rather take the harlot back upstairs. After perhaps.
    They walked outside, the afternoon overcast. She carried a lace parasol like fine lady. To give the strumpet credit, she didn’t prattle on as they strolled around the gardens of the Red Pearl, his favorite opium den.
    “Poor girls.” She jerked her chin towards the other side of the tall fence.
    Two girls in grey silently hung laundry on a line. The tiny one had freckles and red hair. The other possessed a mop of chestnut curls and eyes like steel. They were about the age he usually stole. The land preferred girls who hovered on the brink between child and woman.
    Personally, he couldn’t fault the land for her good taste.
    “What precisely is this place?” he asked.
    “They take willful girls and beat them until they become submissive, fine ladies.” Taking her fan, she fluttered it. “Horrible, terrible, place. I know the cook. The doctor there is creepy. He seems to enjoy his job of treating the girls a little too much.” She shuddered slightly, making her large bosom shake in her tight, pink, dress.
    A place where they actually sucked the life out of young girls in their prime? Terrible. He never claimed to understand mortals.
    The girls on the other side of the fence continued to hang laundry. The eyes of the girl with the redhead went alight with mischief. She whispered something to the other girl and grinned. They both laughed. Kevighn winced as if the sun came out from behind the clouds.
    The Bright Lady herself seemed to smile upon him. Both girls possessed quite a bit of the Spark. One of them shone with it. With them so close he couldn’t tell which one. Either would do. Maybe he’d bring both. After all, how hard could it be to lure girls with the Spark out of a place designed to drain them of just that?

    The next day Kevighn strolled along the grounds of the Red Pearl alone hoping to get a glimpse of those two girls again. No laundry hung on the line. He continued walking along the fence, even when it became stone. Near the end he began to feel something surprising, pleasing, and startling all at the same time.
    Things just got better and better.
    He went to the back corner of the property and the stone gave way to fence again. The power