Free Descent by Charlotte McConaghy

He’s dangerous.’
    ‘But I do know me. I want to drink and dance and have fun. I’ll be good, I promise. You don’t need to worry about me.’
    Harry sighed. On his way out he saw Altor. ‘Just make sure she gets home safe, okay?’
    Altor tilted his head. ‘Harry. Of course I’ll do that,’ he murmured with rare sincerity.
    Mia watched Harry haul Jack out of the tavern. She had a sudden pang of regret that she hadn’t helped get him home. At the same time she just wanted to be able to go out and not have to worry about someone else. She and Jack had been together for so long, and they were only seventeen! Most of her other friends hadn’t had a boyfriend before. Jane had never even kissed anyone!
    Mia checked herself at the mistake. No, Jane had kissed someone. A prince. And Anna had fallen in love with a man who had betrayed everyone. Luca had had a girlfriend who’d sung to save the world and then fallen into a coma.
    How could you come to a new world and still want the same things you did in the old one?
    Altor stood with her again, telling her about the activities around them. The musicians were apparently famous. He explained what sort of music they played and their stories, and about the dancers and what went on after hours in the city. This was where the hearts of the people could be found, he said.
    ‘In their misbehaving?’ Mia smiled.
    Altor shook his head. ‘This isn’t misbehaving. It’s real life. It’s how we live amidst so much fear.’
    ‘So this is more real than sitting down with your family and eating a meal?’
    He shrugged. ‘That’s not the point. The point is, we need to be allowed to behave as we please. There has to be freedom to want what the heart wants.’
    ‘And does your heart want to come here to drink and gamble the nights away?’ she asked.
    He smiled. ‘You’re forgetting the women. Drinking, gambling and women.’
    Mia laughed. ‘What more could one want?’
    He handed her another shot and she took it. Without waiting for her to drink it, Altor leant in and kissed her on the corner of her mouth. She was so shocked that she froze. His lips were soft and warm, and when he moved away Mia felt cold again.
    ‘Drink up,’ he smiled, gesturing to the drink in her hand.
    Numbly Mia drank. She shouldn’t have enjoyed that kiss so much. Not nearly so much.
    ‘Relax,’ Altor said. ‘You haven’t committed a crime. You can say I forced you to kiss me. You can pretend you didn’t like it.’
    He moved closer, and Mia stiffened. ‘You can lie,’ he whispered, his breath hot against her mouth. And then he kissed her properly. Mia’s body erupted into shivers.
    ‘That wasn’t so bad, was it?’ he murmured.
    She looked at him. His smile was predatory. ‘This is a game to you, isn’t it?’ she asked.
    He blinked. ‘Of course,’ he replied, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. ‘Isn’t it a game to everyone?’
    ‘No,’ she whispered. ‘It’s not. Can you take me home, please?’
    He looked at her for a long moment. Then he smiled. ‘My pleasure, Lady Mia.’ He led her outside and into a carriage. Mia stared out the window the whole way home, walking to her room without saying a word.
    ‘Mia,’ Altor called and she turned back to look at him, standing on the front steps of the castle, wreathed in moonlight but still so dark, and still so amused. ‘It is a game. You’ll realise that sooner or later, or else you’ll keep losing.’
    And the simple cruelty of his words cut straight inside her.
    Instead of heading to her own room, Mia went into Jack’s and locked the door behind her. She lay down next to him, staring at him for a long time. She watched the steady rise and fall of his chest, looked at the fine hairs on his chin, his dirty fingernails, the crease in the middle of his forehead, even when sleeping. She knew that crease, those fingernails, hairs, and breaths well. For a while, she’d known them as well as she’d known any