Free Light Fantastique by Cecilia Dominic

returned to the auditorium, he found it empty, the other musicians having gone home. His instrument sat where he’d left it, but underneath was a note— “Do not concern yourself with Mademoiselle St. Jean. She is quite sane. Trust that her guide is watching out for her and leave her be.”
    â€œHer guide?” He looked around, again with that feeling that the skin between his shoulder blades twitched under some sort of scrutiny, but the theatre was empty.
    * * * * *
    â€œYou did it.” Iris gestured to the fake lighting system, now dark. Edward had hung back when the others ran out to investigate the scream, and she elected to stay with him. “You figured out how to make aether power it.”
    â€œIt’s not powering it. It’s lighting it. Steam is still required to power the motor that directs the gas through the system.” Edward had pleaded exhaustion and now sat at the table and toyed with a small screwdriver. The aether isolation device also stood dark, so the only light came from the flickering gas lamps on the wall. With the curtains drawn, the atelier felt cozy and almost claustrophobic.
    â€œSo why can’t we open the curtains?” Iris moved toward the window. She half hoped Edward would stand to stop her, at least hold her arm in that gentle way of his.
    He’s solved his problem, so he can get back to courting me now. Or doesn’t he want to?
    â€œThis is going to sound crazy. Well, more crazy than usual.” He did stand, and Iris tried not to appear too eager for him to be beside her. He walked past her and peered through a narrow space in the curtains, and she sucked in her stomach to keep her shoulders from obviously slumping around the ache in her chest.
    â€œIs something out there?” She kept her tone neutral.
    â€œA raven, but not a normal one. This one is steam-powered and seems to have some sort of camera inside it. Johann thinks it’s a Clockwork Guild invention, but it’s not their usual kind of device.”
    â€œYou’re sure it’s steam-powered?”
    â€œWe only got a brief glimpse of it. Hopefully we closed the curtains before it took a picture of us or the aether devices, but yes. Johann said it seemed to breathe fire, and I figured it out.”
    A year ago, Iris would have dismissed the raven he described as the ravings of a madman who had been working too hard, but that was before she’d become intimately acquainted with the clockwork spy butterflies. She still automatically looked twice at any flash of gold or brass.
    With Edward at the window, Iris glanced at the screwdriver he’d been fidgeting with, and the tips of her fingers tingled as it called to her to read it . She hesitated. Edward had some sense of what she could do, although she didn’t know to what degree he understood what objects told her. Either way, he didn’t like it when she invaded his privacy. But he hadn’t been talking to her, and she needed to know how he was mentally. The specter of the nervous breakdown he’d had in the past hovered in the back of her mind. She hadn’t witnessed it firsthand, but Johann Bledsoe had described it in sufficient detail that she knew she didn’t want Edward to have another one.
    I’ll try one more thing, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll do it.
    â€œHow are you doing?” she asked and joined him at the window. He glanced at her but didn’t shift his gaze from outside for more than a moment.
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œI’ve hardly seen you, and I know that’s partially my fault—I’ve been in exams and studying a lot—but I’ve missed you.” She reminded herself to breathe in the seconds that stretched before his reply.
    â€œI’m all right. Working hard too.”
    But have you missed me? She wasn’t going to ask him, lead him along or do all the work for him. You’re such a genius, you figure out how