For Darkness Shows the Stars

himself to his feet. “I’ll go.”
    “No!” Ro grabbed for his arm with her muddy hands.
    He looked down at her. “I’m sorry, Ro. Elliot doesn’t want me here.”
    Ro shook her head. “Me.” She gestured to the room. Her room . Where what Elliot wanted didn’t really matter. Kai sank to his knees again, though Ro didn’t let go of his arm. Instead, she looked at Elliot until she, too, came inside and closed the door behind her.
    Then Ro smiled and went back to her pots. She pushed one toward Elliot, and Elliot stared in awe at the striped beauty it held. Ro had certainly been busy with her experiments, unless this was some Post varietal that Kai had sneaked to her. She wouldn’t put it past him.
    “It’s very beautiful, Ro,” she said. “Is it a gift, like your scarf?”
    Ro made snipping motions with her hands, and Elliot cringed.
    Kai’s voice came from above. “She’s quite the geneticist, isn’t she?”
    “Shut up,” Elliot grumbled. Ro threw a clod of dirt at her.
    “How long have you known this was going on?” Kai asked.
    Elliot said nothing. She pressed her hands into the dirt, packing the soil around the cuttings as Ro instructed.
    “I can’t figure out how she knew what to do,” Kai said. “There must be Posts on this land experimenting behind your back.”
    She bit back a laugh that was more like a scream. Of course he’d think that. Of course he’d give credit to anyone else. She flew through the pots Ro handed her. Some were sickly, withering in the winter chill, or perhaps without sufficient light, or maybe because they were varietals that were never meant to survive—little flower versions of the Lost. And yet others were astounding—full and rich and beautiful, and despite the darkness of the winter, despite the gloom of Ro’s cabin, they were as bright as the colors on the Posts’ coats.
    “Elliot?” He reached over, stilling her muddy fingers with his own, and she froze. She stared unblinking down at their hands. Once, she had taken his touch for granted. Now, it meant everything, and she wished it did not. “You know there are Posts here doing experiments? Who?”
    “I want you to stay out of my barn,” she mumbled without looking up.
    “I know,” he replied. “You were quite clear a few weeks ago.”
    She had also been clear that he should never speak to her again. Didn’t seem to have stopped him. “You have no right to mess with my machines.”
    “Ah.” He sat back on his heels, and his hand slipped off hers. Elliot swallowed, but whether it was in relief or disappointment, she dared not guess. “So you see a few new gears and because you know that you have no one on your estate competent enough to fix them, you assumed it must have been me.”
    Elliot met his eyes. “Wasn’t it?”
    “Answer me, first.” Kai leaned in. “Who are the Posts on your estate doing agricultural experiments?”
    She took a deep breath. “There are no Posts on the North estate doing experiments.”
    “You lie.” He sounded more hurt than accusing.
    She shook her head.
    “You mean you don’t know, and you don’t have the heart to try to root them out.”
    “I’ll thank you not to make such assumptions.”
    Ro looked at the array of unfinished pots she’d pushed over to Elliot and whined. Elliot started work again.
    “Elliot—”
    “I answered your question!” she snapped at him. “And I don’t need you to answer mine. You fixed those machines. You did it to show me up. Good on you. Aren’t you the expert! I am properly humbled.”
    “I didn’t do it to show you up. I did it so the workers on the estate would have an easier time.”
    She snorted. “Very magnanimous.” She lowered her head and mumbled beneath her breath, “And a good deal more practical than a silk scarf.”
    Kai chuckled. “Along with my other abominations, I have extremely keen hearing.”
    “And yet you’re wretched at comprehension. I thought I made it clear to you that I don’t want to talk to you, that I don’t want to see you.” She could lie well enough to convince him.
    “Which is why I never let you know when I came to the barn.”
    “Sneaking around behind my back is not obeying the spirit of my request!”
    “So I’m banished from the North estate, is that what you’re saying?” Kai asked. “Never mind about the people living on your lands who want to have me here—you’re the lord, so what you say goes?”
    Yes! Elliot bit her tongue to keep from