Her brow twitched slightly as she turned her head and found herself staring into a pair of deep, jet-ck eyes.


    Ste froze for a moment, suddenly remembering that Joshua was still there.


    "Is something wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"


    Joshua''s longshes lowered, concealing whatever emotion flickered in his gaze. "No, it''s nothing. I just wanted to ask-do you still have Nocturne Ste with you?" These past few days, Ste hadn''t been practicing with Nocturne Ste. Joshua hadn''t seen her take out her favorite violin for quite some time.


    "It''s with my mentor for now," she replied. "He''s borrowing it for a performance."


    In truth, Nocturne Ste was at Antoney''s, but she hadn''t actually lent it out for any concert. Even now, Ste couldn''t fully trust Joshua. She worried he might be faking his memory loss, deliberately getting close to her.


    She''d been through the whole Sherman Burton incident once. She wasn''t na?ve enough to trust someone with an unclear past so easily. Even though she doubted there was much about her worth scheming over anymore, what if he was after Nocturne Ste, intending to harm it?


    Ste resolved to use Nocturne Ste as little as possible until the concert began.


    Joshua gave a small, disappointed sigh. "Looks like I won''t get to experience Nocturne Ste''s magic for a while."


    Ste picked up the violin resting beside her. "Nocturne Ste was my mother''s- she left it to me. But this violin here is the one I''ve yed since I was a child."


    Before returning to the Williams family, Ste''s mother had given her this very violin. Every violinist owned more than one instrument. It was true for Ste, and for her mother as well.


    Joshua looked at the violin in her hands. "Does this one have a name?"


    "It does," Ste answered. "It''s called Nameless."


    Joshua blinked. "Nameless? You mean it doesn''t have a real name?"


    Ste smiled. "Of course it does. Its name is literally Nameless."


    He stared for a moment, then couldn''t helpughing. "How did youe up with


    that? I thought girls liked to give their things pretty names."


    "When I first got this violin," Ste said, "I spent days thinking of the perfect name. None of them seemed good enough for it. I obsessed over it for three whole days so much that I couldn''t even focus on practicing. My mother ended up scolding me pretty harshly. After that, to keep myself from getting distracted, I just called it Nameless."


    She paused, ncing down at the violin like a mother looks at her child. Her eyes softened with affection.


    "My mentor tried tofort me," she continued, "said that a good name means it can be my ''nameless hero'' one day."


    Talking about music, Ste found herself unusually chatty. She looked at Joshua. "The opening piece for my concert is Moonlight. I''ll save you a ticket, if you''d like to hear Nocturne Ste in person."


    Joshua hesitated, then smiled. "I''d like that."


    By then, Rachel''s recital would probably being up, too. His gaze lingered on the violin in Ste''s hands.


    "Well, since Nocturne Ste is unavable, Ms. Cameron, would you mind ying Moonlight on this one?"


    Moonlight was one of Ste''s earliestpositions, a piece she''d performed more than any other. She could y it with her eyes closed; she hadn''t needed to practice it at alltely.


    Seeing Joshua''s genuine interest, she nodded. "Of course."


    She raised the instrument and yed Moonlight with practiced ease. Joshua listened quietly, lost in the music. It sounded just as it had at Mr. Burton''s dinner party, when she''d yed with Nameless as well.


    When the piece ended, Joshua suddenly asked, "Ms. Cameron, have you ever


    been to Solmaris?"