“Together?” I repeated.
When I was younger, his words would have sent me over the moon. I would have been giddy with excitement that Drake wanted to spend time alone with me. Now, I could barely wrap my head around it. That didn’t stop my heart from pounding and my stomach from twisting at the thought. He wanted to spend time with me. The question, though, was why.
He shrugged again, now looking almost uncomfortable. It was honestly kind of cute. I liked seeing that softer, moreuncertain side of him. “Look, if you don’t want to, then that’s fine. I just figured I would offer.”
“No, no. That sounds lovely.”I just wouldn’t expect you to do something like this, I thought.
He gave a short nod. “Then come on. We’re losing daylight, and we’ve got a bit of a hike.”
I tilted my head. “What?”
He shifted on his feet, a hint of self-consciousness flicking across his features. “There’s somewhere I want to show you,” he finally said. “I think you’d like it. But it’s a bit of a trek, so if you want to get there, then we should probably get going.”
Somewhere he wants to show me?Again, the words barely computed. Because for them to make sense, that would mean he would have had to think about me when he saw a place, and then he would have to want to spend enough time with me to take me there. It was so unlike the Drake I had grown accustomed to that I almost thought I was imagining the whole thing.
I followed him through town, and we made idle small talk. I tried figuring out where we were going or what was in the bag slung over his back, but every time I did, he would give me one of his rare, slight smiles and refuse to answer.
We got to the edge of the oasis. The sun beat down as kids splashed in the water, enjoying the hot summer day. Sweat trickled down my back, and part of me wanted to do a cannonball right into the center of the water.
“You wanted to show me the oasis?” I asked.
Drake chortled. It was a deep, resonant sound that was oddly pleasant to my ears.
“No. I figured you’d seen that more than a few times. But this is the easiest place to start for where I wanted to take you.”
We kept going. I wasn’t sure what set me more off-balance: the fact that Drake and I were currently hiking through the desert together as if we had done this a thousand times before, the fact that Drake wanted to spend time with me at all, or the fact that he had clearly put some thought and effort into whatever it was he was showing me. If I hadn’t been living the experience right this moment, I would have laughed at it all. But here we were.
In moments like this, it was easy to think he might actually care about me.
He halted in front of a crevice in the rock. He slowed, glancing around. “Normally, this place is guarded at all times,” he grunted. “But I told them to take a few hours off. I thought you would prefer the privacy.”
Those few words shouldn’t have made my stomach lurch or caused shivers to run down my spine, but they did.
He ushered me through the crevice, which I was somehow able to fit through despite it looking too small for me to squeeze around. I sucked in a breath as it gave way to a large, arching tunnel. It didn’t look natural; the sides were too perfect, but I couldn’t imagine anyone building this, either. Drake guided me through the taverns. At some point, his hand found mine. He gripped tight. I tried not to suck in a breath as his rough, calloused hand pressed against my knuckles and palm.
My heartbeat needed to slow, because it was surely about to echo in the cavern as loud as our footsteps.
Then, the tunnels opened into a large cavern, and my mouth dropped open.
A glittering pool stood in the center of the cavern, water rippling slightly as if moving. It glittered and glinted as if bathed in moonlight, though there was no light source in the entire cavern. The fact that we could even see it properly was a mystery in itself. I sucked in a breath as I stared around, trying to take it all in.
“This is the underground spring,” he explained.
“It’s beautiful,” I muttered. My words bounced around the cavern, a gentle echo that blended with the burble of water and the steady drip of condensation falling off stones.
Most people in town knew about the underground spring, the source of the power that the sand wraith coveted. For years, the town had believed that the oasis had magical properties. Though all I had heard of the oasis healing was minor cuts and bruises, the legend had persisted. In a way, the town hadn’t been too far off. The waterfall that fed the oasis came from this spring, and I knew of at least two people who had been healed from serious injuries in these waters since the spring had been discovered.
Here, standing in the great cavern, fully illuminated from no visible light source, it was impossible not to believe in the magic spreading out all around us. I went silent, taking in the gorgeous sight. It almost didn’t feel real.
“Do you like it?” Drake asked.
When I turned to look at him, I blinked in surprise. He looked nervous, as if he wasn’t sure whether or not I would truly love this place. As if I could do anythingbutlove it.
“It’s incredible,” I breathed. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Drake gave a soft chuckle, his shoulders easing. “I hoped you would like it.”
“It’s…” I trailed off, not sure how to articulate it. It wasn’t just that this place was beautiful and that he had taken me here. It was the deliberate choice of the matter. He had put in the effort to do this for me. “Thank you for bringing me here,” I said.
