Kamine took a peak and noticed a small cat perched up there. It looked frightened.
“She won’t come down,” the woman said. “She was out here during it all. She’s lucky to still be kicking.”
Kamine didn’t think twice. She moved the ground beneath the barn and the cat leaped down into the woman’s arms after some hesitation. Hopefully, that didn’t further traumatize it.
The woman thanked her, but Kamine was off before she could finish.
Each street she passed, each hill she tiredly faced, brought her closer to him. The only thing that motivated her to continue was to see his face and the stubble that covered it. She couldn’t wait to drag her fingers through his hair, couldn’t wait to press her lips into his, not caring how disheveled she appeared.
She couldn’t wait to tell him that she, along with the others, found and touched the Heart together. She had broken his curse because she had accomplished this with him. Without him, she never would have been able to do it.
She was ready to hear his side of his story, to listen as he explained himself. Like Zoya and Janina said, she deserved the truth—his truth, not Kestra’s.
She crossed into his village and as she crept further in, the damage appeared minimal. A tree had been crushed, the roads blocked. Zoya had done a good job.
Kamine sighed a breath of relief.
Then, she heard a raging scream.
Kamine bolted in that direction. A pregnant woman was kneeling in front of what Kamine assumed was her home. A man was digging through the rubble. Kamine noticed, as she neared, his arms were slashed with red marks.
“What happened?” Kamine asked them urgently.
“He’s trapped, he’s trapped!” the woman shouted while she rocked back and forth on her knees, holding onto her belly, as if the life inside her could bring out the life under the rocks.
“Who?” Kamine whispered, already knowing what the response would be.
“Grimot!” the woman yelled, as if she were calling to him, and not responding to Kamine’s question.
No, Kamine thought. He can’t be under there. He would be dead.
“Watch out,” she warned the man. Kamine now guessed they were Grimot’s parents. Looking at the man now, it was obvious. Even from a distance, those piercing black eyes matched his son’s.
But Grimot’s father wouldn’t move, as if he refused to keep trying to save his son.
“Move,” Kamine said more sternly, but he still wouldn’t listen. “I can help,” Kamine now pleaded with his mother. “He just needs to move.”
His mother nodded as she called to her husband. His father’s shoulders slumped, but he finally came away from the rubble.
“I would back up and hold onto something,” Kamine warned.
They seemed to trust her, and did as they were told without protest.
Kamine needed to be careful. She needed to bend the ground so the rocks on top tumbled outwards and away from where he might be crushed. So she concentrated, and she allowed the love she had for him to lead her powers. Because she did, sherealized. She loved him. She had no idea when that happened, but it made sense in the end. He never gave up on her, even when she wanted him to. How could she not love him after that?
He would tell her not to, but Kamine closed her eyes. She didn’t need to see the rocks moving, instead she pictured him. The way his hands were strong and confident. The way his shirt was always loosely tucked into his perfectly pressed pants. The way he had no problem wrinkling them so that he could climb on top of her, and ruin her sanity. She saw him sitting in his chair in his private library, the way he would alway lightly scratch his face as the words distracted him from the world, and how with just one word from her, she could pull him back out.
“Come back to me,” she said and repeated. “Come back, come back.”
The pile of rocks moved. She had no idea where his body would be, but she trusted her powers would instinctively guide her. She poured out her love in bursts. Love for him. Love for her family. Love for her mother. Love her friends and cohort.
“I see him,” his father said.
Kamine opened her eyes, and she saw his body. His arm was bloodied, but she could see the small rise and fall of his chest. She let out a whimper as she went to his side, tripping over the rubble.
She touched his cheek, but his eyes remained shut.
“Rest,” she whispered. “We’ll get you somewhere safe.”
