Chapter 32
Pane
“Why are we at Luke and Sally’s?” Rowe asks through a sniffle when we arrive at their front door.
“Because those were unicorn prints back at the fence. They let the unicorns do this.”
Her jaw drops. “What? How?”
My body tightens in anger. It takes everything I’ve got to keep it cool and together. “Remember earlier today when Nat saw that strange bird?”
“Yeah.”
“It wasn’t a bird. It was a drone. I didn’t put the two together until I saw the tracks.”
“Oh my God, and Luke said something about a drone when we were, you know ...” She cocks her head toward the pasture.
“I know,” is all I can manage right now.
Sunbeam’s cheeks are tearstained. Her nose is red. Her eyes are swollen, and her lips look good enough to devour.
I want to devour all of her.
But first, I want to destroy Luke for what he’s done, tear him to pieces, show him that real men do not sabotage a woman’s livelihood.
I push the bell and hear it ring on the inside of the two-story Southern-style home, complete with Greek columns on the porch.
Luke throws open the door, takes one look at the two of us, and guards his face. “Now just—”
And that’s when I punch him, aiming for a spot just above where his hands are shielding—his nose.
The sound of cracking bone fills the air, and Luke reels back into the house, falling onto his ass on the wooden floor.
Behind me, Rowe gasps.
My knuckles throb, and I shake out my hand. It’s tempting to pounce on him and punch until there’s nothing left to punch.
“Ow, ow!” Luke howls in pain. Blood seeps between his fingers, splashing in fat drops onto the floor. “You son of a bitch! You broke my nose!”
“What’s going on?” Sally Ray calls from inside the belly of the home.
I take a step and bend down. Luke cowers like I’m going to punch him again.
I shove my finger in his face. “That’s for destroying Rowe’s property.”
“You’re crazy!” He spits while keeping his nose cupped in his hand. “You’re full of shit. Sally Ray, call the cops!”
Sally Ray enters the hall, sees Luke, and screams, dropping a plate she was wiping dry with a towel. It hits the floor and splinters into a thousand pieces as she slides to her knees and cradles his head.
She’s screaming at me to leave, screaming at Rowe to get me out of there. Telling Rowe that she will pay for this.
Her cries become muffled like I’m underwater. All I can see is red, all I feel is fury as I point another finger at Luke.
“You never deserved Rowe. You don’t even know who she is.”
As soon as the words begin to pour from my mouth, emotion closes my throat. I push through it like I’m clearing a pipe, one that’s been clogged with brush and rubbish for years, all of it clumping together until its plunged away, freeing the water trapped behind it. But what’scoming out of me now is the farthest thing from water. It’s a tender emotion, something small and sacred. Something worth tending to and fighting for.
I claw my way through the words, restraining the emotions surging inside me. “Rowe is the goddess of this land, the one person this earth responds to, its lifeblood and source. You are nothing. You’re not even worthy of looking at her.”
