Because it’s best that way.
Not everything has to be said. Not everything should be.
Like now…
Now, my mind is flittering back to the first time I saw him. I watched him and his unit walk through the darkness, watched Rust slaughter Ramona on the street, and saw Samick’s cold, unfeeling face in harsh torchlight, utterly unfeeling.
But he wasn’t unfeeling.
He was confused, baffled, curious—all of it and maybe more.
Because for the first time in his life, however long that’s been, heheardsomeone’s terror.
I wasn’t an echo.
Now I know why he was staring at me. Me, who didn’t lift the gun, didn’t shoot at them.
And I hate that I think back to then, when fae were monsters from the dark, and I saw them only as that. I didn’t see them as people, individuals, with personalities and preferences and friendships.
Because now…
Now I know, Samick is a creative. He sketches and draws and sews and cooks.
I hate that I know that.
I hate that I know about his family, his pain, his childhood.
I need,desperately, for him to be a monster again.
X
If there was a place in the world that I found both stunning and terrifying, it was this one.
Chedder Gorge.
The magnificence of it was downright harrowing.
The rocky walls bordered the valleys in every direction, the harsh gorge sprawling out as far as I could see.
I was in a dreadful state of awe.
I felt gutted at the sight of it—and mesmerised.
Not even the wince from behind me could have snatched me out of this hypnosis.
Ruby’s huffs and aches and whines hadn’t stopped since we left camp hours ago. The hike called for proper boots—which she didn’t bring with her.
Ramona was tolerable enough to stay back at camp, faking her headache, which was miles better than her forcing herself to come along and complaining the whole time.
I wished Ruby stayed back.
I snubbed her theatrics, leaving Louise to fuss over her as she always did, and let the view hold me captive.
“If I could live here,” I said softly, “I would never leave.”
Bee’s smile tugged on my shoulder. She rested her head there, arm looped around mine, and took in the view with me.
“Should that be our retirement plan?” she teased, but her tone was just as soft and soothed as mine. “Build our cottages down there, close to the river, and grow old? The hags that live in the gorge.”
