She let it fall back against her neck and returned her hand to Oskaren’s shoulder. “Shame it doesn’t seem to be working.”
“You’re still alive, aren’t you?” There was a smile in Oskaren’s voice.
The other girl was staring at her, with intent, captivation, delight. For all that she was familiar with the sad parts of Oskaren, her playful side, when it was not weighed down by bitterness, was new. And under the weight of her hunter’s focus, Thia realized just how often the girl had avoided her previously, how careful she was to never look too long or too fully.
“Are you tired?” Oskaren asked.
“Not really.” Not enough to sleep. She had no idea where they were supposed to sleep anyway.
“Would you like to sit?” Oskaren removed her hand from Thia’s waist and gestured to the stones where she had sat before.
“Sure.”
They strolled across the meadow toward it, walking close together, but not enough to touch. Oskaren reached the stones first, but remained standing, hovering hesitantly. Thia sat, crossing her legs one over the other. She patted the boulder in front of her.
Oskaren waited one second longer, then flashed a smile and sat.
“So,” Thia started, when the other girl was settled. She paused, suddenly shy. Without any danger to distract them, without the curse standing like an ugly wall, she was deeply aware that it was just the two of them.
“Thia,” Oskaren said, as though that were an answer. And again, “Thia.” She said it slowly, like she was savoring the taste of it, the way it felt to shape it free of pain.
And it was a wonder to Thia that her name would cause the girl pain at all, when she only felt pain when she was happy.
And here, now, free of the curse in this moment, shelookedhappy. Her gaze was bright, and the corners of her lips kept twitching as though she was trying to contain her delight and couldn’t.
“What?” Thia asked, squirming under the inspection.
“Nothing,” Oskaren said. “I’m just glad to have met you.”
Thia’s insides warmed. “Tell me something,” she said.
“Like what?”
Thia pursed her lips. “Anything. Something real.” Something to hold on to when the danger returned.
Oskaren looked at the ground. “Can’t we stay in the dream?”
Thia knew what she meant. Itwaslike a dream, the two of them in the most beautiful glade she’d ever seen, surrounded by flowers that glowed like stars, warmed by the embers of a bonfire as dozens of majestic voices serenaded them. But Thia didn’t want a dream, not when her entire life no longer felt real. She wanted to know that this feeling, this longing, was something that would last even when the magic fell away.
Perhaps it was the sadness in the other girl’s tone, the diffidence in the tilt of her chin, but Thia found confidence she didn’t know she had. She reached up, smoothing that tendril of black hair off the girl’s forehead. Oskaren wasn’t breathing; she was as still as a statue as Thia ran a finger down her scar. “I want to know you,” she said gently. “All of you.”
“If you knew all of me, you wouldn’t say that,” Oskaren said, so quietly Thia almost didn’t hear her.
“Oskaren—”
“The things I’ve done…. My own mother can’t stand the sight of me.”
Thia didn’t think that was true. The woman’s devastation was clear in the tears she’d shed while describing her daughter’s fate. “Sorscha loves you,” Thia insisted. “Very much.”
Oskaren sighed. “Oh, I know. That’s why she can’t stand me.” She stared at Thia’s hands where they rested in her lap. “That’s why I left. After I was cursed, I escaped the Tower and I…I had nowhere to go, so I went to Black Forest. I didn’tcareexactly, but I could see the pain I was causing, my mother’s disgust at it. So I left.”
“Dess said he tried to come with you,” Thia hedged.
Oskaren grimaced. “Yes.” She waited, hesitant. “What…else did he say about me?”
Thia chewed her lip, wondering how much to share. “He said you threatened to kill him,” she said finally.
Oskaren’s eyes were still on Thia’s hands. “Ah.”
