Page 58 of Suncatcher

Driz was about to reveal herself and ask, but Pearl’s words from the night of the flood came back to her. “My mother will shoot you on sight.”

Oak stopped at the mouth of the ravine and stared up it, looking around slowly. A hunter. A predator. Driz held perfectly still as Oak stalked inside.

“Show yourself,” Oak demanded.

Driz remained frozen. Was she talking to Driz?

“I know you’re here.” Oak walked deeper, scanning the crumbling walls and shadowed corners. “I saw you land. It’s been a long time. And I’m all alone.”

She stared challengingly up at the world. What had been a long time? She must be talking to someone else. But no one else was here.

Oak opened a silver disk and brought it to her nose, inhaling the shimmering white powder, her eyes never leaving the ravine. Blight. Driz recognized it, and its sweet scent, even from here.

Would Oak be able to smell her now? Hear her heartbeat?

Oak’s nostrils flared as she shoved the disk back into her pocket. Driz tried to calm her racing heart.

“Well? What’re you waiting for?” Oak demanded, her voice echoing as she swung the rifle from her back to beneath her arm in a single, fluid movement. She looked so much like Pearl. But she wasn’t Pearl. Driz’s wings twitched in distress.

Oak stilled, her head and rifle turning toward where Driz hid.

Driz scrambled away from the edge. The shot rang out behind her as she ran several paces before opening her wings. She kept low, hoping the angle of the terrain would conceal her from Oak’s gaze.

Her hands shook. Pearl had been right about her. But why? Did Oak shoot at everyone she had not met?

Part of Driz called to stand and fight. Or to speak to her. To defend herself. But Oak was Pearl’s mother. Driz would not fight or hurt her, and she did not know what she would say.

So she took the only option, and fled.

Pearl hadn’t dared return to see Driz last night. She’d kept herself busy during the day, painting another building, and hiding out at Molly’s. She knew her mother’s interrogation would continue given the chance.

Once Pearl told the sheriff about Driz, that would be the end of whatever this was between them. And Pearl wasn’t ready to give Driz up yet.

She managed to avoid her mother until the following evening, as the sheriff came inside when Pearl reached the bottom of the stairwell.

“There you are,” Sheriff Oak said, her clothes stiff with salt and dust. “I’ll change and meet you at Spencer’s.”

“I already ate.” Pearl tried to slip through the blocked door.

“Where’re you going?”

“Out.”

Sheriff Oak narrowed her eyes.

Pearl shifted.

“With who?”

“Stop it.”

“Your new mystery woman?”

“Sure.”

“Why won’t you tell me about her? She could come here. I’d like to meet her.”

Pearl huffed out an unamused breath. “Well, I don’t want her to meet you.”