Page 52

Face reddening, he tapped the lens of the glasses.

Lily hummed while pulling off her shoes and rolling up her pant legs to the best of her ability. She slid her sticky feet into the water. Luka tilted his head, watching, then copied her.

“That little thing brought us here?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Can it take us back?”

“No. I could only use it once.”

“Oh.” He kicked up new flows against the gentle stream of the river. “Are we stuck here?”

“For now…”

Would it be possible to cross the border, with or without him? If Lily were lucky, the manpower guarding it would have thinned since it was common knowledge the Wraith was taken under the Gnaw’s wing almost a decade ago.

But with Luka’s kidnapping, there would be no such luck. She had to assume the border would soon be guarded now more than ever.

There was one positive side she found the longer she thought about it. The empire didn’t know she was born on the peninsula. The search for them would be narrowed to the southern sections of Eocera where they discovered her family, and where Amalia’s forces intercepted their convoy with Lily on it. They would be safe here for the time being.

“Does it hurt?” he asked.

Lily blinked to Luka, who shared glances between her face and the hand stuck to her chest. “Not when it’s still,” she told him. “I need a splint and—”

Without warning, he reached for Lily’s wrist, and she tucked it farther into her body. He stilled. “I can fix it.”

“A-Are you sure?” Of course he can. You know that. She’d visited a Guardian blessed healer in Reave. It was easy, even if the healer was paranoid from escence use. But now it seemed wrong, as if Eizreth’s reaper didn’t deserve the life-giving touch of its angel.

“I’ve done it before.” Luka’s pinching brows didn’t match the total assurance in his voice.

“Maybe soon,” she conceded, hoping that would be enough to end his insistence.

Thankfully, Luka lowered his hands. “Are you staying here?”

“For a little while.”

“Can I stay too?”

“You don’t want to go somewhere else?”

“I don’t have anywhere to go.”

Despite that prospect, he was cheerful. Bright enough she could picture his eyes sparkling beyond the tint of the sunglasses. Nothing like the cold, frightened child she met a day ago.

“I guess you can stay until I leave, but you have to help me clean this place up.”

Luka bobbed his head enthusiastically, though his eagerness to help didn’t last long. She managed to convince him to help prune some of the weeds from the overgrown garden so they could harvest the ripened roots under the dirt. Eventually, Lily ended up completing most of the work one handed, all while Luka asked question after question. Lily found herself drudging up what she could recall about ancient Ceran history or why its weather behaved the way it did. By midday, she seemed to forget answers to simple questions—like why some water was safe to drink but not all of it, or why the sky was blue.

She still answered every inquiry, never feeling annoyed doing so.

“How’d you know this place was here?” Luka asked as the sun set behind them.

Lily tossed the last of the weeds to the edge of the forest. “I found it a long time ago.”

“Did your mama bring you?”

“No. I was alone.”