Page 62 of Suncatcher

Probably. But Pearl didn’t regret it.

Where had Driz gone? She said she would come back. She would, wouldn’t she?

The full reality of Pearl’s situation hit her. Stranded in an abandoned ghost town in the middle of nowhere, she had no supplies and no sense of how far they’d even flown. If Driz didn’t return…

But she would. Pearl trusted that she would. Perhaps that was a mistake too.

Yet it wasn’t long until the thud announced Driz’s arrival, and the winged, horned shape appeared above the half doors.

Driz hesitated, lingering outside, and Pearl’s unease increased. Had she pushed too much?

Instead of waiting, Pearl straightened and marched out.

Driz retreated back down into the street as Pearl swung the groaning doors open.

“Are you alright?” Pearl asked, holding her lantern up to see better, scanning Driz’s body. Her soaked clothes clung to her figure in a highly distracting way. Pearl focused determinedly on where the pricks of blood still stained below her hips.

“I will not hurt you,” Driz promised seriously.

“I wasn’t expecting you to.” Pearl tilted her head. “Should I?”

“I do not want you to be afraid.”

“I’m not afraid.” Pearl stepped into the street too. “Was that too much? Did you not like it?” Pearl had been fully convinced Driz liked it very much. But perhaps she’d somehow read her wrong.

“I told you I liked it.”

“I know. But you’re allowed to change your mind.”

“I have not changed my mind.”

“Good.” Pearl moved closer. “I haven’t either. But I’m sorry if I—”

Driz stopped her mouth by covering it with her own. She craned her neck down, still keeping space between their bodies as her hands ghosted and hovered, barely skimming Pearl’s arm and her hip, as if afraid to touch her.

Pearl reached for Driz, lacing their fingers together. Driz drew her head back and stared at their clasped hands—Pearl’s smaller and roughened, Driz’s larger and elegantly sharp.

“We’re all good,” Pearl said, her heart beating faster than it should. “Yeah?”

Driz nodded. “Yeah,” she agreed, and the casual word made Pearl’s belly flip.

“So,” Pearl repeated, reining in her scattering thoughts and newly stoked desire. “That surprise?”

Driz nodded again. “I will take you there.”

Pearl wound her arms around Driz’s neck and Driz’s sodden clothes immediately dampened her own.

They didn’t have to go far, landing in the shadow of a lone, still-standing dead tree on a high ridge above the same canyon they had watched the firefoxes from, but on the opposite side. Driz lay Pearl gently down onto woven softness.

Pearl pushed up to find herself on a spread blanket littered with plucked night-blooming flowers, pretty despite the fact they’d mostly wilted already. And to the side rested three bottles. One was empty of liquid, its neck stuffed with long grass while inside several glowing lightning bugs twirled, lazily bumping at the glass. But the other two were still corked.

Pearl inspected each. “Damn, this is old. Spencer's got one of these displayed. They stopped distilling at least twenty years ago.” She brushed the dust from the label, holding it up to the light of her sputtering lantern.

“Is that bad? I took two because I did not know which you might like.”

“Let’s find out.” Pearl snuffed the lantern to save the remaining fuel for an emergency. Working by the stars and the faint glow of the bugs, she withdrew her pocketknife and jammed it into the stubborn cork. With a bit of careful twisting, she managed to work it free.

In the absence of any glasses, Pearl took a swig from the neck. It was smooth and smoky, and exactly what she needed right now to dull all the emotions vying for her attention as she resolutely ignored them.