Page 112 of Suncatcher

He eyed her shoulder, shifting closer to peer at it. Then he nodded and reached for a wide leather wrapping on his forearm, pulling it off to reveal a jagged glowing line that ran all around beneath his elbow.

Driz stared at the blighted scar. “How long?”

“I have hidden it for over a century.”

“What happened?”

“I crossed a djinn I should not have. I knew I would not survive to the dawn with my arm gone. So I risked it to live.”

“And are you cursed?”

He swept his gaze to the horizon, taking a moment to answer. “I was born to an original, who was crafted by the goddess’s hands herself. We are different from the originals, you and I.”

“How? What are we?”

He shrugged clumsily. “We are who we are.”

Driz scowled. “That was not a helpful answer.”

“There is no one to give us an answer but us. We are all lost, trying to find a way. The world has changed since the war. And so have we.”

“I love a human,” Driz blurted.

He nodded again, looking sad. “I wake from stone later each night.”

Driz scowled harder. “That is not the same.”

“We may both be close to death.” He shuffled toward the edge. “Or we may not. Make your own laws, young one. Who is left to say otherwise?” Then he hurled himself off the cliff.

And Driz was alone again.

32

Across the Divide

Pearl spent two days at her mother’s bedside, willing her to wake. And when she finally opened her eyes, Pearl swore she would kill her.

“Ma?”

Sheriff Oak blinked at her, an alarmingly soft and dreamy smile touching her lips. “Pea?”

“I’m here.” Pearl grabbed her hand, kneeling on the floor and leaning over the bed.

The grip on Pearl’s hand tightened, but Sheriff Oak’s eyes fluttered. “I need to say…”

“We’ll talk later.”

“Don’t run away.”

Pearl waited until the next morning when, despite the caution from the doctor against it, Sheriff Oak was sitting up in her bed. Her hair hung loosely around her, more white showing than usual. More lines of time on her face as she stared at Pearl.

“How many people did we lose?” the sheriff asked.

“Five. But Faltsprings lost twelve.”

The sheriff nodded. “They’ve been recovered?”

“And buried. Company folks came by yesterday too, to inform us they’ve decided on a much more northern route west. Avoiding the whole area and both of us.”