Page 18 of Suncatcher

She finally noticed the clothes. She’d been too entranced by the goyle’s face, but now Pearl saw that Driz had managed to put on the garments. They were already dusted and smudged with red dirt, but they humanized her. Even though she wasn’t human and the garments didn’t fit well.

Pearl took in the rest of Driz’s form more closely. Her feet were bare, toes curled and tipped with claws, and muscular calves poked out from the legs of the too-short trousers. The waistband sat low on her hips, the definition of corded muscles running up her waist apparent in the gap between it and the hem of the shirt, which strained slightly over her chest, and the bulk of her arms. The collar gaped and folded back on one side to expose the line of a collarbone and bulging shoulder.

Pearl grew lightheaded and reminded herself to breathe, though not too loudly. If Driz’s face had been carved to terrify, her body had been carved to entice. Pearl shook herself and stepped back. It had also been carved with unnatural strength and could kill her easily.

Pearl was wasting time. She glanced around before resting the towel-draped pie on a rock near Driz’s feet. It would attract animals or insects by the time night fell, but Pearl needed Driz to know she’d been here. That she’d tried.

Pearl backed up carefully, leading her horse away before remounting. She wasn’t certain what it would take to wake a sleeping stone goyle, and she wasn’t planning to find out.

Driz looked around the shadowed ravine. A tiny part of her hoped Pearl would be waiting.

She wasn’t. The ravine remained empty.

A circular object rested on a rock, draped in cloth, which had not been there when Driz slept. She pulled back the top. It smelled strange. Was this the pie Pearl had promised her?

Pearl had been here, but Driz hadn’t known. She was pleased and disappointed at once. If Pearl had left the pie, it meant she didn’t plan on returning.

It meant she’d already left.

Driz leapt into the air. The wind caught and rushed through her new clothes strangely, but she didn’t mind. She followed the road again, the one she had the night before. How far could they have gotten? Would they have reached the side road already? She pushed her wings faster. Harder.

Pearl had broken her word, but maybe there had been a reason. Driz wanted there to be a reason. She wanted to see Pearl again, if she could.

Driz tucked her arms around herself, feeling the fabric of the clothes. Humans didn’t want to see goyles. They feared them. Mistrusted them. But Pearl had seen her anyway. So perhaps, if Driz could make herself useful enough, Pearl would keep seeing her. Keep talking to her.

Her heart sped up when she spotted the distant shapes of horses closing in on the valley. She was too late.

As Pearl approached the wagons, the surroundings were suspiciously quiet. It made her bones itch.

She tossed blight-packed ammunition to Steve and took the front, flanked by one of her other sharpshooters, two more hiding up in the bushes to be backup if, and probably when, they were needed. They edged forward.

She made it all the way up to the closest wagon and peered inside.

Empty.

“Get ready to use those bullets, boys,” Pearl muttered.

She turned back and was unsurprised to find a horse blocking their path to the main road. They were caged in here, the bushes dense on the hills around and above them. She glanced back at two more unfamiliar riders on the road leading away into the valley.

Her blood already hummed, blight burning in her veins and waiting to be used. Her heart thudded too hard, almost painful in her chest. She had to be careful. She’d eaten too much of it in the last week and her body was revolting.

“What d’you want?” she called out. The riders were too far away for her to see them clearly without wasting blight.

A fourth rider appeared and nudged his horse forward. Casual. Relaxed. Pearl moved to meet him.

“It’s pretty late for a pretty lady to be out riding at night,” he said.

Pearl rolled her eyes, regretting the motion as the world tilted and spun. “If you’re gonna shoot me, just do it and spare me your dribble.”

The man had a scarf wrapped around his face, so Pearl couldn’t see his expression, but the fabric shifted and she thought he smiled. He swung a leg over his horse and slid to the ground. “How about you join me down here and you can tell me what you’re offering.”

“Nah, I’m good up here. Thanks.”

His chuckle accompanied the clicks of several cocked weapons and rustling in the brush. Rave and Rob tumbled from the bushes, hands behind their heads. Shit.

“How many you got out there?” Pearl asked, counting with her heightened sense. At least four.

“More than you. Now, I suggest you dismount before we show you.”