Page 38 of Suncatcher

Driz looked down and absently touched her leg. A hole had been torn in the fabric covering her thigh, but the skin beneath was repaired. “Yes. How are the fields?”

“Still there. Thanks to you. How’d you know to stop them?”

“I saw a light and followed it.”

“I told you not to wait for me.”

“You did.”

Pearl sighed. A heaviness weighed down her shoulders. “I didn’t even bring you anything. There wasn’t time for a pie, and I didn’t know what you wanted.”

“I have never acted only for the gifts you bring me.”

Some strange emotion pinched Pearl’s face and she stood abruptly. “They aren’t gifts. They’re payments.” She ran a hand over her face.

“I am sorry,” Driz said, her wings twitching anxiously as she stepped closer, unsure how to ease Pearl’s distress.

“Why’d you do it? Just tell me. Please.”

Driz tilted her head. “I wanted to help.”

“But why did you want to help?”

Driz thought back to the first time she saw Pearl, when something shifted inside her. “I think I need to protect you.”

Pearl narrowed her eyes. “I don’t need your protection.”

Driz shook her head, unsure how to explain. “My kind were created to be guardians. Something about you stirs that instinct.”

“I’m not your dead goddess,” Pearl said harshly.

“I never thought you were. I do not quite understand it either. I just need you to be safe. And I want to be around you. To learn about you. To be…with you.” Driz held her breath as Pearl stared at her. Should Driz not have said all that?

“We live in different worlds,” Pearl finally said. “I cannot be with you in any way.”

“You are with me now.”

“And I need to go.”

Pearl turned away and panic flared in Driz’s chest. “Will you come back?”

“It’s dangerous for you to be here.” Pearl’s spine was rigid.

“I do not care.”

Pearl whirled on her. “It’s dangerous for me. And for my town. What if you wake? What if someone finds you here and you have to defend yourself? They saw you, Driz. And they’ll be looking for you.”

Driz’s wings and shoulders hunched. “Why would they look for me? What did I do wrong?”

“Oh gods.” Pearl let out a frustrated sound and covered her face with her palm again. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Thanks for your help, but you really should leave. For everyone’s good.”

“I will sleep farther away. We can—”

“No. We can’t anything. Just stop talking. Don’t make it worse.”

Pearl had almost rounded the corner when Driz blurted out her words. “I want something.”

Pearl froze. Then she turned around. “Tell me.”