Page 91 of Suncatcher

“Where is she?” Pearl asked even as her brain registered the dim sunlight filtering through the window.

“Gone.”

Pearl swung her gaze to her mother. They were alone in Pearl’s room. “She left?” Pearl clarified, her heart spiking.

“Yes.”

Pearl nodded, flopping back onto her damp pillow. It made sense. Still, a flash of unreasonable hurt and panic rushed through her. “She’ll be back,” Pearl mumbled, as much to herself as to her mother.

“She said as much.” Sheriff Oak didn’t sound pleased by that.

Pearl’s chest filled with warmth, but the pleasant kind, not the sticky, sweaty stuff on her skin. She coughed.

And she refocused. Anger mixed with a giddy happiness at seeing her mother. She’d missed her. Even if she tried to deny it.

“Where’ve you been, Pea?” Her mother’s voice was unusually quiet. She didn’t look angry, more just…tired. Sad. Like she’d looked when she thought no one could see, after Pa had left them.

“With her.” There wasn’t any point to deny it anymore.

Her mother’s eye twitched. “Why?”

“‘Cause I like her.”

Sheriff Oak stood, pacing to Pearl’s window and looking out. “Why’d you lie?”

“Why d’you think? I knew you’d shoot her. You did shoot her.”

Pearl pressed herself upright, another hacking cough shaking her body. Her mother pushed her back down, but Pearl shoved her away.

“She’s the one,” Sheriff Oak gritted out. “The one I told you about.”

“Yeah, I figured.”

“What’s she want with you?”

Pearl smirked. “What any woman would.”

“She isn’t a woman!”

Pearl’s anger resurfaced. “I don’t fucking care.”

“She’s a gargoyle. A creature. A monster.”

“Then I guess I’m a monster-fucker.”

“Pearl.” Her mother glared.

And Pearl glared right back. “Is that the truth you requested?”

“No.”

“What d’you want me to say?”

“That you won’t see her again. That you’ve decided to act rationally.”

“Since when’ve I done that?”

Sheriff Oak let out a frustrated snarl, pacing across the room, her wooden foot loud. “She’s dangerous.”