Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
He scowled. “What? You want me to ignore what just happened?”
“No, but today, you promised to be my beautiful boy.” She wished she could smile at him, but the wall was thick and viscous again, only echoes of emotion getting through. “That boy would’ve taken me exploring in the caves, I think.”
An even deeper scowl, followed by a kiss. “I know you’re manipulating me, but you’re doing it so obviously that I can’t even be mad at you.” Another kiss. “We will discuss this.”
Eleri tucked her head against his chest, let her skin draw in his heat.
A sigh, a nuzzle of her head. “Stubborn wild bird.” A kiss pressed to her hair. “Come on, then.”
And despite the wall, the numbness, their intimacy had left a mark on Eleri. She felt every bit of her clothing as she pulled it on over her body, every tactile sensation multiplied a thousand times over. “I smell like you,” she murmured as she buttoned up her shirt.
A raised eyebrow from where he crouched to pick up his shirt. “You complaining?”
“No.” She drew in another breath. “I won’t shower.” She wanted to take him with her at the end, even if only on her skin.
Chuckling, he came over to kiss her lips with a familiarity that made her ache. “I plan to get my scent all over you on a regular basis, so don’t worry about washing it off.” A deep smile that lit up his entire face. “Let me finish buttoning you up.”
He did so with playful care, and afterward, she buttoned his shirt in turn, and when her mind tried to go into the future, imagine a thousand mornings with him where they got dressed together, she wrenched it back.
Today, she would live in today.
He watched her as she reached back to reknot her hair. She couldn’t anchor it using the pin because that pin was lost somewhere in the sand, so she slipped off the hair tie she’d returned automatically to her wrist and used that. She had no use for her private dissonance loop any longer, the most powerful memories in her mind those to do with Adam.
To be overwhelmed by them would be a dream, not a nightmare.
“Your hair was longer the first time we met,” she said. “To your waist.”
“You want me to grow it back?” he asked with a grin. “For you, I’ll deal with the upkeep.”
The idea that he’d just do that for her…The ache grew deeper into her bones. “I…love you exactly as you are, in all the seasons of your life.” She knew that what she thought of as love was a pale imitation, but it was all she had to give.
Adam’s eyes turned falcon. “I love you, too, Eleri. And me and you? We’re forever, through hundreds of seasons to come.”
• • •
Eleri said nothing in response to his declaration, but Adam had expected that. He hadn’t fought for her once, but never again would he abandon her, even if she thought that the best option. “For today,” he said, “I’m going to show you a secret place.”
She came with him without questions, and the trust of this J who’d been betrayed over and over…it tore him up even as it shored up his determination. “I found it as a kid,” he said. “Jacques is the only other person who knows about it as far as I’m aware—we were roaming the caves together at the time.”
“You weren’t afraid of getting lost?”
Adam shook his head. “I don’t know if it’s a falcon thing or just that this is our home, but we—all of the clan—have always been able to find our way back to the sky from anywhere in the Canyon.”
Though he could navigate the labyrinth with ease, his night vision excellent, he was conscious that to Eleri, the deeper they went, the darker it would get. Taking out his phone, he used the flashlight function to create a glow around them.
He also made sure to keep a careful grip on her, and to assist her up the more jagged or slippery sections. “A lot of water goes through the Canyon,” he said. “The arteries of the planet, my shimásání—my grandmother—used to say. WindHaven is lucky to have always had a fresh source of water so close yet hidden from enemies.”
Eleri ran her fingers along a ridge of limestone, as stalactites began to appear in the ceilings above them. “Do you speak the language of your mother’s family? I’ve heard it’s a complex one.”
“Yes. WindHaven was founded by a small group of Diné falcons, and though the composition of our population has changed over the years, we hold true to the ways of our ancestors.” The outside world often referred to them as Navajo, but in their own tongue, they were the Diné, their lyrical—and yes, complex—language Diné Bizaad.