Chapter 19
Rami's POV
My feet, thankfully, are capable of following the familiar path even though my brain is a disaster. Spiralling from one topic to the next, trying and failing to formulate a solution to my problem.
The moment I emerge into Adriel’s clearing, I already feel lighter. I take a deep breath of the fresh air and wish this feeling were more permanent. Though nothing in my life feels sturdy. As if I’ve been balancing on a tightrope for the past two years.
But here, I’m firmly planted.
I can’t help the chuckle that bubbles from me at my stupid joke.
“Adriel?” I call out, hopeful but doubtful. “Ludo?” I ask when there’s no answer. “Like a kangaroo rat is going to answer me,” I scold myself.
Dropping my bags near his home, I finally take the chance to look around the space in the daylight. I didn’t really take the chance to look around the last time I woke up here, fearing more for how I was going to explain my absence to Grandma Julia than anything.
Even just mentioning her name forms a knot in my chest. Rubbing my sternum, I walk around the space. I swear I’ve never seen so many butterflies and bees in one place before, flitting from one flower to the next. There are a few hummingbirds moving around the space as well.
It’s all so…
Beautiful.
Peaceful.
Freeing.
I sigh heavily, truly taking in what this means. Free to be myself. Not once has Adriel judged me rambling or exasperation of my world. He’s simply listened, only occasionally asking follow-up questions. Never derision.
My finger runs along Sawyer’s ring. He treated me much in the same way. Like I was something precious.
Tears blur my vision thinking about what I had and lost, but then Adriel’s brown gaze glinting off the light of his torches helps dry up the welling emotion, replacing it with something else.
Hope, perhaps?
I turn to grab the books Abraham picked out when a broken rock catches my attention. The once large boulder appears to have been split down the middle, shattered remnants lying between the two larger, jagged pieces. I rack my brain to remember if it was broken the last time I was here. Though, for the life of me, I can’t remember a broken boulder anywhere near here. Walking up to it, I run my hands along the jagged edges, which are still sharp. Meaning it’s newly broken. Black scorchmarks zigzag out from the center as if something powerful struck it.
Something like witch's magic?I wonder.
“Fuck,” I mumble, drawing out the word. My eyes dart around the space in search of anymore damage or signs of someone else.
A knot lodges in my throat and I can’t swallow it down. What if something happened to him?
“Adriel!” I shout again, running toward his home.
I pause outside the doorway. It feels rude to barge into someone else’s home. Deciding that this is one of those times that decorum is unnecessary. He could be injured and need my help.
You can’t touch him to tend to any injuries anyway, numbnuts.
Stepping over the threshold of his home, that familiar shiver runs down my spine. “Adriel?” I call out to the empty space. “Fuck!”
I run my fingers through my hair and take a deep breath.
“He’s fine. He’s not hurt. There’s no blood anywhere and nothing in here is in disarray. This must just be a part of his curse. It’s only the one broken rock,” I say to reassure myself.
Continuing to try to chill the fuck out, I leave his home and grab the local flora book and notebook from Abraham. I find a nice sun soaked grassy spot and settle in. It doesn’t take me long to find the page I’m looking for to identify the stunning array of colors dotting the landscape.
“Ah-guh-stash,” I pronounce slowly. “Agastache,” I repeat. “Interesting,” I mumble as I read through the few pages about it and make notes in the notebook.
After about an hour hunched over, I sit up and flip through the multiple pages of notes and sketches I managed to get down about Adriel’s plants. Literally everything I need to know to care for his flowers as expertly as he does.
