With a soft sigh, she dropped her pack and crouched down for a closer look. “This is the stuff you guys import back home?”
“No. This is the raw material—completely inert.” I crouched down next to her and plucked a flower from the vine, then handed it over. “We can’t do anything with it on the earthly realm. It has to be processed here first—the moonlight and the fae magick are what make it possible.”
“Why do they call it corpsevine?”
“It grows mostly on old battlefields where many dead have fallen. Their blood and bones nourish the soil. It’s said the potency of Devil’s Dream lies in its connection to death—that it brings you as close to the other side as you can get without actually stepping over.”
“And people put this into their bodies? Willingly?”
I nodded. “The euphoria is like nothing you’ve ever felt, Haley.”
She looked at me, her brow furrowed, but there was still no judgment there. “You’ve done it?”
“At this point, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in Midnight who hasn’t.”
“And Elian?” She turned back to the field and ran her hands just above the flowers, not quite touching them. “It explains a lot. I’ve seen him popping pills. Seen the fog in his eyes.”
I didn’t respond. His was another sad story that wasn’t mine to tell.
“It’s not dangerous to touch this stuff, right?” she asked. “The flowers won’t fuck me up or anything? Because hey, no judgments, but the only hallucinations I’m into are the ones induced by early-onset food coma after I go all in on a plate of nachos.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, grateful for a break in the heaviness. “You’re fine, angel. The plants themselves are harmless.”
“In that case.” With another of her sexy-as-sin mischievous grins, she got to her feet and bolted out into the middle of the field.
I stood up and watched her, that bright smile beaming at me across the expanse.
Holy fuck,she was beautiful. Crazy, just as I’d suspected. But she was definitely getting under my skin, and I wasn’t sure I could keep her at arm’s length much longer.
Wasn’t sure I evenwantedto keep her at arm’s length, which was… problematic, to say the least.
“Get your demon ass out here, sinner. You’re missing the best part.” She got down and stretched out on her back, arms and legs splayed like a child making a snow angel.
Unable to resist, I dropped my pack and trotted out there.
The first moon shone down on her, catching the highlights in her dark hair, casting her in an otherworldly glow, and for a second I swore she looked like she was born here.
“Less staring,” she said, “more getting down here with me. You’vegotto see this view.”
Rolling my eyes, I dropped down into a crouch beside her and looked up.
She grabbed my arm, tugged me until I fell on my back.
I opened my mouth, all set to give her some smart-ass comment about tricking me into getting horizontal for her, but the view stole the words right out of my mouth.
Gazing up at the sky, I lost all sense of time and place. Way out here, far from the torchlights of Amaranth City, even farther from New Orleans, the red-and-gold stars of Midnight were infinite.
It was better than Devil’s Dream. Better than any drink I could whip up at Saints and Sinners. It was fucking majestic.
“Kind of amazing, isn’t it?” she said softly. “Before we left New Orleans, Hudson told me—well,wroteme—there’s beauty in darkness. This is exactly what he meant, Jax.”
I barely had the words to respond. “I… I’ve never… seen it. Not like this.”
“Really? How long did you live here?”
I let out a deep sigh. “Eighteen years, four months, and six days before Saint pulled me out.”
A soft gasp slipped out from between her lips, but she didn’t say anything. After a beat, I felt the soft touch of her hand against mine as she linked our pinky fingers.
