She laughed, the warm, unguarded one. “I do not leave my boots in the doorway.”
I snorted. “You leave your boots in the doorway every single time.”
“Not so,” she held up her pointer finger, “I doleavethem there. I place them there deliberately. For easy access.”
“They are in the exact center of the doorway.”
“Accessibility,” she said with great dignity.
I smiled at her, and she smiled back, and the fire said something between us that neither of us needed to translate.
“I want it to be louder,” she said, quieter now. “I want my friends here. I want Mako taking up the kitchen and Abby reorganizing all your shelves without asking and Tia talking everyone intodoing things they weren’t sure about.” She looked at her hands. “I want Raine arguing with everyone, including me, especially me, because that’s what Raine does.” A pause, and tears forming in her eyes. “I want it to be so full you can’t move through it.”
I didn’t wait to go to her, wrapping her in my embrace. “Then we will make sure it is so.”
Hugging by the fire, the cool breeze blowing through the night, my mate in my arms was all I needed. When she yawned, I stifled a laugh. “To bed now, little one.”
She made a sound that was partial protest, mostly not. I rolled out her bedroll and placed her in it, tugging the blanket around her. She was asleep within minutes, her breathing going slow and even.
I reached into my pocket for the piece of wood I had been carrying since the valley path, and unsheathed my knife from its holster at my belt. I worked by the firelight in the quiet of the enchanted forest while the stars moved overhead.
The alicorn slowly took shape. I’d carved the body first, the barrel of it, the arch of the neck. Then the wings, which were the hardest part, each feather suggested rather than carved, a matter of angle more than detail. Then the horn, which required the smallest cuts and the steadiest hand, tapered to a point no thicker than a pine needle.
I worked until it was finished.
Turning it over in my hands once, holding it to the firelight, I studied my creation. This small wooden thing, imperfect and careful and made entirely with her in mind. I set it safely in my pocket once more.
As if in contrast to the pleasantness of the evening, something moved. Something not natural to the forest’s peace.
Small. Fast. Inside the shadow of the trees, gone in a single breath.
I stared at it without moving. The fire between us and whatever it was. Sammy asleep, breathing deeply, her notebook still loosely held in one hand.
Berry’s eyes were open on their branch, looking in the same direction.
I added wood to the fire until it burned high and wide.
Then I settled back, facing the trees, and took watch.
The forest kept its opinions to itself for the rest of the night. In the morning, I would tell Sammy about the shadow too. No more carrying burdens alone. No secrets.
But for now the fire was high and Sammy slept, and the small carved alicorn was safe in my pocket, and the stars burned steadily overhead.
Tonight, I’d stand as her silent guardian.
Tomorrow, we would face whatever came…together.
9
I Love Bridges
Sammy
Nobody told me about the bridge.
I felt that was information that should have come up. Somewhere between the map and the market and the gnome elder’s pine-and-honey tea, someone could have mentioned,Oh by the way, there's a rope bridge over a gorge, and it is exactly as terrifying as it sounds.I would have appreciated the heads-up. I would have prepared. Heck, I might have worn different boots.
Instead, I came around a bend in the path, and there it was.
