A yawn across the field warned me that Vivian was rousing from her nap. I glanced at the charms. There was no easy way to hide where all the blood came from—nothing in Cyciciah bled—so I wrapped my wounded hand and prepared to face the lecture about taking better care of myself.
“Sorry, Theo. I didn’t mean to pass out on you,” she yawned again as I approached, sitting up to face me. “Stuffing the mattress really took it out of me this morning.”
“I’m glad you got the rest,” I replied honestly. “Any good dreams?”
She rubbed her lovely pale eyes. “I was at work, and all my teeth fell out. And I wassuperupset about that. So, I tried to glue them back in, but I only had glitter glue, so all the customerslaughed at me because my gums were sparkly and purple. Then I got fired.”
It was a fifty-fifty shot she’d say bizarre shit like that when I asked about her dreams. She seemed to like talking about them. They were usually nonsense and easy to laugh off, unlike mine. When I slept, I relived every brutal kill made.
“Open wide, Little Goddess.” I crouched down and used a thumb to push on her bottom lip so she opened her mouth. “All teeth accounted for. No purple. You’re good to go.”
“What a relief!” she laughed, falling back onto the freshly stuffed mattress with a softthump. “What’d I miss?”
“I put up the charms for your cabin. It’s safe to sleep in there. That is, assuming you still wanted to move in while it’s half-done.”
She squealed, kicking her feet. “I’m so excited! I can move all my little things over today if you don’t mind just helping me with the mattress.”
“Of course.” I nodded. “If you had to choose between a roof that doesn’t leak and all the floorboards being in place, which would you prefer?”
“Probably the roof. I can help with the muck this afternoon.”
Muck wasn’t an inaccurate word for what we’d be using to seal things up, but it made me snort. “Deal. What do you want for lunch?”
“Uh-uh. You aren’t getting out of your midday doctor’s appointment. What new battle wounds do you have? Let me see.” She rose to her knees and began inspecting my face and neck.
“Just the hand,” I stated flatly, releasing my fist to show her the scrunched up crimson rag I’d been using to apply pressure.
“Holy fuck, what’d you do?!” Her eyes were wide as she gingerly peeled away the cotton. The removal reopened the wound.
Her palm pressed into mine, red seeping between her fingers. I hated the sight of her caked in blood. But the tingling between our skin told me that was the extent of the mess as she stitched the gash closed.
“Leave the scar,” I requested urgently when my skin began to feel a littletoohealed. I was attached to my only scar with positive memories.
Her expression fell. Was she disappointed? Suddenly, she threw my healed hand back at me. Okay, not disappointed.Mad. “I told you no more charms!”
“And I agreed, we didn’t need any more for hiking. This isn’t hiking.”
“How many did you make?” Her eyes pierced into me like daggers.
I squared my shoulders at the female half my size who looked ready to smack me. “Twenty.”
“Twenty?!”
“Five for each side,” I said matter-of-factly.
“If I knew you were going to slice your palm open over this I wouldn’t have asked you to build the cabin there!”
“I know.” I stroked a finger across her soft cheek affectionately and smiled at my tortured nurse. So pretty when she was angry. I loved the way her nose crinkled as she scowled,her lips pouting, her icy eyes squinted tight. Every part of her alive and feisty and expressive. “I was thinking we could have some obscenely large salads for lunch today. Extracheeseand oil.”
I liked that there was overlap in our worlds even when it wasn’t a perfect match. It clearly made her happy to say coffee, when she was really drinking logomé. Or cheese when it was pamaig. A little piece of Earth on Trebianna. I intended to find more comforts for her on our next trip to town, when we’d move Ida into her new home. This field was a hybrid of our worlds, and I wanted to embrace the way our lives blended together.
Vivian
Turns out the wood under all that blue bark was an ashy gray. “It’s so pretty,” I thought as I walked towardsmy house. The roof sloped steeply in an A-frame, matching the peaks of the massive pine trees surrounding the field.
There was a single small window decorating the front. Carrying glass up the mountain had been awhole thing—but I loved it. The panes parted down the center to easily open inwards, letting in the fresh air and filling my head with images of domestic bliss. When I closed my eyes, I imagined birds singing, warm wind blowing my hair back, and fresh apple pie in a windowsill… or whatever the Trebiannan equivalent would be.
Reaching the cabin, I opened the recently installed door and stepped carefully down between the exposed floor beams. With my arms full of blankets and furs, it was near impossible to see where to place my feet. We’d just finished moving the mattress, and I wastryingto get the rest of the bedding inside before the storms began. It was sunny now, but I could feel the electricity building in the air.
