Page 37 of Where the Light No Longer Follows

“It’s only been a few years. I move from place to place.”

“Why not settle like your brother?”

“I try to go where I’m most needed. Where life of any kind grows sparser. It helps life grow back.”

“Is that how you found me? Were you staying in my realm?”

There was a brief pause before he said, “No.”

“How did you find me?”

“I stole a wish from a star.”

She sneered at him. “If you don’t want to answer me, just say so, you don’t have to be a prick about it.”

He dropped his head back on the head rest, grinning ahead as he drove them towards what looked like a hill, one entirely dressed in green.

Carefully, she threw some more glances at him. “You could have just snapped your fingers and taken us there.”

“I thought you wanted to go slow?” he asked, slightly angling his head in her direction. “Besides, when you’re in a rush, you tend to miss the beauty around you. Thought you might enjoy seeing the sides to humanity.”

“Could never understand why anyone would choose to live out there when they could live here.”

“Some live fast, Silene. Some live slow. Some live loud and some quiet. Some have the choice, and some don’t. Some like the company of others, some don’t. There are such a myriad of characters between your kind.”

“It is pretty.”

“As are you. Your new tablecloth suits you.”

“Shut up,” she muttered, dusting off her long, brown skirt she’d spent at least a couple months making.

He chuckled. “No one could ever pull it off like you do, my ruin. Not even a table.”

Not wanting to give him the satisfaction, she shifted entirely on her side, hiding her smile.

The car stopped right at the foot of the hill, and Gabriel came to open her door, waiting until she was out before he grabbed a basket from the back seat.

“What’s that?” she asked, squinting at him and putting a hand on her brow to shield her eyes from the harsh sun.

“A picnic basket.”

She blinked once. “What’s in it?”

“Food.”

“What food?”

“Food I made,” he told her, like it was utterly normal.

Silene tried really hard to hold it in, but she could not resist the urge to laugh at the image before her. “All you’re missing is a chequered apron, some red lipstick and a perm, and you’d be the shining resemblance of those housewives from old human magazines.”

“You need to stop reading that shit.”

“They’re entertaining.” She rolled her shoulders back, wearing an expression of utter seriousness. “What have you prepared for us, dear wife?”

He shot her a look, one half amused and half warning. “Done?”

“I’d smack you in the butt and tell you what a good little wife you are, but I don’t want my hand to fall off,” she giggled, following after him towards the green fields where many people had set camp to picnic. “You should have brought Tommy.”