Page 90 of A Legacy of the Light

I rest my head on his shoulder and he wraps an arm around me.

“Thank you,” I whisper.

He rubs his hand slowly up and down my arm and we listen to the sounds of the forest around us.

“What time is it?” I ask. We’ve been here a while and without a watch or a phone, I have no idea.

Tavish looks up at the sky. “Around midday.”

“You can tell that from the sky?”

“Well, we didn’t have clocks for a long time, and we don’t have the technology you’re used to. We’re taught to tell the time by the position of the sun.”

“What if it’s cloudy?” I ask.

“I can still tell the time.”

“Impressive.”

I consider how I have hardly noticed the absence of my phone the last few days. I thought I was the kind of girl that couldn’t get by without it, but here I am.

It must be strange for Tavish, moving between two worlds with different technology. “Is there anything you would bring from the human world to Elfayne?”

“Probably phones. They’re so much easier for communicating. Besides that, I think Elfayne is better off the way it is.”

“I’ve noticed the difference. People seem happier here than where I’m from.”

“Who wouldn’t be happy living here?” he replies, standing from our makeshift mattress.

“Touché.”

“We should probably head back. We have the ball tonight. No doubt you’ll want time to get ready?”

“Yes, Reyne is coming to my room at six.”

I stand and help pack the items we brought, Tavish makes the mist-mattress disappear with a flick of his wrist.

“What’s your dress like?” he asks as he puts out the fire, making sure no embers are left.

“You’ll have to wait and see,” I say. “What are you wearing?”

“You’ll have to wait and see,” he replies with a wink as he stands causing me to roll my eyes.

We head back to the opening in the wall and I linger at the entrance to the cave, looking back out over the meadow, and sigh.

“I feel it, too,” Tavish says. “Like you don’t want to leave?”

“Yes. It’s peaceful here.”

“That’s why I like it so much.”

“Can we come back?”

Tavish nods and takes my hand, leading me into the dark cave. “There’s no one else I’d rather come here with.”

I don’t panic as much this time, knowing we will only be in solid darkness for a few minutes, and I trust Tavish to see me through safely.

Mabel and Atlas are where we left them, happily grazing on a patch of grass.