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Graham came back to the bench and sat beside me. His presence chased my thoughts back to their caverns.
“Are you feeling okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine. Just tired.”
“That man you were talking to—Lachlan—is giving us his home for the night. If we want it.”
I rubbed my arms and nodded. “I do.”
“Are you cold?”
Before I could answer, he put his arm around my back and pulled me closer. I didn’t mean to let him. I didn’t deserve his warmth. But all the resistance was in my mind alone. My body welcomed the touch and I rested my head on his shoulder, hating myself for my weakness.
“Thanks for speaking up earlier,” he said. “They really listened to you.”
“Me? I did nothing more than lose my temper. You’re the one who earned their respect.”
“But you understood them. You knew what they wanted.”
“Only because I know others like them.”
“Is your island the same way? Full of people whose families have been torn apart by Cambria?”
“Not so much now. They stopped sending people to Tramore years ago. Too far away, I guess, and not enough resources. My grandparents were some of the last citizens banished there.”
He moved his hand along my back, softly, as if he were afraid I might notice. Maybe he was trying to warm me, but it sent a tingle of chills up my neck instead.
“What did they do?” he asked.
“Their story is in my father’s book,” I said. “Remember the couple who secretly kept their Class D brother in their home when his own burnt down?”
“Yes! That was them? Your father never wrote that it was his own parents.”
“I know. He tried to keep his journal anonymous in case anybody ever found it.”
He shook his head. “I’ll be so intimidated when I meet your family.”
“Well, you won’t be meetingthem. They died before I was born. But it seems like you don’t need to be intimidated by anyone. You’ve won everybody over so far.”
He looked at me, his face only inches from mine. “Everybody?”
I tore my eyes from his intense blue ones and looked back at the dying fire.
He moved his hand to my shoulder. “Have you realized that if we’re able to change the law, you could live in Cambria? We both could.”
For a moment, I let myself imagine that future. No war. No restrictions. Just us living normal, peaceful lives. What would it be like to wake up every morning and know I could be myself that day? No more hiding, lying, pretending. Just me. With Graham.
“You’re smiling. Does that mean you’ll consider it?”
My smile fell and my thoughts slipped away as I woke from my daydream.
“No.” There was no reason to lie this time.
He took a sharp breath and dropped his hand from my shoulder before standing. “It’s getting late.”
I nodded and left the bench, giving one last look at the dying coals before heading into the night.
We saidour goodbyes early the next morning. When the village ended at the fields, we headed into the forest.
