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“Okay, well something’s not right here, but we’ll get Oberon to fix it when we get back,” he told her, swallowing down his embarrassment.
As they headed back outside, he tried to figure out what was happening. Was it possible he wasn’t as famous as he thought outside of Maltaffia?
But I’m ON Maltaffia.
And I sold out the Lexicon in Upper Arkadia for three nights.
“Hello there,” Chloe was saying to the small horse, bending to pat his furry head.
Let it go, he told himself. See what it’s like to be with someone who doesn’t know that side of you.
But something about it left him feeling unbalanced, even as they headed up the scenic trail and into the trees. He felt almost naked.
And not in the fun way.
17
CHLOE
An hour later, Chloe sucked in a lungful of the delicious mountain air and tried to shake off the strange feeling she had been trying to leave behind ever since they stepped off the terrace and into the woods.
Of course, she knew the main reason she was feeling down this morning. It was the same reason she had felt spiraling despair for the last few years after each negative pregnancy test.
But Jubal was off, too. She could see it in the stiffness of his posture.
Did it have to do with his “rockstar” claims?
She had hurt for him as he begged the dome to play his songs. Show business was a cruel world. Maybe he had once had a short-lived indie hit, but the domes wouldn’t keep storage on it forever, not with fresh songs coming from all over the galaxy every day.
And whatever his real business was, it was successful enough for him to pay for this place. He should be proud of that.
And he probably was. The whole fit over music had probably been for the same reason she was feeling down.
After all, the reason they both were there was for her to bear his child.
And they had tried hard, to no avail.
Now they only had six more nights, and they were about to spend one of them out in the woods.
Just then, the path narrowed and seemed to fork.
The right branch was overhung with flowering bushes, the path green with moss. Soft light filtered through the canopy, yet the path jogged further to the right quickly, so that it was impossible to guess where it went next.
The left branch was rocky and steeper, yet brighter, with sunlight able to penetrate to the stone. It seemed to go nearly straight up for some time before disappearing.
Chloe grabbed her compass and tried to determine which was the correct path.
“Hard to tell,” Jubal muttered, looking down at his own compass. “But the one on the left definitely leads uphill. And I’ll be able to stand.”
Chloe glanced at the path on the right and tried to imagine Jubal fighting his way through the undergrowth when his horns made him stand so much taller than she did.
“Yes,” she said. “Definitely, the left makes the most sense for us.”
She headed up and immediately felt her calves begin to burn. The way was steep, and she had to pay attention to avoid rolling an ankle on a rock.
When she tried to look up at their destination, sunlight threatened to blind her. So, she focused on breathing and moving forward, however slowly.
“This is tricky,” Jubal said after a few minutes, his breathing harsh.
