Page 116 of Born for Lace

Thick Redwind blankets the bonnet, dusting the truck in sand and debris as we head north this time. Further north than I thought The Cradle went.

There is a place at the top of the border called The Horizon. It’s the end of civilisation, the end of life, a capricious, uninhabitable death zone. Or at least, that is what we are told.

You get lost.

Sucked in.

Into oblivion with Lagos… A sad smile moves across my lips. Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad.

“We’re close to the tunnel.” Tomar looks across at Lagos, reading the volatility that I feel in my bones.

The creeping tendrils of anguish make themselves known, moving into my belly and flailing around. I don’t want to say goodbye.

I love him.

I inhale hard and look at Spero, using him to ground myself in our reality. He is fast asleep, so I place him in his nest beside me.

“There is promise for your future,” I whisper to him, stroking his chubby cheeks with my finger. I sing a few words, curling new rhymes around my tongue as I go. “Your eyes full of promise…dreamsyours to chase, you’ll have freedom to grow, at your own pace, with no Trade control, you’ll…you’ll…” I can’t think of another word. “I’ll work on that shanty for you, Spero.”

“That’s lovely, Dahlia.” Tomar sighs, and I know I’ll miss him, too. “Your gentle voice will be missed when it’s just us men again. Sing another for us.Please.”

Abruptly, Lagos veers the car to the side of the road, tyres spitting red dirt up at the windows until the vehicle comes to a jerking stop.

“I want to provide for you,” he states, the words punching out with fierce determination.

I blink at him in the rearview mirror. “What do you mean?”

He turns, staring at me in the backseat. “Even after this. I know how to care for you now. What a young Common girl needs. I want to provide for you. You’re mine.”

“Lagos?” Tomar looks between us, brows furrowed into deep lines.

I press my palm over my heart as it frantically pitter-patters. Don’t say things you don’t mean. Don’t… I can’t bear it. “What do you mean?”

“I don't want to...” His deep voice trails to a dark sigh, one filled with brittle helplessness. With emotion so rare to outwardly hear from him, and in front of Tomar. “Things I like… You and me. The farmhouse. The bath. I liked it.”

I close my eyes, shaking my head as I hold them like that. Fending off his words as they slide in deep. Too deep. I can barely breathe around them.

“I know you did,” I choke, my throat containing emotion, my will stifling hot, needy tears.

“I’ll come back.”

My forehead pinches as that statement rolls over me. I open my eyes to find his pinning me in place. “Please don’t say things you don’t mean.”

“I'll come back,” he states adamantly. “And I'll meet you when it's safe. Outside the community, somewhere close. Do you want to meet me, little flower?”

I splutter, demanding tears falling, my head nodding and nodding, unable to stop because yes, yes, yes. “Yes!”

“I’ll provide for you.”

I try to catch my pulse, slow it down so I can hear him over it. “In what?—”

“In every way.” His steel-coloured gaze holds me arrested, his tone dead-serious and inhumanly deep. “I'll give you anything.Everything.”

These are just words. Goodbyes. Niceties to sugarcoat the end, a cloak of pretty lies, and then I’ll simply never see him again. “I thought you weren't here to pamper me, Lagos?”

“I was wrong,” he growls. “That's exactly why I'm here. I want to give you life’s great experiences. I want to see them through your eyes.”

Oh, my.Is he serious?

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