Page 84 of Elas

“Sap,” he teases as he pulls my hand to his face and presses a kiss on the mark. Our fingers zipper, and he rests our joined hands on his thigh.

“The drive will take most of the day,” I say. “We should be there before dark, but we have a long way to go. You should get some rest.”

He argues with me and claims he isn’t tired, but as the sun shines through the windshield, his body gradually relaxes. The air that whips through the SUV is hot and dry, like the cracked ground outside, but he’s wearing shorts and a t-shirt and the fan is gently blowing.

August grew up in these lands, lacking the conveniences I’ve taken for granted, and the heat doesn’t bother him. Soon, his eyes are heavy, and his hand twitches in mine as exhaustion overtakes his stubborn need to stay awake and entertain me.

“El?” he mumbles, and I hum in response. “I meant what I said last night… if you had any doubts.”

“Doubts about what?” I nudge, and a sleepy grin pulls onto his lips.

“That I love you.”

Another of those punches of emotion hits me in a warmth that fills my entire chest. It’s not blazing and burning like a wildfire, though. This is quieter, more controlled, and calming… a candle flickering in the night. It’s peace like I haven’t felt since the day I left my home all those decades ago.

“My whole life, I’ve always thought love was beyond me… a gift that wasn’t meant to be wasted on someone like me,” I say as his breathing gets heavier. He’s on the edge of consciousness, fighting to stay awake and losing the battle. “And then I met you and everything changed.”

“Would you go back if you could?” he asks, his voice a nearly inaudible murmur.

The thought sends an ache through my chest, a loneliness I can’t explain. He’s right here beside me. “No, August. There’s nothing in this world that would ever make me regret this.” He twitches again, and I glance over to find a tiny smile playing on his lips. “Even without the mark, you were always meant to be mine.” My words are soft, but he’s lost to the world, fast asleep.

Hours pass in uneventful silence, and the hum of the road is contemplative underneath our feet as I allow my mind to wander. When Ronan first left, I questioned how he so easily walked away from his life. The sacrifice of his familiarity seemed impulsive. But now that my bond with August is firmly in place, I can’t imagine spending even a single night away from him. The days he worked in the clinic were torture, the monster lurking inside me desperate to protect him.

If I had my way, I wouldn’t let him out of my sight.

August is too pure for the world we live in. Too trusting, tookind, and while I’d never try to change that part of him, it makes me even more protective of his innocent nature. Thirty-three years of seeing the bad that thrives in this world, and he’s still convinced that everyone is inherently good.

It’s as refreshing as it is terrifying.

The sun is high in the sky when August stirs awake. He rubs his eyes and wipes at his mouth as he blinks the sleep away, his voice rough. “How long was I out?” As hesays it, his stomach rumbles, and he pats a hand over his belly. “Long enough for it to be lunchtime?”

I chuckle, deciding it’s time for a pit stop. We pull over for a bathroom break and stretch our legs, grabbing some protein bars and apples from our supplies. Several more hours have passed when August perks up.

“This area looks familiar. You said we’re headed northeast?” I nod, and he bites his lip as he searches the terrain. Landmarks become more recognizable to both of us, and August stares out the window, waiting to point out the next one.

“I’m pretty sure we’re headed to Logan’s camp.”

“Who’s Logan?” I ask, my eyes narrow, because it sounds like a stupid name and I’m pretty sure I hate him for knowing August before I did. August glances back at me with a grin.

“He was the leader of the camp when I lived there, but that’s been… gosh, at least five years ago.”

“You lived there?”

August nods, distractedly watching out the window. “I never stayed in place longer than four, five years at a time. Medics are luxuries in the wilds, and if a camp lost theirs, they’d sometimes send riders out to visit the others in their alliance. If anyone had a medic to spare, or one that wanted to move, they’d be given the chance to speak up. The first time I relocated was when I was twenty-three. I’d been living at the same camp as my parents my whole life, but my mom was a medic, too, and having two in a small camp was overkill.”

“So you came here?”

He shakes his head. “No, I went to Taryn’s camp first—the one you guys raided. It was fine, but after several years I got… antsy. I never really fit, and without my family, there was little reason for me to stay. I had trained an apprentice in the time I lived there, so when Logan reached out, I moved. His camp was much bigger and managed an extremely organized trading system. For someone like me, it was a luxury to have things like honey and cheese so readily available.”

“How’d you end up back at Taryn’s camp, then?”

“An illness hit the wilds. Camps all over the place were losing people left and right… my parents included.”

Another jolt of sadness hits me in a complete understanding of his grief. “I’m sorry,” I say, bringing his hand to my mouth and kissing his knuckles.

“Thanks,” he says, flashing me a pained smile. “Logan’s camp went on lockdown and it missed us, but Taryn lost a lot of people… including the medic. At that point, I’d been at Logan’s for a long time. I had trained two others that worked well together, but neither of them was confident enough to handle a camp on their own. It was the only choice, really. So I returned.”

“This camp we’re visiting is empty, though,” I say. “For years, from the sound of it.”

---