Page 38 of Beneath the Desert Bloom
But she kept going.
A sharp yucca leaf snagged the side of her arm. She cursed and kept going. There was no breeze now, just the occasional insect droning like a broken machine.
Still, she walked.
Not for answers. Not even for closure.
Because her body had decided before her mind did.
Her thighs still ached with that low throb. That tingling trace of him hadn’t faded. If anything, it felt like it had soaked deeper into her skin.
Another half mile. The terrain tilted upward. Shale crunched underfoot, unpredictable and mean. The sun climbed. Her throat dried. Sweat trickled down her spine and under her shirt, clinging like second skin.
She reached the ridge above Hollow Wash.
There, below her, was the Hollow Watcher. It hadn’t changed since she was a kid. But this was the first time she had ever felt like it was actually watching her. Like it was waiting.
She stepped, braced, stepped again. And then the ground betrayed her.
Her boot skidded sideways on loose stone. Her ankle twisted hard, white-hot pain slicing up her leg. She gasped, stumbled, and hit the ground, the wind knocked clean from her lungs, her vision blurred from the jolt.
Dust filled her mouth.
The world swam sideways.
Everything stung. Her ankle pulsed. Her palms were scraped raw. Her shoulder throbbed with that dull, echoing ache that came before bruising. She bit back a cry and rolled onto her back.
Above her, the sky was brutal and blue and far too wide.
“Fuck,” she hissed, eyes squeezed shut. “Goddamn mystical breadcrumbs leading me into a pit trap. Very divine. Very sexy.”
For a moment, she lay there. Just breathing. Just hurting.
She forced herself to sit up, teeth clenched.
Her ankle was swelling already, round and red, like something blooming just under the skin. Her vision blurred at the edges from the shock of pain and heat.
Her backpack was several feet up the slope, lying sideways like it had abandoned her mid-fall.
She pressed her palms into the dirt and dragged herself a little closer. It wasn’t enough.
She slumped back down, chest heaving.
The desert went still around her. No wind. No birds. Not even insects.
Just that too-deep silence that meant she wasn’t alone.
She closed her eyes.
And felt him.
Before he stepped into view.
Before the shadows changed shape.
Before the warmth in the air deepened into something else.
He was already there.
