“I’ll get back to where we landed.You stay there, hidden in the curve of the mountain.”
Agrippa looks at me for a moment, her eyes studying mine.Be safe, warrior friend.
“I’m sorry about Gaia,” I say.“I can’t believe she’s gone.I’m really, really sad about it.I liked her a great deal.”
She was a beautiful blessed.
“She was,” I say.“And I mean to make sure we don’t lose any more.”
I believe you, she says.Don’t let us down.
No pressure at all.
As I walk away, I can’t help checking over my shoulder.The sun’s rising quickly now, and Agrippa’s still watching me.But when I walk another dozen or so paces and turn again, she’s finally gone.I square my shoulders and continue onward, almost grateful for the miserable cold biting at my exposed skin.It’s keeping me awake and alert.
Which is why, when the truck screeches to a stop on a small residential street, I’m ready to deal with the driver.
“You okay?”The man rubs his eyes.“You look...cold.”
He doesn’t even mention my wings.Off to a good start.
“Uh, I went for a hike,” I say.“But I got in a fight with my boyfriend, and I told him to go away.”I shrug.“He listened, and then I realized that was stupid.”
“What kind of jerk drives off and leaves a woman in the mountains in December?”
It’s December already?Of course it is—we had Thanksgiving, then we made it to Iceland and searched, and then the humans attacked.I was there for a while, and then we had the whole escape and lava.“What’s the date?”
“Don’t tell me you’re from sixteen hundred and four.”He’s smiling.
“No, just LARPing a little too hard and lost track of the real world.I think that’s probably more than weird enough.”
“If I were you, I’d probably have told my jerk boyfriend to take the wings and leave me a coat.”He chuckles.
“Are you kidding me?I spent a year’s savings on these wings.He can’t have them.”
Within another two minutes, the man has loaned me his phone, and even though it’s six fourteen in the morning, Norm answers when I call.Bless him.
He sounds groggy, though.“Ello?”
“Norm,” I say.“It’s me.”
The words he says next are shocking, really.“You’re alive?”
I cough to make sure the truck-driving good-samaritan can’t hear him.“I’m actually here in Pleasant Grove.Myboyfriendditched me after we got in a fight.I could use a ride.Any chance you could come pick me up...”I glance around.
“Uh, we’re at Grove Creek Drive and 920 East, by a little orchard thing,” the man says.
“I heard him,” Norm says.“I’ll be there in less than ten minutes.”
“He’s coming.”I hang up and smile.“Thank you.”
“You keep this.”The man hands me an old, beat-up work coat.“Take off the wings and put this on before you freeze.”He’s smiling, though.“And next time you pick a boyfriend, find one at church instead of while wearing elf ears.”
“Good advice,” I say.“But I’m afraid I tend to fall for the bad boys.”
“The pretty girls always do.”He puts his car in drive.“Do you mind me asking what you paid for those wings?”He’s squinting now.“Because that’s the coolest costume I’ve ever seen.I swear, they almost look like they could be real.My daughter Maya would love them.”
“More than you can even imagine,” I say honestly.“They’re the most expensive thing I’ve ever bought.”They cost me the love of my life.Or maybe they were my consolation prize after I lost the love of my life.Either way.
