Page 197 of A Liar's Twisted Tongue

“I can’t very well leave you alone to track a world you’ve never been to.”

“No.” She smiles, and I think the action is one she meant to keep to herself. “You can’t.” Her eyebrows fold over her eyes and she stands a little taller, saying, “Just till I find my way home.”

“Until you find your way home.”

To my surprise, she frowns at that. “Right, okay. We should go.”

She makes it three steps before falling into a tree well. I reach out in time, catching her by her upper arm and pulling her out.

Desdemona turns into me and stops abruptly. She scans my face, looking for something, eyes jutting up and down and up and down.

“Thanks,” she whispers and pulls away.

Time passes in silence before I say, “Tree well.” She takes a step back.

“Thanks again.”

We continue trucking along, as do my thoughts.

I could tell her. I could come out and say it: My apologies. But it wouldn’t be enough. Sulva knows it wouldn’t be enough.

“What’s your favorite food?” I ask when I can no longer bear my milling mind.

“What?” She gives me an incredulous look.

“Your favorite food,” I say again.

Her eyebrows knit together. “Anything I get to eat,” she says slowly, contemplatively.

“Favorite color?”

She says, in the same way, “Anything I get to see.”

“Interesting.”

“Endlessly,” she says sarcastically.

“If you could see any color and eat any food, which would you choose?”

Desdemona looks over her shoulder and smiles at me. It’s a face I haven’t seen in far too long and one I want to remember for the rest of my life.

But that’s far from fair, and I’m far from deserving of it.

“I have one answer for your two questions,” she says, trudging through the snow. “An orange.”

“Why?” I ask.

“Because they’re made to share. My mom used to tell me that.” Her smile falters and before I can ask more, she says, “What about you? Your favorites?”

“Cheesecake with red berries. No favorite color.”

“I wouldn’t have taken you as a sweet tooth.”

“No?” I say. “And what about you?”

“Savory all the way. But we never got many sweet things back home.”

I want to know what it is that has her wanting to go back to a place that she doesn’t seem rather fond of.

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