52 Chapter 52: Will You Come With Me? (2/2)

She turned her back to me, her hands behind her back.

She said, ”I guess...there is something about places like these.”

Something in her voice. The way she spoke. A sense of melancholy. She fell silent. She stayed like that. In that moment she looked incredibly small. Isolated and lonely. Her shoulders slim and fragile. Her figure like a twig against the whole world.

I felt like I should've said something. But I stayed silent. It seemed like she was thinking. About what? Not sure. I wondered what her expression was like.

Eventually she walked forward. I followed until she stopped. She pointed at something. A stall. Delicious scents.

Fried bread with honey.

Her expression said, ”I want that.”

I shook my head

Her expression didn't change.

I sighed. I took out my coin purse.

I said, ”At least let me have a bite.”

”One bite.”

She went to buy the bread. Came back with an extra large portion. She hummed and smiled and bit into it. She looked like a bundle of joy. The type of girl every man wanted to protect. Pure like the wind and warm like the sun.

I watched her eat. Nothing about her suggested who she really was. A witch who could kill without remorse. Kill hundreds with a smile on her face. She had killed the green eye bastard's friend. She had killed Simon Withstone. Slaughtered the entire honeytrap village. Who knew how many people she killed during her excursion last night.

Nothing about her was innocent.

But there was something about her.

”Here.” She held out her hand. She handed me the last bite of fried honey bread.

I took it. I ate it. It was good.

We wandered around the marketplace, eating and drinking. Had lunch there. Kept on exploring. Her stomach was bottomless. My coin purse wasn't.

Eventually she led me away from the people, to the quiet streets. We saw some children running around. Some men doing this. Some women doing that. The sun turned tawny. Covered the town in the kind of light that made you think of the past. The good times.

The day was starting to end.

Elina said, ”Salem, I want to see Larose from above.”

I said, ”Should be possible. The highest building in town should be the military watch tower. At the barracks”

”I don't see it.”

”I heard the watch tower burned down in a recent fire. Only the main building is left.”

”Huh...so that's why it looked so ordinary.”

”What looked ordinary?”

She looked up at the sky. Some kind of longing in them.

She said, ”Salem, will you come with me?”

”Where?”

”To see Larose. From above.”

”I don't understand.”

She smiled slightly. ”Come. I'll show you.”

She took my hand. Our fingers intertwined. I drew a sharp breath. It had been a long time since I've held a woman's hand like that.

Her body glowed. We vanished from the street.