The Luna Queen's Rebirth (Ellie and Dominic) novel Chapter 383

Chapter 383

Somewhere between one song ending and the next one starting, with nothing but a long straight stretch of road ahead of us, I thanked him for the locket.

I hadn’t planned the timing. It just came out.

“The photo,” I said. “How did you find that?”

He shrugged. “I snagged it from her things before the house sold. Figured you might miss it.”

“And the…” My throat bobbed. “Hair?”

Dominic looked at me. “I cut it before she was buried. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do with it yet, but knew I wanted to save it for you. I hope it’s not too morbid.”

“No.” I shook my head. “Not at all. I… I love it.”

I could see him smiling out of the corner of my eye, but I didn’t look over. Because I feared if I did, my vision might blur with tears, and then I might not be able to see the road, and then we’d both be sorry.

We swapped back after another couple of hours. By then, the sun was starting to set. We stopped again for more gas and something to eat. The cashier said this was the last station before the Veil, where there would be nothing but winding roads and mountains for hours.

We grabbed extra snacks and water just to be safe.

Dominic drove the last stretch, allowing me to look out the window and enjoy the scenery a little before it completely darkened around us. The terrain turned rugged and rocky, cliff edges appearing on the sides of the road that made me squirm uncomfortably in my seat.

I had nodded off at some point when Dominic suddenly shook me awake.

“Ellie,” he said. “We’re almost here.”

I opened my eyes, yawning, and gasped.

The village sat in a wide mountain bowl, ringed on three sides by peaks so tall the tops were buried in clouds. Stone buildings with tiled roofs climbed the terraced hillside in rows with narrow paths running between them. A shallow creek cut through the center of the village, crossed by wooden bridges with lanterns strung along them, already lit against the coming darkness, their reflections shimmering on the water below.

Further up the slope, past the last of the buildings, were ruins. Columns, mostly. Broken archways, the suggestion of walls, something that had clearly been enormous once and was now worn down to its bones by centuries.

“Goddess,” I murmured.

Dominic glanced over. “Worth the drive?”

I didn’t answer, too in awe of the sight to speak. He seemed to take that as a yes.

The clinic sat near the bottom of the village, marked with a small wooden sign that we almost drove past before we spotted it. A woman was waiting out front when we pulled up, bundled tightly in a thick, fur-lined coat with the hood pulled up. When I got out of the car, the cold immediately hit me like a freight train, making my skin feel like it was freezing directly on my bones. I made a mental note to get myself one of those coats as soon as possible.

“You’re the healer?” the woman asked curtly.

1/2

163

+15 Bgn

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