Wanderlust(49)

Dizziness distorted my vision. My foot landed on loose pebbles, and I skidded down the incline a few feet before Hunter’s firm grasp caught me. He set me right again.

“You okay?” His voice was gruff, dry from the dusty air.

“Yeah, I’m good. Thanks.”

He grunted and continued ahead.

His head bent low, skin beaded with sweat. The start of a beard obscured his expression, but I knew his mouth would be drawn tight, lips parched. We were both at the ends of our endurance, though his physical strength far surpassed my own.

The little safety class we’d taken warned us that people still died here every year, and though I doubted it would come to that, neither did we need a case of acute exhaustion. We wouldn’t reach the basin with its shops and watered campgrounds before nightfall, which meant another night of camp.

We should bed down now so we didn’t lose too much water, but Hunter seemed hell-bent on going forward, like he was trying to get away from something. Or trying to drown the darkness in exhaustion.

He shortened his strides for me, but I still struggled to keep up. Unlike some of the other straggling groups we sometimes waved to in passing, he and I stayed close, within five feet at all times. It was a safety precaution, both physical and emotional. He was my ship in a tempestuous sea. I was the talisman he kissed before a storm. Even distracted and discontent, he always kept me close.

My breath began to come in pants, my vision blurry. He rounded a corner, and relieved to hide my weakness for a moment, I leaned back against the jagged rockface. As a testament to how bad off I was, the cool prodding of rock into my back felt relaxing, massaging out some of the kinks in my muscles. Even my skin felt tight—parched.

“Evie?”

I blinked and Hunter came into focus. He looked worried.

“Hi.”

“Shit,” he said. “God fucking damn it, why didn’t you tell me you were dehydrated?”

I frowned. “I just had a drink.”

He wasn’t listening though. He steered me down from the small ledge we’d been walking and onto the dirt. I let him lead me beneath a tree and lay me down on one of the sleeping bags. Sitting down beside me, he lifted my head and helped me drink.

Nausea assailed me. I pushed the bottle away.

He produced a washcloth from our pack and poured water from the canteen.

“No,” I protested. “There won’t be enough.”

He shushed me, pressing the cloth gently on the overheated skin of my neck, cooling me down with every soft wipe. “Then I’ll be thirsty.”

I smiled weakly. “Sorry I’m a lightweight.”

He leaned down and kissed my forehead. “It was my fault. I never should have pushed you so hard.”

“I wanted to keep up.”

“You will. One day soon, you’ll run circles around me. It takes time to build up.”

I blinked up at him in the waning light. All along, I’d thought Hunter was the hermit in the story, but as I watched him at ease against the earth, his silhouette a sleek extension of the ground and sky, I realized it had been me all along. I’d been the one cut off from society, dangling off a ledge on a waterfall just to feel alive. I wasn’t used to this activity…but I would be. He would see to that, and so would I.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, concerned. “I can go ahead and bring back help.”

“No, I swear I feel better.”

It was true. Like a colt standing for the first time, I was wobbly. It would take time and practice before I could walk and run and gallop on my own.

“I’ll rest tonight and we’ll go back in the morning. And I’ll be more careful from now on, let you know if you’re going too fast.”

At that, he smiled with remorse. “Not that I’ve done a great job at listening so far.”

“You will,” I mocked him gently. “One day soon you’ll be the most sensitive guy around.”

He laughed, squeezing some of the water from the compress onto my face. I shrieked and laughed too, drinking down the drops that fell into my mouth.

He wouldn’t let me help put up the tent, but that was okay. I was learning my limits, what they were and how to respect them. He needed to be kind and I needed to receive kindness.

That night he pulled back the top of the tent, and we lay in the jumble of sleeping bags and pillows staring up at the stars. I rested my face on his chest, feeling the steady rise and fall while the crinkly hair tickled my nose.

“Tell me,” I said softly.

Beating beneath me was a strong heart, one that had started off pure but tainted now. Poisoned when no one had believed in him, poisoned when the men in jail had hurt him.

There was poison inside me too. Because of what had happened to me with Allen, because of the guilt from my mother. Neither of us could purge ourselves of it completely, but we could help each other. Like the way I’d read the old settlers of this place would deal with snake bites, lancing the wound and sucking out the venom.