Shattered Heart by Viola Tempest

Author:Viola Tempest
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter

Seven

True to his word, Chris did not ask Serena to return to the heart stone, even when the elephant had completed her circuit, and they were ambling back into the animal sanctuary. He had no explanation planned for her mysterious appearance. He hoped to leave quickly after disembarking and get Serena to somewhere a little safer.

Her glow was less apparent in the afternoon sun, but Chris still noticed when he squinted that there was something faintly radiant about her skin.

When they returned the elephant to its coral, the guide had a profound look of confusion on his face. He asked Chris who she was, but he brushed off the question. Flustered, he helped Serena down off the saddle, and she wrapped her arm around his as they made their way back to the entrance. He was just glad to know that others could see Serena too, that he wasn’t just imagining her.

They easily slipped into the crowd of people. Serena let out a giggle of delight beside him that sent a skittering pleasure down his spine.

“Where are we going now?” she asked. He loved the sense of wonder he could see on her face, her sheer happiness that was obvious from the eye-crinkling way she smiled.

“Where do you want to go, Serena?” he asked.

She tapped her finger against her mouth, pondering. Chris watched with a smile on his face, captivated by every facet of her beauty, from her glimmering eyes to her pursed, pink lips.

“I think I’m hungry,” she finally said.

“You think?”

She nodded.

“Then let’s get something to eat.”

They headed back to Phuket in a cab, crowded together in the back seat. Serena did not want to take her hands off him, as if he might disappear if she didn’t touch him at all times. Her hip was always pressed against his, her arm looped tightly around his elbow. She leaned her head against his shoulder and released a sigh.

Unable to resist, Chris leaned down to sniff her hair. She smelled like fresh cloves of cinnamon and something faintly sweet and unidentifiable.

“Chris?” she asked him, her voice a hushed whisper.

“Yes, darling?” he replied.

“I’m feeling new things,” she said. “Things I’ve never felt before. Can I describe them to you? I want to understand them.”

“Yes, please do,” he urged her. Her personhood was still somewhat in question, and he would take any chance he could get to understand her more.

She lifted a long, elegant finger and pointed through the window, where they could both see a line of acacia trees whizzing past.

“I feel like the tops of those trees,” she said. “The way they sway in the wind, still tethered to the ground. How the sun mutes my skin… it makes me feel small. I felt so big in the heart stone, like I was the universe.”

Chris rubbed soothingly at her arm.

“You are out here now,” he said consolingly. “We’re all small out here, compared to the universe. Now, you can know what it feels like to be small and unsteady like the rest of us.

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