Page 52 - DivineSparkRisingFinal

Divine Spark Rising
The contact was light, accidental, or at least, it
could have been. But for a brief second, the air
between them shifted. Brighter. Sharper. Like a
current had passed between their skin and settled
somewhere deeper.
Carolina kept reading. Henry kept looking out
the window as the tram rattled past a row of tiled
buildings. On one, in fading white spray paint, the
words Pretend No More sprawled beneath a rough
spiral symbol. He didn’t say anything, but the
image stayed with him.
Neither of them was as composed as they
pretended to be.
They stepped off at a small, unmanned stop: no
name, no signs. Just wind and trees.
“Shortcut,” Carolina said.
She led him off the platform and onto a narrow
trail that seemed to vanish as soon as it appeared.
The ground dipped and twisted. The air cooled
sharply. Pines closed in above them like a vault.
Everything was still except the crunch of their
steps.
“He used to bring me here,” she said at last.
“Not to this exact place, but to spots like it. Out of
the way. Off the map. He believed… some places
just hold better silence.”
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