26
Darana
The rain falls with savage, unrelenting force, as if the Australian sky had decided to dump the entire Indian Ocean onto Birdsong Hills all at once.
The windshield of my Ford Ranger is a joke; the wipers are moving at the speed of light, and even so, the curtain of rain barely lets me see ten feet past my nose.
“Hang in there, damn it, hang in there!” I yell at the dashboard, slapping the steering wheel with my already numb fingers.
My jaw aches from clenching my teeth so hard, and my heart is racing a mile a minute.
And no, it’s not just because of the storm that know-it-all Camila Bennet is forecasting with her damn little colors.
It’s because of the panic of losing everything.
The ghosts of the past always choose the worst possible moment to pay a visit.
The engine roars as I tackle the final stretch of the main road, which is no longer a road but a veritable river of clay-colored mud that splashes against the Ranger’s undercarriage with sharp impacts.
I glance at the rearview mirror as I adjust my soaked hat. And there it is. Powerful headlights are tracking me through the quagmire: it’s Camila’s SUV, Viento. For a physicist, she’s certainly given her vehicle a poetic name.
“She’s such a stubborn jerk,” I mutter under my breath, feeling a burning knot in my stomach. “I told you I don’t need you to save my ass.”
As I drive through the wooden entrance gate, my heart sinks. What I see is like a scene straight out of a Marx Brothers movie, only waterlogged. Water is flowing down from the hills, though luckily not too forcefully. Still, I can already hear the horses whinnying and kicking at the wooden fences.
I slam on the brakes, pull the handbrake, and, without waiting for the engine to die, open the door. As I jump out, the mud reaches almost to my calves. Goodbye to my favorite boots!
“Darana!” Bert’s shout barely pierces the curtain of water. The poor old man is soaked to the bone, trying to hold the halter of one of the wildest stallions, who’s rearing up. “We’ve got to get them out of here, or they’re going to break a leg!”
“To the main shed, Bert!” I shout back, swallowing a mouthful of rain as I open my mouth. “Ricky, move the foals!”
Suddenly, a figure darts across my field of vision at full speed. It’s Camila, and she’s with Ethan and Kira.
I don’t know how they got here so fast. But given the situation, it’s time to swallow my pride.
“Bennet! Get away from the back of that horse if you don’t want me to send you flying to Sydney with one kick!” I yell at her, running toward her while dodging a puddle.
“Worry about your hat, Calloway—I know exactly what I’m doing!” she shouts back, deftly grabbing the reins of a spooked horse.
We plunge right into the mud. Ricky and Bert guide the more docile animals, while Camila and I deal with the ones in the mood for a wild ride.
“Easy, boy, easy…” I hear Camila say. I turn around for a second, water dripping down the collar of my shirt, and see her pressing her forehead against that of a gray horse, whispering into its ear with a sweetness that makes my heart skip a beat.
“Come on, handsome, look at me and forget about the storm. That’s it. Breathe with me.”
Damn it. Ten years living far from here, surrounded by computers and labs, and she still has that way with animals that makes my panties melt. I force myself to snap out of it when my own horse gives me a sudden tug.
“Darana, watch out!” Camila warns me, letting go of her horse and running toward me. “He’s too agitated—let me help you!”
“I don’t need your help, Bennet!” I snap at her, pulling on the lead rope as the mud makes me slip. “I can handle this on my own!”
“Don’t be stubborn, Calloway, or you’ll end up face-first in the mud!” she retorts, planting her boots next to mine and grabbing the reins over my hands.
We work together perfectly, pulling on the count of three and managing to rein in the animal.
But the ground plays a trick on us. The horse makes one last lunge; I slip on a patch of clay and fall sideways against the fence post. A sharp, stabbing pain shoots through my shoulder blade, drawing a groan from me.
“Damn it!” I exclaim, bringing my hand to my back.
“Darana!” Camila lets go of the rope as soon as the horse enters the shed and kneels beside me in the mud. “Where did you get hit? Let me see.”
“Get off me! I’m fine!” I push her away with my shoulder, trying to stand up with as much dignity as a person covered in mud can muster. “Close the damn door!”
We herd the last horse into the shed, and Ricky closes the gate. We all stand there, panting, soaked, and shivering like abandoned puppies.
“We did it…” Ricky murmurs, collapsing onto a bale of dry straw, exhausted.
Five minutes later, we huddle together in the station office. The wooden floor turns into a swimming pool because of us. I yank off my hat and slam it down on the table, splashing water everywhere.
Camila is standing in front of me. Her brow is furrowed so deeply it looks like a vein is about to burst.
“Come on, know-it-all, spit it out already,” I say, crossing my arms and leaning my butt against the edge of the desk. “Are your little drawings really that bad?”
“Worse,” Camila confirms, looking up. “This amount of water is connecting the saline aquifers to the underground iron vein. This place is, literally, a giant damn conductor. The electrical charge from the clouds to the north is looking for a path, and it’s going to strike right here at any moment.”
I freeze. I look around: at Bert, rubbing his hands together; at Ethan, watching Camila and waiting for orders. My pride drains down the legs of my wet pants. I’m scared. Really scared.
“Okay,” I whisper, taking a step toward her. “Tell me what you need us to do. I’m not going to argue, Bennet. This is your field. Tell me how we save it.”
The silence that falls over the room is historic. Ethan nearly chokes on his own spit and looks at me as if I’ve been possessed by an alien.
“Did you just say you trust me?” Camila takes a step forward, lowering her tablet and looking at me with a mixture of astonishment and something much darker and denser.
“Yes. Don’t make me repeat it.”
She freezes, staring at me as if trying to decipher a hieroglyph. She takes another step forward, closing the distance until I can smell the ozone and her perfume mingling with the rain. Suddenly, her eyes fix on my arm, and her expression changes.
“You’re bleeding, Darana,” she says, setting the tablet on the table and grabbing my wrist.
I look down. A red streak runs through the mud on my forearm, and the stinging sensation on my back reminds me that the fence post isn’t exactly made of rubber.
“I’m fine, Bennet,” I reply, trying to free myself from her grip with a gentle tug. “I’ve been through worse. This is nothing.”
“Will you stop being such a damn proud, stubborn bitch for once? You should let someone take care of you every now and then.”
Something inside me—a dam that’s been holding back tons of water for ten years—bursts. The exhaustion, the pain, the fear of losing Birdsong Hills… it all explodes.
“You said you would!” I scream at her, shoving her in the chest with my palms. “You said you’d take care of me, and then you just took off!”
The office falls into utter, deathly silence. Bert looks at Ethan with an expression that says, I wish the ground would swallow me up, and they both start walking discreetly toward the door, stepping out into the hallway and closing it behind them.
“You left me alone, Camila!” I continue, my voice breaking into a thousand pieces.
“Devastated… head over heels in love… and to top it all off, having to put up with the heartbreak of your jilted ex-husband, who did nothing but cry in corners for months. Do you know what that was like for me? Do you have the slightest idea how many nights I spent looking around, wondering why I wasn’t enough for you to stay? ”
Camila is completely frozen in place. Her mouth drops open, round as an “O,” and her eyes shine with such utter disbelief that it looks like I’ve just told her the Earth is flat.
“Darana…” she whispers, taking a hesitant step toward me. “I… I had no idea. Oh my God. In love? Are you telling me that after all this time, you…?”
“Don’t say it,” I interrupt her, taking a step back until my back hits the wall. “Don’t say it if you’re just going to pack up your damn computers again and leave as soon as the sun comes up.”
“You’re wrong… Darana.”
She shakes her head, a wild fire igniting in her eyes.
She crosses the distance between us like a whirlwind, plants her hands on either side of my head against the wall, and, with a swift flick of her fingers, hooks them into the collar of my soaked shirt, pulling me toward her with tremendous force.
“Then prove it to me,” I demand, fixing my gaze on her mouth. “Because those little scientific words don’t cut it for me anymore, Bennet. They never have.”
And before I can even finish breathing… her lips crash into mine with the force of a damn hurricane.