Chapter 20
- Xander Jade
- Jul 6
- 6 min read
The day after the storm, twilight crawled in early and refused to leave. Erik found Astrid near the riverbank, skirt hiked up, legs mud-splattered to the knee, hands wrist-deep in a patch of stinging nettles. She didn’t glance up as he approached—her attention fixed on teasing a fat root from the earth with a knife that looked more suited to surgery than farming.
