17
Dryas
Six and A Half Years Ago
Aurelia laughs as she walks beside me in the garden, finding something I said funny. It’s spring in London, so the garden is in full blossom, although it needs tending. Even to my untrained eye, everything in the garden is a little downtrodden and overgrown. Even the once-treasured English rose bushes grow unchecked, their blush-colored blooms and hidden thorns losing the shape so carefully manicured into them.
I look around the garden, which is walled in on all four sides by a high concrete wall. It was no work for a strong young man like me to climb over. I’ve been doing it now for months, ever since I first encountered Aurelia in the street market.
Well, less encountered and more actually ran into. I was in pursuit of Damen, who was carrying the mo
