Smells soulds

No, not just the words: the smiles, the motions of her body. Ryn had never seen a smile before Naomi’s, or at least, none had ever made sense before hers. It was like a codex, unpacking for the first time not just what smiles signified, but what they did. The surveillance photographs hadn’t been enough, since they were too frozen, like capturing the ocean in still-frame when it could only be understood in motion. Naomi was animated. Her soul pushed to the surface of her face. Her movements added a dimension that drew together her whole meaning. And that clean rainwater scent… it was like Aina’s, and alien to the city—a scent Ryn might catch once in a century, a scent with no evil in it. But most of all, Ryn could not figure out why she hadn’t stopped thinking about Naomi. Why her mind and her feet kept trying to lead her back to the female.


Chapter 5, Page 68