Now I just need to figure out how to generate the most intense of bad feelings between me and the men I like the most in this world. How fun.
I square my shoulders and prepare to summon a little more stubbornness.
8
Mirage
The place Rollick calls his “desert estate” reminds me of the academy, only smaller. And with different possibilities for amusement.
The single-story house wraps around a courtyard just like the school’s reform building does, but this courtyard has not just a garden and patio but a whole swimming pool. Even though the saltwater makes my nose itch, I’m tempted to dive right in to escape the dry heat in the air.
Maybe later, when we’re finished with our Serious Business.
The extra-cozy lounge chairs look perfect for curling up on, and more comfy sofas and chairs fill the expansive living room beyond the glass sliding doors. I slink around them, considering the possibilities.
Hail opted to wait in the house’s front yard, saying he felt like soaking up some sun. I think he just wanted to show that he isn’tinterested in being any nearer to the rest of us than he has to be. It’s very important to the chilly fae to keep his cool distance.
Raze prowled off on a quick hunt, and Jonah went down into the house’s basement with Rollick to check that everything’s secure before we visit the demon’s collection of shadowkind beasts.
Picturing what that room might look like makes my skin go all creepy-crawly. I shake off the unnerving sensation and turn my attention toward the most unavoidable member of our team.
Peri must like the look of the pool too. She’s vanished her sneakers and swapped her ripped jeans and T-shirt for a gold-to-blue ombre sundress. Now she’s sitting with her pale legs over the edge of the pool, lifting her bare feet in and out of the water while she leans back on her hands.
The little smile playing with her lips and her casual stance should mean she’s relaxed. But I’m starkly aware of the uneasiness winding through her and spilling out into the connection that joins us through the glowing spot on my chest.
The idea of all those caged creatures bothers her, just like it does me. We’re both too familiar with the shape of cages from the opposite side.
We both did things we’re ashamed of while captured that way.
Rollick isn’t the same as the humans who imprisoned us, of course. He’s keeping these shadowkind imprisoned for their own good, not to manipulate them. That doesn’t make the creepy-crawly feeling any better.
If he can’t figure out what’s causing their impulses to warp so they go on the attack, what will he do with them?
I don’t think Jonah can convince them all to travel back to the shadow realm and stay there. He barely managed to keep one away for ten minutes. That’s less than a lunch break.
Are other things bothering Peri? I haven’t talked to her much since she blasted her light into us in the woods. Even thinking about her sends a similarly uneasy sensation through me from throat to gut.
I want to go to her, and I want to get away from her. But I can’t do the second thing. I’m chained to her, even more constrained than I was in the experimenters’ cell.
At least the cell had a door I could hope to escape through. Peri’s trapped me right down to the essence of my being.
It shouldn’t bother me. I wanted to be close to her. My Rainbow has shone so much colorful light into my life, in ways I never imagined were possible.
I had the choice then. She didn’t mean to take it away, but she did.
As much as that fact gnaws at me, I’m still drawn to her. Maybe even more than before. The desire to go over and wrap my arms around her, bury my face in her hair and then kiss her lips, is a dull ache that never quite goes away.
She’s always pretty, but when I can get her to light up, she’s absolutely breathtaking.
I don’t have to get very close to her to brighten her up a little. Why shouldn’t I distract her from the discomfort of this situation the way only I would think to?
Yes, that’s what I’m meant to be doing. Playing tricks, bringing laughs, changing perceptions. Shaking her up a little might make us both feel better.
I duck behind a shed that holds various pieces of pool equipment and slip into the shadows. Shrinking my presence as small as I can, I wriggle through the patches of darkness along the patio stones.
Nothing to see here. Just a little shadow-worm.
As I ease closer, taking a winding route behind Peri, a spark of amusement lifts my spirits. The contrasting tension coiled in my gut resists the sensation, but I tune it out.
