Chapter 27 #2
‘But why would she?’ Tia perches on the edge of Lain’s meeting table, her arms folded. ‘She has no more stake in this.’
I toy with the medallion round my neck. Maria’s given her whole life to the Foxes, and the Elders still like her. ‘She’s going to be after my leadership, and I’m going to give it to her.’
‘What?’ Avyaan’s face scrunches. He’s balled up in a chair, his foot propped up as he hugs his knee – he signed the contract with the Sentinels nearly five hours ago, and it’s clear he’s warming up quickly.
If not to the Sentinels, then at least to the luxuriously equipped meeting room Niko and Kiran booked for us.
‘She won’t be able to resist.’ I pick my phone up, scroll to a number I’ve been itching to block, and pitch my voice high in mockery.
‘“Look, Maria, I love Tia more than anything. I’ll give up my leadership for her. I can’t do this any more.
But I need the moonstones or she won’t take me back.
Please, I’ll exchange the moonstones for the medallion, and I’ll tell the Elders to start training you instead. ”’
Tia flutters her lashes and tilts her chin, teasing. ‘You’d do that? For me?’
I send her a flying kiss, and Avyaan rolls his eyes. ‘As cute as the two of you think you are, we have to be serious. Maria’s proven herself to be stronger than we think, and you’re each other’s weakness. Don’t get complacent.’
You’re each other’s weakness. I catch Tia’s gaze across the room, and I don’t miss the way it cuts away. Neither of us want to admit it, but we know he’s right.
And I know it lingers on Tia’s mind more than she lets on, leaving her subdued until we’ve climbed into her bed, her head on the junction between my shoulder and arm. Her hand runs over my tummy in gentle, soothing strokes.
‘Still thinking about what Avyaan said?’ I murmur, squeezing her shoulder gently.
Tia hums. ‘You know how you have scars here?’
My ears burn as she tugs the hem of my shirt up to reveal my scars.
I’ve always been fine with my body, but sometimes I try to picture what I’d look like without the mark of my secret life struck across my skin.
There were only so many times I could avoid wearing anything that would expose my midriff before being covert felt like being shameful.
As I watch, Tia picks a marker from her bedside table, presses its felt tip to a white gash above my belly button, and begins to draw.
‘What are you—’
‘Shh.’ Slow, circular movement, long strokes, then she shifts back to let me see.
It’s a flower. Black strokes reaching out, bleeding into my skin, young and naive and messy.
I smirk. ‘Not much of an artist?’
‘Shut up. Do you want more flowers or not?’
Actually, I think I might cry. And I can’t let Tia see that, so I say yes and I watch through burning eyes as she bends down again, tongue stuck out in concentration, hair swept over one shoulder so it doesn’t cover the light slanted over my skin, and she draws crude daisies over puckered skin, vines over whip-thin scars.
When she’s done, Tia draws a dandelion on the dark mark above my chest.
‘Make a wish,’ she whispers.
My wish is you, I think, as Tia lowers her lips until there’s a sliver of space between us and blows the dandelion.
‘We make each other better,’ Tia says as she slips my shirt back down. ‘That’s not weakness.’
I press a kiss to the crown of her head and drift to sleep with flowers on my skin.
As we planned, Avyaan sends the Nagas out at midday. We get the reports first from the police – hearing about Nagas ruining roads to plant saplings, using their growth magic to turn them to trees and shrubbery.
Niko looks at the TV streaming the destruction as they grab their suit. ‘Note to self: if we ever do business with them again, we ask them to choose something more reversible and less damaging. I don’t even know how we’ll fix that.’
Tia slides an arm around my waist. ‘Anything from Maria?’
I shake my head, my gut sinking. What if she doesn’t bite? What if she doesn’t fall for our trap?
But my phone vibrates, and my screen lights with a single text.
Maria: Approach me alone. No Sentinels.
The Sentinels in question are already fastening their blasters and armour – though Niko’s arguing for both Kiran and Tia to rest because neither are properly recovered from the last altercation with Maria.
I stand. ‘Maria responded. I’m going.’
Tia’s shoulders ease as she pulls me in for a hug. ‘Thank you,’ she whispers into my hair. ‘Thank you for doing this even when you aren’t a Sentinel.’
I kiss her cheek and break away to grab my suit, clenching the fabric in my fist as I head to my room to change.
Niko knocks on my room door the second I’ve finished zipping myself in. They slip in with my permission, their face neutral.
‘What’s going on?’ What don’t you want to say in front of everyone else?
Niko pats me on the shoulder, their face grim. ‘Get her for us, Harper,’ they say. ‘I can’t because I’m a Sentinel, and it’s illegal to go after that Fox when the government hasn’t authorized me to. Sentinels aren’t allowed to hurt her. Do you understand?’
Yes, I want to say. Yes, I understand. I will do it well. I will do it for you, because the implication hangs thick in the air, ready to be plucked right out of the space between us.
Sentinels aren’t allowed to hurt her.
But you are.
And I hear what’s unspoken between the three Sentinels when I emerge from my room as Raven and stand beside Lune. You’re not a Sentinel.
I don’t care. We can figure out Sentinels and criminals later – right now I’m a person, an estranged member of one family, a protective member of another and a lover with a heavy score to settle.