Chapter 5
Scarlen scanned the family area, not that there was much to see, just a small hall with grey tables and some metal doors to each side.
There were a lot of smiles going on, more than she’d seen anywhere in the prison, and she could understand why the warden catered for such respite, as it certainly brought stress levels down, and the lower the stress, the less chance of unauthorised fights breaking out. The same reason for the mats.
Aches and pains from yesterday were in every muscle, making Scarlen stiff and slow on her feet, but thankful to Zana for teaching her fighting manoeuvres. She only wished she had trained harder, built her body stronger.
There were only a handful of people in the room with bruised faces, and they all seemed happy enough, no doubt used to the prison routine.
Scarlen already felt she’d lived a hundred lives there, but she was determined it wouldn’t beat her down, as that would make her father the winner.
She’d show him she wasn’t weak, then when released, she’d run again, only this time stronger, wiser, faster.
That stiff wheel and sparring on the mats would surely build strength and stamina, and maybe she’d learn a trick or two from her new friends on survival in their Boroughs.
Raven and Wynter entered, neither of them eyeing anyone but each other as they headed straight to a side room, guided by Miss Goolan, who held a small snarl as though they sickened her.
Could that be the face of jealously? Whatever it was, that face was now turned her way.
‘Why are you standing there, Smithson?’
Scarlen raised one shoulder to her cheek. ‘I didn’t know where to sit.’ Bear was nowhere to be seen, but seeing as Goolan guided her to one of the side doors, she figured he must already be inside, waiting.
‘One hour,’ said Miss Goolan, pushing the door open, and Scarlen reluctantly entered.
Silver eyes glanced up from the bed, where he sat playing cards, and Scarlen tried not to frown as she was closed in with him, but it was a little difficult to hide her expression, as the cards on the mattress baffled her for a moment.
‘Not sure what you think I’m going to do with you in here, but we’re not having sex. ’ There, I said it.
A slight curl of his lip had her frown lines deepen. ‘You think too highly of yourself.’ He gestured at the bed, a thin green blanket draped over the mattress. ‘I was only going to ask you to play cards.’
Not what she was expecting. ‘We could do that outside.’
‘I have a reputation to keep.’
Scarlen scoffed, not meaning to, but it fell out by itself.
Bear met her eyes. ‘Everyone thinks you’re my girl. If you don’t want Judd pawing all over you, then best they think we’re intimate.’
‘Intimate?’
He shrugged one shoulder. ‘I was trying to save you from him, that’s all. He’s not exactly known for his kindness towards women, and I knew he’d claim you, as he likes the petite ones. He tried it with my sister before he found out she was a northerner.’
‘Oh,’ was all she could think to say.
‘You can stand by the door for the next hour if you like, or play cards with me. Passes the time.’
The confusion hadn’t left her yet, nor the wariness.
It was all well and good seeing this nice side to him, but she knew his truth, and if he knew hers, she was pretty sure a different conversation would be taking place, one involving her blood splattered all over the room, and no Miss Harnish to heal her.
‘Do you know any games?’ he asked, shuffling the cards.
‘No. I’ve never played.’
‘Hmm. We’ll play Two Hand. Easy enough. We start with four cards each, then take turns picking one up from the pack.
First to get two sets wins. We keep going until it happens, just place your first set down as soon as you get one.
If we run out of cards before someone gets their second set, I take all the cards back and reshuffle. Make sense?’
Scarlen gave a small nod as she padded forward, perching on the edge of the bed quite far back from him, her heart thumping in her ears at the close proximity. ‘What’s a set?’
His smile was soft and lasted all of a split second before he showed her the cards to explain, but Scarlen was finding it hard to concentrate being so close to him. All she wanted was to ask him why he had planned to kidnap her. What had been his long-term plans for her?
Bear sniffed the air as though he caught a whiff of something, and Scarlen hoped it wasn’t coming from her, because whatever he was smelling, his pursed lips and knitted brow said it wasn’t something pleasant. She tried for a sneaky sniff of her shoulder when he started shuffling the cards again.
‘Do I smell or something?’ she blurted, her annoyance getting the better of her.
‘We all have a scent, Smithson. Just picked up on yours, that’s all.’
She bit on the inside of her cheek at the way he said her name with such emphasis. ‘Is that because you’re a bear?’
That slight grin flashed once more. ‘No. It’s because I have a nose.’ He looked her in the eyes, and her stomach flipped with a flutter of interest, which would never do, thank you very much.
Quelling the feeling of whatever was trying to mess with her mind, she asked, ‘What’s my scent like?’
His concentration was back on the cards as though her question bored him. ‘Don’t know. New smell.’
Paranoia set in, clogging her throat. Princess aroma? Oh, stop being stupid. ‘Well, you smell like …’ She had no idea, as she hadn’t bothered to lean in for a good whiff.
Bear smirked. ‘It’s called demon fragrance. Designed to scare off southerners.’
There was no way she was showing him any signs of fear. According to him, he had saved her, so he couldn’t hate southerners that much. ‘Cute,’ she said flatly, then struggled to exhale properly, as she had held her breath way too long before speaking.
A squeal of excitement came through the wall, causing them both to turn that way, and Scarlen felt her cheeks pink at the breathy sounds that followed before a shushing noise, then silence once more.
‘Who do you think that was?’ And I asked that why?
‘As long as it’s not my little sister and Rav, I don’t care.’ Bear huffed as he dealt the cards. ‘That’s all I need to hear.’
Scarlen bit back a laugh, then a thought occurred. ‘Why is she the only Rebel with a life sentence?’ She met coldness in his stare. ‘Someone mentioned it to me.’
‘She was arrested for being in Borough South, that’s all.’
‘I didn’t know crossing Boroughs was a crime.
As far as I know, you can cross borders whenever you like, if you can afford to, that is.
’ There had been a toll for as long as she could remember, and crossing into Borough Mids had been one of her biggest challenges, but with friends like Temple, she might just find another way in now, as she was sure he or his brother would know.
The way Temple prattled on about his life, his family had their fingers in a lot of pies.
‘After we were arrested for treason, the king passed a new law banning shapeshifters from Borough South, health and safety reasons. His health. His safety. Wynter was already there at that time. She had been following me when she was supposed to stay at home.’
And now is the perfect time to get some answers. ‘She wanted to help kidnap the princess?’
His gaze was on the four cards in his hand, but his head shook a touch as he blew out a quiet sigh. ‘They couldn’t prove that, so she got a life sentence just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.’
‘Why were you trying to kidnap the princess, anyway?’
He picked up a card from the top of the deck. ‘Who said that was what we were doing?’
‘The king.’
‘Your king says a lot of shit.’
What’s that supposed to mean?
‘Pick up a card, Scars.’
She did, but the three of clubs did little for her hand as more questions whirled, but she couldn’t interrogate him, as that would raise suspicion.
Or maybe she was being paranoid because she knew who she was.
She had to keep a straight face. Not give away any clues, not that she was sure how she would.
It was obvious he had no idea what the princess looked like.
Hardly anyone had seen her. But there was something about the way he looked deeply into her eyes that made her think he could read minds.
She was certain he was trying to figure her out.
Bear peered up through his long, dark lashes. ‘Got any more questions for me?’
It was for the best she stopped asking about his crime. It couldn’t be easy knowing what was to come. ‘Are you really a bear?’ And now she felt stupid.
A side smile made him look even more gorgeous, which she was determined to ignore.
‘Yeah, but I’m double the size of an ordinary brown bear, which is rare, so that’s why I’m called Bear.
We’re not all called by our halfling, as no one knows what we’ll be until we turn sixteen, so we often have a different name to start with. I was named after my father at first.’
‘Halfling?’
‘The other half of us. Our animal form.’
‘So Oxley isn’t an ox?’
‘No. He’s a bear. But Raven is a raven, but not the type you know. He’s as big as a small dragon.’
Scarlen breathed out a laugh. ‘A dragon?’
‘Yeah, I know, they’re only in the story books, but you get the general idea.’
She nodded. ‘I do.’
A long moment of silence passed between them as they continued to pick up more cards.
‘We’re not demons,’ he said quietly.
And Scarlen was starting to believe that, as there was nothing about Wynter that was horrible in any way, and Oxley had taken her spoon punishment, and Bear wasn’t giving off warning signs, not that she trusted him the way she did Wynter.
‘We’re different, that’s all.’ He looked to be gauging her reaction, and it was then she noticed the tiny flecks of golden brown among the silver in his eyes.
‘I guess we hear a lot of untruths about each other.’
He held her gaze. ‘I guess we do.’