Page 132 of Remnants: Disruption
The door swings open nearly immediately to reveal Marla, looking exhausted. She brightens when she sees me and pulls me into a crushing hug.
“You scared us,” she lets out in a rushed breath.
“I’m sorry,” I say, waddling us both back into the house.
Trish sees us from the kitchen and quickly makes her way to us. She pries Marla off me and inspects me head to toe.
“What happened?” Trish asks, eyes finally landing on mine after apparently deeming me to be in one piece.
I relay the battle to them with as few gory details as I can. Though, as I explain what happened, both women look as though they might be sick.
Whether from the violence or the peril is uncertain.
“And then that’s when Bloody Mary showed up.”
Both go nearly stock still, and I let out a huffed laugh.
If Cass expects me to keep this from the only two friends I have down here, then she clearly doesn’t know me very well.
“So, after I fell to my knees and started screaming at her to get her act together, she—”
I glance around to make sure neither Rey nor Ty are nearby.
“She kissed me. Right on the goddamned, blood-soaked battlefield.”
“Kissed you?” Marla asks, somewhat breathless. “Are you sure it wasn’t like, I don’t know, one of her powers?”
“I thought so, too, but then she—”
I feel a flush to my cheeks. Not even at the savage kissing or the way she touched me, but at the desire that had been evident in her eyes.
Desire that hasneverbeen directed at me.
Neither Marla nor Trish speak.
“She pretty much told me her cold behavior was because she worried someone might use me to get to her.”
“Get to her?” Trish asks but then gasps. “Wait, you mean—”
“I mean she cares about me,” I say, running a nervous hand down my braid. “A lot. And I suppose it’s so new to me that I never connected the dots. Everything she’s done since we met—officially met—was to save me or help me. But it wasn’tjustthat. Every time it happened, she would get this look in her eye, or this tone in her voice that nearly took my breath away. And I didn’t evenknowwho she was.”
Trish’s face splits into a wide grin. “You’re into her.”
I let out a bark of laughter. “Of course, I am. She’s fucking hot. And she’s interesting. She has this, I don’t know, feel to her. There’s this desire to be in her orbit. Like I want to attach myself to her hip and watch the world through her eyes.”
“But?” Marla asks, and I flinch at the way she sees through me. Somewhat terrifying seeing as though we met so recently.
“But I don’t know if I can trust it. If I’m not just—”
“Horny,” Trish nods, knowingly.
“Yes,” I groan, rolling my eyes. “And then just now the archons elected two new people. A git named Gareth and some pale guy named Varun.”
“I don’t know Varun, but Gareth is an issue,” Trish says, chewing on her lip. She shoots a glance at Marla, who also nods.
“I didn’t like it either, and it only reinforces what you two said,” I say, my hands running down the tail of my braid. “Thearchons and Council might want what’s best for Tempest, but they don’t represent you.”
I swallow thickly, not letting my eyes trace the home that’s become so familiar to me.
