Page 198 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
His dark eyes glittered. “I’m Jet.”
“Nice to meet you, Jet. I’m Amy.”
“The warden says you’re a princess.”
I pursed my lips, wondering who the warden was. Myrrdin, maybe?“I guess I am. But I don’t act like one, so you don’t have to treat me any differently than you’d treat anyone else. All right?”
He smiled, eyes asquint. “All right.”
Somehow, I resisted the urge to pinch his cherubic cheeks. “Why exactly are you here, Jet?”
“Because you needed a bath!” He shuffled aside, revealing a round wooden tub half full of steaming water. I supposedteasstones lay beneath it. A bucket sat beside Jet on the mossy floor, brimming with teal water.
“You just decided to get a bath ready for me?”
“Warden said I should.”
“He did, huh?”
Now, I didn’t care who the warden was. If he was using child servants, whether it was a socially accepted practice or not, then we were going to have words. “Where would I find this warden if I wanted to speak to him?”
Jet shrugged, taking up his bucket. “All over, Amy. He’s always working on something when he’s here. We keep him busy.”
“You keephimbusy?” I watched the faelet dump the remains of his bucket into the barrel. “You’re not his servant?”
His giggle was as infectious as a yawn. “Nobody’s a servant to anyone in the garden, Amy. We all work together. Warden does the most, though. Mama says he does too much, that he wants to take care of everyone—that it’s his way of earning forgiveness for sinning. She says he should be kinder to himself.”
“Hm.” And there I was, doubting the warden’s honor, when he was really an overzealous, self-sacrificing people pleaser. “Sounds like your mother likes him.”
“We all do. Most of us would be dead without him. He brought me and Mama here years ago, before the death curses killed us.”
I blinked. How could a child say something like that so casually?
“What’s all this chatter?” a deep brogue asked from the doorway. A deep brogue I now heard in my dreams every night. “Didn’t I say not to disturb the princess, Jet?”
Clutching my sheet tighter, I faced Pete and his rugged roguishness square on. A good sleep had done him good. His under-eyes had lost their dark smudges, and his tan skin had brightened. He wore a fresh linen shirt, untucked from his trousers, and his massive feet were bare, his nail beds cleared of dirt.
“Yousaid?” I blinked in realization. “Are you Eden’s warden?” The huge hut made more sense if he was. “You’rethe one in charge?”
Pete’s frosty gaze took me in.
“Why didn’t youtellme, Pete? About Eden? About the refugees? About your role in helping these people? Aboutanyof it?”
Pete rested his forearm against the lintel and shrugged. “Those in glass houses, Shorty—”
I gulped down my bitterness, knowing I’d had that remark coming. But Pete’s flippant attitude still pricked my temper—despite all I’d just learned of his altruism. Or maybe because I had.
How was it possible that the same selfish man who’d meant to trade my innocent ass to Gentian to save his own hide from demonic possession had been sneaking his other marks and their family members to safety under the Shadow Prince’s nose for years?
And why hadn’t he wanted to save me?
“You know, I was having a good morning until you showed up,” I blustered. “Did you just come here to piss me off?”
“As a matter of fact, I came to find out what other truths you’ve withheld.” With a cool flick of his eyes along my sheet, Pete addressed Jet, who looked like he’d gotten caught in headlights. “Tub’s full enough, lad.”
Glad to escape, Jet grabbed his bucket, then fluttered under Pete’s arm. Leaving us to deal with one another.
I shifted but kept my chin high under Pete’s scrutiny.
