Page 187 of Deadfall

“I think that’s called parenting, my love,” she said.

90

EMERSYN

The next few days were a blur. Every chance we could, Griffin and I escaped into a corner somewhere to make out. I felt like maybe this was how a teenager felt sneaking around with their crush. We’d emerge from a closet or a spare bedroom with disheveled looks and glazed expressions.

Everyone knew. No one cared.

At night, the three of us slept in the same bed. It had become a type of unspoken agreement that none of us brought up. I think it was the best sleep the three of us had gotten in a long time. At least for me it was, and I hadn’t had a nightmare since. I always thought I wanted space when I slept, maybe because I’d always been visited without my consent, but there was something incredibly comforting when we woke up tangled together—everyone touching something of the other, as though we needed to anchor each other.

Unfortunately, nothing had progressed past kissing. I desperately wanted it to, but every time I tried to push things, Griffin would say he wanted to take his time, and we never seemed to have enough of it. The planning had progressed to daily meetings that we both had to sit through as we hashed out the infil and exfil strategies for getting on and off the island.

Seven was also healing at an exponential rate and had started to venture out of the bedroom during the day for short stretches. He pushed himself, and Griffin berated him, while Doc just shook his head. We all knew there was no stopping a stubborn Seven so we soon stopped trying, and everyone seemed happier because of it.

I was doing better with all the people around, but tonight we’d just sat through a larger than normal dinner. Nothing formal, but people had milled about in the kitchen and dining room as they enjoyed the meal and chatted. It was catered, much to Nyx’s distress. Yet in the same breath, he’d said he would never cook for that many people. Atlas had just sighed and made him change the subject. Needless to say, after being around such a crowd, I needed a break and escaped outside.

I sat on the edge of the pool and watched the dark water swirl around my legs. I wished it was a river. I missed my forest in the mountains. I wondered if I’d ever see that place again. A pang of homesickness hit—for a place that had shown me not to fear the darkness. A place that had taught me that regardless of how much death surrounded us, there would always be life that rose from the deadfall.

I heard the whisper of the sliding glass door open and Seven’s footsteps. I knew he was being deliberate so as not to startle me. He was a tracker. If he wanted to be silent he would have been nearly impossible to detect. He arrived at my side but didn’t sit. He dangled a bottle of beer next to my face.

I looked up as I took it automatically and gave him a smile. It was great to see him on the mend, but I think a lot of it was him putting on a stoic face so he didn’t get benched once we went after Mahoney. I wished he’d stay home and heal fully, but how could I ask that of him when I myself refused to stay home? He rolled up his jeans and stuck his legs in the pool. He brushed his foot with mine and took a sip of his own beer.

“Needed a break?” He asked.

“Yeah, too many people.”

I took a sip of beer and made a face. I’d forgotten how much I disliked it.

Seven chuckled. “Not a fan?”

I put the bottle down. “Yeah, not my first choice.”

“Are you a whiskey girl? Wine?”

“I don’t really drink,” I said. “But, vodka is probably what I would choose.”

“Ah, that’s so Russian of you,” Seven grinned. “Sacha’s doing?”

“Yeah, but it wasn’t a common thing,” I said.

I frowned. In fact the only time we drank vodka was after I killed the hunters. I didn’t want to talk about that though. Maybe that’s why I liked it, because it represented taking back my power. Seven seemed to realize I didn’t want to talk about the past, because he took another sip of his beer and changed the subject.

“What’s your favorite color?” he asked.

“That’s random,” I said.

He shrugged. “Mine is that dark blue the sky gets when it’s about to go from twilight to full night.”

“Like now?” I looked out across the pool and the lawn and the towering trees at the edge of the property to where the sky still had a faint glow to it, even as the stars were beginning to twinkle.

“Exactly.”

“Mine is dark green. Like the color of the evergreens on a snowy day in the mountains.”

I thought about how my forest looked after the first snow fall. It muted all the colors, while somehow it managed to make the greens, blues and greys more pronounced. Yeah, that was definitely my favorite.

“What’s your favorite season?” I asked.