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He walked into the room and looked down at the tablet then up at me. The cords in his neck were pronounced and his shoulders rose as he took several deep breaths.
He crossed the room until he was right in front of the chair.
“Your reservation, it doesn't make any sense.” The edge his voice had earlier was now sharpened into a razor. His glare darkened.
“I told you, I—”
“I know, you have no answers. Your gram did it. Apparently you have no aptitude either, at least according to the testing.” His attention was focused on me, as if he were digging around my very soul.
Dice walked over. “I’ve never seen such bad results. What do you want me to do with her? According to this, she can’t do anything.”
I focused my attention on Dice, who, for all his gruff ways, didn’t seem nearly as frightening as Kaden’s silent perusal.
“Excuse me, but I have an accounting degree. I’m not an idiot, and I’m quite capable of doing many things.” I would’ve stood, but Kaden was way too close to the chair.
“That’s great, but you’re here, and Ihaveaccountants,” Kaden said.
He did? Was it part of his shifty business? Maybe he had a few that laundered his money. Good for him, because I wasn’t going to bethatkind of accountant.
“Look, I just want to get fixed and then be out of your hair. I’m feeling much better now. There has to be some way to reverse whatever happened so I can get back to my life and not bother you people again.”
He put a hand on the arm of the chair, leaning over me. “You have a reservation. The second you stepped into this world, changes that are irreversible began shifting into place. There isnogoing back to normal.”
His words were still running around in my head as he gathered with his people. No going back to normal? I was fairly certain he meant ever. My life had shifted completely, and I didn’t even know what it had shifted into.
I needed normal. I’d spent my whole life trying to be normal. Working toward normal. This was not what I’d signed up for. The last week of my life was starting to bear down on me, and the sanity I’d tried to cling to had fissures running through it as I got out of the chair and marched over to the little group. From the way they looked at me, I must’ve appeared slightly insane, like someone on the verge of cracking.
“You say I’m stuck here, but I don’t even know where here is. What you people are. I want answers or I’m going to…” To what? What would I do? The pain that waited for me beyond this place led to death. I didn’t have anything to threaten them with. I’d thought I had nothing before. Somehow, as I stood here, still soaked, beginning to shiver, I had even less.
Everyone was silent for a moment. I didn’t know if they were pitying me or annoyed, ready to chuck me out the door themselves, because I’d stopped looking at them, stopped focusing on anything but the new puddle forming at my feet.
“There’s got to be something. Get her a room and we’ll retest in a few days,” Kaden said, and then left.
“Yeah, I’ll see you later. I got a thing,” Cookie said, clearly running for the hills so as not to get sucked into my situation. Connor didn’t say anything. He just left.
The silence continued, and I saw Dice shifting on his feet, looking almost as uncomfortable as I was.
“We’re tinkers,” he said after another moment of awkwardness.
Apparently I was so pathetic that I’d broken Dice, a man who’d been ready to murder me, down into a state of pity. I wasn’t sure if this was something to be proud of or humiliated by. My curiosity was stronger than any other emotion running wild.
“What’s a tinker?”
“We get paid to fix things that people want fixed.”
Oh yeah, this sounded shady for sure. “Like what?” I asked, wondering how much I really wanted to know. No matter what they said, I was finding a way out of this situation.
“More than you can imagine,” he said with a laugh.
“Am I supposed to be a tinker?” Was that what they were testing me for? Would I have to murder people too? Wasn’t going to happen. It wasn’t how I was made.
“With your aptitude readings? I’d say not,” he said, laughing again.
He might’ve thought he was insulting me, but it was the first good news in a week. I sucked too much to do their dirty work.
“Well, I guess we’ll find you a room.” He walked out of the space, and again, I followed him because that was all I could do.
He walked farther down the hallway than I’d been as of yet.
