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“You are coming into my bed?” Tegan asked in surprise even as she moved over. “I do not think that this is right.”
“I am your cousin; it’s perfectly alright for me to bed-share,” Sloane told her seriously.
“Oh, I just meant you will take up too much room,” Tegan admitted sheepishly. Sloane laughed out loud, and Tegan hastily hushed him. She knew she had not been asleep for long and that it was the early hours of the morning. “You will wake others,” she scolded him.
“They’ll probably think you are training and that it was a war cry,” Sloane said as he got comfortable.
“A war cry?” Tegan snorted in contempt. “Why would anyone do that? It only alerts your opponent that you are attacking.”
“You scare me sometimes,” Sloane told her as he looked at her hesitantly. “You know that the way you think is not normal, don’t you?”
“Notnormal? Maybe. But, cousin, can you say I am wrong?” Tegan turned on her side to look at him.
“That! That right there is the scary look.” Sloane poked her in her shoulder, and Tegan laughed as she turned onto her back again.
“You sleep like the dead,” Tegan began.
“The Made do not sleep,” Sloane told her with a cheeky grin.
She snorted out a laugh despite herself. “You sleep like the dead, not the Made. You must have been awake to hear me restless?” Tegan’s smile faded as she looked up at the ceiling. The small nightlight cast a soft shadow on the walls and ceiling.
“I was not asleep.” Sloane sighed.
Tegan bit her lip and thought about what to say. “You could try talking about it?”
“With you?” Sloane asked softly.
“I may be the best person to talk to.” Tegan’s voice held her conviction that she believed it to be correct.
“Your social skills are appalling.” Sloane nudged her to ease the harshness of his words. “Why would you be the best?”
“Because I am not as involved as the others?” Tegan told him honestly. “Because I care that you are hurting. Because I can be objective as I do not know either of you that well.”
“They’re all very good points,” Sloane conceded. He reached over and turned the light off. “Is that okay?”
“The dark does not frighten me,” Tegan said with amusement.
“It should,” Sloane answered softly. They both lay in the dark of her room in silence, and she thought he was not going to speak until she heard him draw a breath. “I have lived here since I was a child. Michael and I competed between ourselves for years before we realised we were even friends.” Sloane had told her this before, but she did not comment. “Zahra was always there or hanging about somewhere.”
“Hanging about?” Tegan asked softly.
“I mean she was always loitering or lingering near where we were,” Sloane explained. He felt Tegan nod beside him in understanding. “She was always pretty.” He smiled softly in the dark. “She used to wear pink ribbons in her hair. Her hair was longer then. She had such curly hair, and with the pink ribbons, she looked like a porcelain doll.” Sloane rubbed a hand over his eyes. “We got older, and when I started noticing the female Akrhyn more, Zahra did not like that.” He gave a soft chuckle, and Tegan felt sadness swell within her. “There was this one occasion where Michael and I had been training and I lost against him, so naturally I had to clean the training room. One of the visiting Castors had brought his family with him, and his daughter was slightly older than me and really pretty.” Sloane could still see her approach him in the training room, her black pants sitting low on her slim hips. A top with a flower pattern and her hair loose on her shoulders. “Likereallypretty.”
“You were attracted to her, I understand,” Tegan said sarcastically.
“We hung out—”
“Like Zahra did?”
“No, um, I mean that we spent time with each other,” Sloane told her.
“Oh, there is too much hanging,” Tegan said grumpily.
“Sorry.” Sloane was glad that she couldn’t see his grin. “Anyway, Olena and I spent time together, and one day, thinking I had read it right, I kissed her.”
“That’s nice? What is the relevance to your predicament now?”
“Zahra saw us,” Sloane told her. “She cornered me, I mean got me alone and screamed and cried, and honestly…I was fourteen, I had no clue, I mean no idea what in shade’s name was happening.”
