Drowning in Deception (20 page)

“I hope you don’t mind that we’ve
invited them to join us. You see, Clover and Gart have something they’d like to
discuss with you, Mr. Swelton.”

It wasn’t as difficult as she’d imagined
it would be. The play acting was one big lie to her parents. But wasn’t that
what they had been doing her entire life, play acting and lying? She decided
she had learned from the best and that’s why she was able to do it with such
ease. Her mother chastised her once for her dull appearance. But Clover smiled
it off, saying that she’d had a very busy day. Since she hadn’t left the house
at all, doing her make-up and hair hadn’t been a priority. Her mother flashed a
slightly suspicious look, but quickly resumed her typical smile and chirpy
voice.

As it turned out, Clover ended up being
glad that Sera had joined them. At one point as they ate their meal, Clover,
who was sitting next to Zander, leaned against him affectionately. It was
purely habit from numerous times of sitting beside him as their family dined
together. But the look that Sera threw at her was full of venom. Clover took
full advantage of the situation after that by doting over Zander, putting her
hand over his, and leaning in for a small kiss every now and then. She no
longer had those feeling for Zander, but she figured it would help keep things
convincing for her parents. And besides, she thoroughly enjoyed seeing Sera
squirm. 

The hardest part by far was bringing up
the subject of Clover and Gart wanting to work on the top floor of the Watch
Tower. They did this right at the end of the meal, just before dessert.

“Daddy,” she purred, “You know I’ve
always looked up to you and admired all the hard work you do to keep us all
safe. Well, I’ve been doing some thinking, and I’d like to follow in your
footsteps. I brought the subject up with Gart the other day and he was very
eager about my idea.”

“Yes, sir,” Gart added. “I think that
what you do is very honorable. I would be very proud to be considered for a
position there.” Clover batted her eyelashes at Gart. He was doing a very good
job of sounding sincere.

She noticed her mother shoot a strange
look at her father, and she knew it was her way of telling him, “No. I do not
want my daughter involved with your kind of work.”

But Bromer did not give anything away. “I’m
touched,” he said. “And you’re right. My work is very important to all of the
citizens of Eadin. But Clover, surely you must know that there are no women who
work on the top floor.”

Sprigg laughed. “Oh, Clove. I can’t see
you fighting monsters, anyway.” He made his voice high to mock her. “Oh, dear.
I’ve chipped my pretty nail polish.”

Ignoring her brother’s teasing, she felt
her face burn red. What kind of a stupid rule was that? Not that she really
wanted to work there at all, but that wasn’t the point.

Zander must have seen the angry look on
her face and quickly diverted everyone’s attention. “Who would like dessert?
I’ll get it, Clove.” He got up and began clearing plates from the table.

Clover nodded a thank you to him before
looking back to her father. “Surely you have some pull there, being the boss
and all.” She grabbed her glass of fake milk, hoping to cool the anger that had
started to build in her.

“No. I’m afraid that rules are rules.”
Her father cleared his throat. “There are exceptions, of course. Sprigg, for
example, already has a place there when he’s old enough.”

Forgetting that her milk was fake and
having registered her father’s words, Clover choked and spit the salty white
liquid all over the piece of pie that Zander had just placed in front of her.

“Oh, dear. Are you all right?” Her
mother reached across the table for her.

Clover coughed a few times to clear her
throat.

How was it fair that Sprigg could have that
position and she couldn’t? It was the first time in her life that Clover felt
jealous of her little brother. But the jealousy was quickly squelched by a more
powerful emotion: fear. Fear for her little brother. Her father was planning to
train him to be a ruthless, lying murderer. That certainly wasn’t the future
she wanted for him. And she wondered if he would even have a say in the matter.
She knew he wouldn’t. His daily doses of drugged milk would make him compliant
and more than happy to help his fellow Eadinites.

She suddenly had a sickening vision of
little Sprigg standing on the helichopper platform, jagged knife in hand as he
forced little Abilee to bow down to him.

“Clover. Are you sure you’re okay?” Her
mother’s cheerful concern brought her back to the table. She glanced over at
Sprigg who was grinning at her in his silly, goofy way. She felt her hatred for
her father swell to the size of a watermelon in her gut. For the sake of her
baby brother, if for no other reason, they had to find a way to stop the
drugging and put an end to the brutality.

“I’m fine, Mom” she managed to get out.

Her father, eager to pick up where the
conversation left off, said, “But don’t worry. There are plenty of other
positions available at the Watch Tower. I’m sure we could find something that
would suit your talents and your likes.”

He turned to Gart. “As for you, young
man. You seem like a fine candidate, but I’m afraid there’s a lot more to it
than simply wanting to work on the top floor. There are tests to be taken
first, and there’s rigorous training involved.”

“I’m up for the challenge, sir.”

“Wonderful. I’ll make arrangements for
you and Clover to meet with Anders tomorrow. Say, ten o’clock? I won’t be able
to make it, as I’ll be at home in bed.”

Sera nodded at Clover, indicating this
was good news, and probably because she wanted to hurry and get the evening
wrapped up so that she could have Zander back.

They may have found a way to get into
the upper floors of the Watch Tower. It was a start. Whether or not they could
make their way to the weapons storage was another thing.

Clover could hardly wait to see Rye that
night. There was so much she wanted to talk to him about. The second her
parents and brother were out the door, she whipped into her room to change back
into comfy clothes. She grabbed her bag and uttered, “See you at the Watch
Tower in the morning,” to Gart as she rushed out the door.

Tiny snowflakes were starting to fall as
she shrugged her jacket on and began jogging in a direction to veer around the
way her parents were walking.

By the time she reached the door in the
Wall, a thick carpet of white covered the ground. Rye was there, waiting for
her, and he instantly pulled her into a warm hug.

She took a moment to catch her breath
before looking up to his dark eyes, which still looked dangerous to her,
despite the perfect smile he was giving her. “I missed you,” she said.

“Oh, Clove,” he breathed, taking her by
the hand and leading her through the door toward their little nest, “I missed
you before we even said good-bye last night.” She felt her heart swell in her
chest. “I was worried that you wouldn’t come back…now that you know…”

“Well, I have to admit that I have been
afraid of you since the day we met. But now… I don’t know… After everything
I’ve learned and seen I’m starting to believe that you would never hurt me.”

He was too quick to respond. “But I
would - not by choice, of course. If I were to transition, well…pure instinct
would kick in. I wouldn’t be able to stop myself.”

She didn’t say anything. She could tell he
was starting to really care about her, just as she was starting to have strong
feelings for him. She truly believed that would be enough to stop him should he
change in her presence.

Once inside, she sat cross-legged on the
blanket and looked at him with a partial smile.

“What?”

“I don’t know. I guess I’m just curious.
How did this happen? Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. It’s just that,
you were so mean at first, like you hated me. What happened?”

He pressed his lips together.

“I like it, Rye. I like being with you.
I just want to know why you changed your mind about me. Was it because I helped
Abilee, or was it because you felt sorry for me when I found out about my dad?”

He sat cross-legged in front of her so
their knees were touching. “You have a good heart. There’s no doubt about that.
But don’t ever think my feelings toward you were borne of pity.” His eyes
penetrated hers hard, like he wanted her to fully understand what he was going
to say. “It happened that first night in here.”

Her eyes flitted around, searching for
the memories of that night. Aside from helping to warm her up, he hadn’t been
overly nice that night. She tilted her head at him and narrowed her eyes.

“When you were cold,” he said. He got up
and moved around to her back, where he sat down and straddled her from behind with
his legs. He pressed his firm chest against her back and leaned his chin on her
shoulder so they were cheek to cheek. Then he wrapped his arms around her and
placed his hands together on her stomach. “I sat like this to warm you up.
Remember?”

“Yeah.” She shuddered slightly. “That
was nice. But you still acted like you hated me.”

He ignored her words, and inhaled
deeply. “Your scent was like nothing I’d ever smelled before. So delicious.”

“Careful,” she chuckled. I don’t know if
I like the idea of smelling yummy to you.”

“Sorry. Poor choice of words. I don’t
mean it like that.” He nuzzled his nose into her neck and inhaled deeply. “And
the way your body felt against mine. It was like your heart was beating in my
own chest, fast and furious just like it is right now. And the sound of your
breath moving in and out of your throat, the music of your voice so close to my
ear…”

She turned her head to see his face.

“It was that night, Clove. I can’t
explain. You did something to me and I knew in that moment that I would never
be the same again. And then you offered to let me keep your book for Abilee. If
I did keep it, then there would have been no reason for you to ever come back,
and I needed to see you again, to figure out why I felt such an overwhelming
attraction to a…a god.”

Their lips met softly, briefly.

“So I insisted you come back the next
night for your book. I couldn’t wait to see you again. But…then I convinced
myself that those feelings were all wrong. It could never work between us, and
besides, how could someone like you ever have feelings for someone like me?” He
paused, sighed. “So if I seemed angry to you, that’s why. I was mad because I
felt so strongly toward someone I didn’t think I could ever be with.”

She whispered, “Rye…”

“Arma thinks we need to stop. The two of
us have gotten into a few pretty heated fights about it that have ended in me
having to hunt.”

 She could feel her heart thumping hard
against his chest at her back. Her eyes were glued to his and her mouth hung
open, trembling.

“Rye…” she tried again.

“She’s right, Clove. There’s no way it
can ever work for us, but I can’t stop myself from seeing you. And I can’t for
the life of me figure out what you could possibly see in a…” He swallowed hard,
“…a monster like me.”

Their lips met again, but this time it
wasn’t brief and it wasn’t soft. It was long and passionate, a kiss like none
Clover had ever experienced before. And when they were finally finished, she
had tears of joy drizzling down her cheeks.

Her voice was low and even. “I don’t see
a monster when I look at you. We had a deal, remember? Please don’t call
yourself that.”

“What
do
you see?”

“I see an authentic person. You look
dangerous to me, except when you laugh. But you don’t try to hide it. I like
that you are the real you. And you are the most honest, most human person I’ve
ever met. The only monsters I know live in Eadin.”

They sat in silence for a long time,
listening to the soft whisper of snow as it hit the foliage outside.

After a time, Rye switched positions,
coming around to face Clover.

“I like how you look with just a little
bit of the sparkly stuff.” He was examining her face closely, and she found
herself doing the same to him.

She reached up and traced her fingers
along his smooth forehead, his nose with the slight bump at the bridge, his
full lips, and finally, very slowly, very cautiously, her finger ran down the
length of the jagged, purple scar.

“How did you get this?”

His eyes glued to hers. “Are you sure
you want to know?”

“Yes.”

He hesitated, his eyes casting to the ground.
“It was a few years ago. I was helping load the choppers one night, and I guess
one of the gods didn't like how I was looking at him. He sliced my face with
his knife.”

“I'm so sorry, Rye.”

But he wouldn't look up at her, his eyes
cemented to the ground.

“Rye. What is it? Please look at me.”