Page 316 of Shadowblood Souls
“Yeah. Under different circumstances, I’d appreciate the gesture.” Riva laughs roughly and then digs into the basket. “I guess we might as well make the most of it.”
Under the cloth covering, we find raspberry and custard tarts, a container of popcorn, miniature sandwiches, and a couple of bottles of what turns out to be lemonade.
Riva sips hers and wrinkles her nose at it. “Not sour enough.”
I find I’m capable of smiling at her. “You’ll have to ask them to import some lemons so you can make your own, Shrimp.”
“That’s not likely to happen. I don’t think Clancy is very happy with me right now in general.”
I pause, my stomach clenching all over again. “I saw Dom at lunch. We talked a little.”
I don’t know how much I should say out loud in case Clancy’s monitoring us. But Riva can obviously guess that Dominic told me about their mission—and what they found out about Clancy’s approach to global activism—from my brief remark.
She sighs and takes a bite of one of the tarts. “It was too good to be true right from the start, wasn’t it? We’ll figure something out.”
She’s already working on a plan—I know her well enough to tell. She got us out of a facility before.
But that one wasn’t on an isolated island. And it was only the four of us she needed to break out.
“At least we have the chance to train and improve our skills while we’re here,” I say. “I’ve been working on the exercises Rollick suggested for controlling my shifts. Obviously they didn’t help yesterday, but in less tense situations, I think I’m making progress. He wasn’t wrong about some things even if… things have turned out badly here too.”
I wince inwardly as images come back to me of the pictures Clancy showed me when he was first pitching his new plan for us shadowbloods. Things went very badly before—there’s no denying that fact.
Riva considers my expression. “You heard about what the shadowkind did to the kids we got free.”
“I saw the photos he has.”
She gives a soft hum but doesn’t say anything else, her gaze going momentarily distant. I wish I could read her mind.
This whole situation would be so much easier if we all could communicate through thoughts alone. Although I’m not sure I’d want Riva seeing everything that’s in my head.
She slips off her running shoes and socks before scooting onto one of the smooth stones around the pool. With a tug of her pantlegs to her knees, she dips her feet into the water.
“Not bad.” She swishes her feet back and forth. “Not as warm as I’d usually like, but I guess it’d be a little much to expect a hot tub.”
The rippling water tempts me. We spent all that time on the yacht sailing around the ocean, and I never really got the chance to swim.
I hesitate and then ease over to the pool’s edge too. The water laps around my feet and calves, as warm as the tropical air around us.
I shoot Riva a sideways glance. “I don’t know what you’re complaining about. This is perfect.”
She laughs more openly this time, the bright, buoyant sound that sends a giddy shiver right down the middle of me. “No one’s stopping you from diving in.”
I suppose that’s true. I look down at myself and then at the other basket with the swimming clothes. But I don’t really want to get changed with Riva right here, even though I know she’d avert her eyes for my privacy.
I don’t want to deal with the feelings that’d rise up in me, getting undressed with her so close by.
But it’s not as if I’m particularly attached to the tee and sweats I’m wearing. Without letting myself second-guess the impulse, I push off right into the water in my regular clothes.
Riva laughs again, the perfect soundtrack to the delight of the warm water closing around my large frame. I kick off from one end of the pool to the other, but it’s only about fifteen feet across, so not much of a workout.
Oh, well. It isn’t the swimming I like most anyway.
I stretch out on my back, flexing my muscles in the right places to keep me afloat. My body bobs in the peaceful water.
For a moment, I feel as if I weigh nothing at all.
I close my eyes, absorbing the sensation of floating free. My body drifts toward the spray of the waterfall, and I scull briefly to nudge myself away.
