Page 69

So I remained in the forest, hoping something would happen to suddenly help me decide what I wanted to do with myself, and my life.

I’d been there five days, and was leaning over the stream to get some water when a bit of movement a good distance to my right caught my attention. It was probably just an animal in the forest outside my shadowed protection, but I wanted to check anyway.

Standing up, I strode across the distance between my stream and the edge of my shadowed barrier.

The shadows thinned as I approached, requiring no command. As Namir had said, they were an extension of me. And as long as I saw them that way, they would mold themselves to my will, moving and changing as I willed them to.

My eyebrows lifted when I found Lavee leaned up against a tree outside my barrier, tossing a small knife in the air repeatedly, and catching it as it fell down.

I scanned the trees behind her, looking for any sign of Namir. It definitely wouldn’t be past him to use her as bait to convince me to open up the boundaries of my shadowed barrier.

But, I could always just replace it and kick him out if he did so.

So, I parted the shadows, stepping into the doorway I’d created in the shield and then leaning up against one side of them.

Lavee’s gaze trailed over the gap in my shadows. “Damn, Diora.”

“Did he send you?” I didn’t bother beating around the bush.

“No. He’s made it clear to all of us that he wants us to leave you alone until you’re ready to come out.”

My gaze scanned the forest.

I believed her… mostly.

Namir had broken my trust, and that made it hard to trust any of his friends.

“So, are you just going to stay out here forever?” She gestured toward my shadowed bubble. “Shit in the forest and eat wild mushrooms and bulbs for the rest of your immortal life?”

I scowled. “No. This is temporary; I’m staying until I’ve decided where I’m going to go next and what I’m going to do.”

Understanding softened her face, and she dipped her head, slipping the small knife she’d been flipping into some kind of holster on her thigh, under the slit on her black slip-dress. “What are you considering?”

I shrugged my shoulders, not wanting to tell her.

“Can I come in?” She gestured to my bubble.

I grimaced, and she flashed me a grin as she stepped away from the tree, and then slipped into the space I’d claimed as mine. I didn’t mind letting her in, but Namir or Jesh would eventually come looking for her, and they’d both broken my trust already.

“Not much, huh?” Her gaze swept the shitty bed I’d made myself with moss and soft leaves.

“Nope. But it’s temporary.” I sat down in the spot I liked to sit in the most, with my back against a smooth tree trunk. She sat on a log I’d set up for preparing food. There wasn’t much I could do with the plants I scavenged, but I tried to cut them and toss them together to improve the taste slightly.

Lavee nodded, still looking around. “Namir’s kind of a mess out there, you know. He’s refused to leave the forest or sleep in a bed or eat normal food since you came out here.”

I scowled. “He kept things from me. Big, important things. And he knows honesty is important to me; he just chose not to tell me.”

“I don’t judge you for feeling that way. I just thought you might like to know that he’s fucked up over it too.”

Strangely enough, she was right.

I did like knowing that.

If it made me a monster, she could add it to the list.

“Thank you.”

She nodded again.