Page 116 of Serpent In White

“Wow.” She folds her arms. “Someone’s been drinking the Kool-Aid.”

My brows zip together in confusion. “WhatAid?”

She bursts out laughing and shakes her head. “Never mind. Keep going with the hard sell, dude. I’m into it.”

I grin and roll my eyes. “You’ll accept that our way is better, Rhi. I’ll even throw in a sweetener for you. Unless you’re chicken…”

Her gaze narrows. “Alright, I’ll play. But what couldyouofferme? I doubt you have money…”

“Money is unnecessary.”

“The entire world would disagree with you, but go on.”

“I have something much more interesting I could give you.” My eyes lock on hers, brow cocked. “Ifyou stay with us.”

She visibly shivers and bites her lip, her thoughts going to an… unexpected place.She’s turned on…?

I pause for a moment, my gaze landing on her mouth, her pouty lips. Up until this second, I hadn’t really thought about it, but now I’m wondering if she would want to kiss me…

It’s entirely insane. I don’t know this girl at all, and I’m in love with someone else. Two someones, if we’re being technical. And they’re both men.

I’ve never been sexually attracted to a woman before… And this girl kind of feels more like a sister than anything.

And yet, she’s thinking about it. So nowI’mthinking about it.

I blink myself out of the trance and clear my throat. “I can’t tell you what it is until we get there. But I promise, it’ll blow your mind.”

Why does everything I’m saying sound sexual now??

“Okay,” she rasps breathlessly. “And what if I don’t stay?”

“I don’t think that’ll be an option.” I wink.

Then I go on packing up my things and start putting out the fire. Rhiannon just stands there the whole time, wondering what the hell I’m talking about. But the intrigue is working in my favor.

More than anything, she’s anxious to meet Darian, since she seems to have this idea about him in her head, already formed. But I know she’ll change her mind the moment she meets him.

He’s our King for a reason.

“Hey… last night you said you came out here for some closure or something,” she starts, and I pause what I’m doing. “What did you mean by that?”

I contemplate making something up but decide against it. If she’s going to become a member of my family, I’ll need to trust her fully.

“The circumstances surrounding my parents’ deaths were suspicious.” I busy my hands by getting my tent secured in its bag. “They were found in a ravine halfway down the mountain, and it looked like they’d fallen, or jumped… or something like that.” I swallow hard. “The thing about this mountain is that people don’t come up here often, and there’s a reason for it. Strange things occur up here. Even our security patrols are warned from coming all the way up. But I’ve always wondered about what happened to them… I just,” I pause and shake my head, breathing out slowly, “I don’t think they would have willingly jumped. They wouldn’t leave me behind like that, not on purpose.

“I wanted to come up here and try to find answers. I think the not knowing has held me back from a lot of spiritual growth and acceptance. Based on the feelings I got from that clearing, I know there’s more to it.”

The quiet stretches for miles, and when I finally glance over at Rhiannon, she’s staring at her shoes, chewing vigorously on her lower lip. Hearing what she’s thinking about the clearing, she lied to me last night when she said she didn’t see that black rock. She did, and it showed her something that now has her clamming up.

“We should go back to it,” she finally speaks, straightening up as she turns to face me.

“What?” I’m sure my face and tone convey how baffled I am by this statement.

“I can’t let you forfeit your search for answers just for me,” she insists. “You’re right. There’s something going on up there in that clearing. We should at least go check it out one last time before we head back. So you’ll know for sure.”

I give her a studious look. I don’t think she’s manipulating me into taking her back there in some attempt to resume her suicidal plans. If she were, I’d hear it.

What I do hear is her considering that the clearing was trying to convince her to kill herself last night…