Page 121 of Serpent In White

I need to know if that was an actual flashback, or some weird dreamlike situation.

“Home,” Rhiannon scoffs, pulling me out of my thoughts. “It’syourhome, not mine. I don’t have a home.”

“You will.” My tone is genuine, and I don’t care if she doesn’t believe me yet. She will when she meets everyone and sees what an amazing community we have.

If all she had before was a house of pain and neglect, then I think it’s time for her to experience what a real family is about. And what we can do for her. What we do for each other.

We’re quiet as we walk down the mountain. We eat on the go, our last sandwich, knowing that the farther we get tonight, the less we’ll have to travel in the morning. But we definitely have to spend one more night. That’s a given.

The sun will set in less than an hour at this point, so my goal is to find us a comfortable spot to settle in. We’ve made good time since we left the clearing. We’re close to Drake’s place, and his cabin isn’t that far from the bottom.

I find a spot I like, off the trail a ways, between a few tall trees. I have just enough daylight left to show Rhiannon how to properly start a fire, then get the tent set up, with her help. She’s taking to the camping stuff pretty quickly, which is surprising since according to her, she’s never spent time in the woods before.

She told me her family always had a yard and room for her and her friends to play outside, but her mother isn’t exactly a fan of being outdoors, unless it’s on a beach with a drink in her hand.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what happened to your father?” I turn my face to Rhi while setting up some food for us over the fire. Vegetable and bean soup.

I don’t usually eat soup every damn day, but it’s the easiest thing to heat over a fire. Otherwise, it would’ve been sandwiches for every meal.

“I never knew him,” she tells me, fiddling with the remaining chipped polish on her fingernails. She does this a lot, like a nervous habit, so most of it is gone by now. “He left when I was a baby. My mom used to tell me he was a piece of shit… a deadbeat. But I don’t believe her. I think she kicked him out. She’s an asshole like that.”

“That sucks,” I reply, empathy fresh in my words. “Still, you don’t think he’d try to reach out to you over the years, even if she made him go?”

She shrugs. “He might’ve. Who knows.”

“She would keep it from you?”

“Hell yea. Like I said, she’s an asshole. Typical entitled rich bitch from a rich bitch family.”

I swallow hard. The way she speaks about her family is so foreign to me.

I’m not a naïve idiot. We study the outside world a lot when we’re young, so we’re aware of the things that go on. And some of the Regnum who came in as strays tell us about their lives before The Principality. It’s rarely good.

Even so, I’ll never be able to commiserate with hating my parents or my family. I’m very blessed, and I realize that now more than ever.I will never take this life for granted.

“That’s sort of fascinating to me.” She gives me a look, to which I chuckle. “Not your mom being an asshole. The wealth. And the generations of wealth. I’ve never even held money before.”

“That’s insane,” she laughs, eyes lighting up with disbelief. “I can imagine that right there eliminates most problems from your society. Money is the root of all evils, as they say.”

“I’ve heard that one before!” I gasp, and she giggles.

We eat our dinner, chatting about this and that. Rhiannon tells me about her favorite things to learn, her favorite music, and she even gives me breakdowns of movies she loves that I’ve never even heard of. She has an interest in learning to cook, which I tell her I’m more than happy to help with, and she wants to learn more wilderness survival skills, which she’ll definitely get with The Principality.

She also wants to hear me sing, but I tell her she’ll have to wait until her first reflection for that. To which she does her little scowl, and it’s all too cute.

I think Rhiannon is cool. She’s the exact kind of girl who would have been my best friend if we’d grown up together. And who knows… Maybe I would have even had my first kiss with her.

Maybe I would have lost my virginity with her, experimenting, to see if I liked it.

I’m not questioning myself, or doubting what I’ve learned about my sexuality in the last few weeks with Darian and Drake. I know I like guys; love them, in fact. But I’m notrepelledby the thought of kissing Rhiannon. It doesn’t gross me out or anything.

So what the hell does that mean?

We sit by the fire, talking until it practically burns out. And when my eyelids are drooping, Rhiannon suggests carrying my sleepy ass into the tent with a chuckle. She goes off a few feet to use the metaphorical bathroom and brush her teeth while I put out the fire, then do the same. When I come back, she’s already inside the tent, all huddled up under her little blanket.

“We can share the sleeping bag,” I suggest, taking off my pants and my hoodie. Rhiannon shifts her blanket enough to glare at me, and I laugh. “I don’t mean get into it together, zipped up. I mean I’ll unzip it, turn it into a big blanket, and we can both sleep underneath. It’ll be more comfortable.”

“That seems odd, new friend.” She blinks her wide green eyes at me. “It seems like you’re trying to make a move, and I would insist, for your Head Priest boyfriend’s sake, that we stay as far apart as possible.” I can’t help but snicker again. “I’m serious. You’re already stripping down in front of me!”