Deviant Descendants (Descendants Academy #2) - Belle Malory Page 0,51
she was afraid. I wasn’t exactly making gestures of affection easier with my standoffish nature.
“Take care of yourselves.” She left, and the lock clicked behind her, followed by the sound of her footsteps going down the stairs.
Once she was gone, the two of us hung there silently for a few moments, taking in our new home for the next six months. Riley ventured inside the kitchen, looking around, opening drawers and cupboards. “Oh, hey!” A smirk pulled at her lips. “She left us a deck of cards.”
I scowled, remembering how our last game ended. “Don’t even think about it.”
Later that night, we sat across from each other at the table with mugs full of steaming hot chocolate we found in the cupboard, playing several rounds of crazy eights to pass the time. Figuring out how to work the stove had been tricky at first. But by using our fire-magic, we got a decent fire going, and the chocolate boiled quickly.
“I like your mom,” Riley said offhandedly as she dealt a new hand.
“Really?” Coming from her, that was surprising. “You know her original plan was to murder you, right?”
She snorted. “Can you blame her? If my child was cursed, I would do everything I could to protect them. Your go.”
I discarded the seven of hearts, unsure I believed her. “Even if it meant killing their sibling?”
“Depends on the circumstances.”
I tilted my head to the side. “Petra worked as a hollow for the last seventeen years. She used to torture prisoners with her mind magic. What exactly do you like about her?”
“Yes, she’s a little bit evil.” Riley shrugged, as if that were no big deal. “And she’s a little bit sweet. Kind of like you.”
“Ha!” I threw down a six of hearts. “You mean like you.”
One corner of her mouth curved. “Everyone has a good and bad side. Even magic is made up of both dark and light.” She discarded the eight of hearts. “And just like magic, the only side that matters is whichever one you give more energy—I’m changing the suit to clubs.”
She made a really good point.
I’d been so focused on Petra’s negatives, I hadn’t given her positives much consideration. For that matter, I hardly even thought of her as my mother. “She tortured Xander,” I said quietly, tossing my three of clubs.
Riley looked up from her hand. “So? You and I have tortured each other in countless ways, we’ve both tried to kill each other, and yet here we are, playing cards and drinking hot chocolate.”
“That can all be blamed on dark forces manipulating our inner psyches. She doesn’t have the same excuse.”
“She’s not that bad, Sheridan. In case you haven’t noticed, she didn’t kill me. And had she been successful in abducting me, you don’t know for sure that she would have gone through with it. Her bark appears a whole lot worse than her bite.”
“She would have gone through with it.”
“You sure about that?” Riley crooked her brow. “Would you stake your life on it?”
I blinked.
Hmm…I don’t know that I would. We were finally here in the Underworld, thanks to Petra. So far, she had only worked to help us—both of us. And if she truly wanted to kill Riley, she would have already done so. Instead, she was taking the riskier route by sheltering us for the next half year.
“You make a good point,” I acceded.
“And I play a good game.” Riley laid down her last card.
Dammit, she bested me again. “Another round?”
“Sure,” she grinned, “if you feel like losing again.”
25
We survived our first night in the Underworld unscathed, but I was sluggish by the time morning came. The apartment turned into an icebox at night, and we had to keep feeding the stove firewood. The wind howled and shook the walls, and every noise outside intensified. A rowdy pub down the street never went to sleep. Raucous laughter, screeching, and even growling kept me on edge. My imagination went rampant as I considered what kinds of creatures were lurking just beyond our walls. Only after everything quieted down did I finally get any actual sleep. Then I didn’t get out of bed until nearly noon, and the only reason I woke up at all was because Riley was shuffling around, making a lot of noise.
Curious, I stood and stretched, wincing at the crick in my neck. Not a great first night, all things considered. But it was one day we could check off of our six-month sentence. One day closer to freedom.