Synnr's Hope - Kate Rudolph Page 0,63

when he saw it. A green gem on a golden chain caught his eye. Gold wire twisted around the rough cut stone and braided up to meet the chain. It was beautiful, not refined, but that was what made it interesting. And it would look amazing on Lena’s neck. Without giving it much thought Solan waved the clerk over and bought the necklace. The clerk took it back and wrapped it up in paper before handing it to him.

Then he started to doubt. Did Lena like jewelry? Would she like the necklace? Should he let her choose something instead? The questions bombarded him and he shoved the gift into his pocket. He had to think a little more before giving it to her.

A man bumped into him and Solan glanced up, taking him in. He looked sort of familiar. But he and Lena had been walking through town all day. Solan had probably just seen him earlier. There was a scar that bisected his bottom lip, but nothing else particularly noteworthy. He wore a black jacket and a black hat and moved away hastily before Solan could say anything. Should he follow after him? Was the man up to something?

“You’re acting weird.” Lena came up to him and Solan jerked in surprise. He hadn’t realized she was back.

“No, I’m not.” That was a non-suspicious response.

Lena just smiled. “Okay, weirdo.” She kissed him quickly, and when she pulled back, Solan was smiling too.

He didn’t know how he had ever resisted this thing between them. Now that he had opened himself to it, it felt inevitable in the best way. And being out in the village with Lena was giving him a glimpse of what life might be like in the future when there was no threat of war and no obligation to the Synnr military. Would she want a family? Did he? Yes, with her he did.

Was this how his father felt with Shodi? Solan scowled.

“What’s with the sour face?” Lena asked, bumping her hip against his.

“Nothing.” It came out harsher than he meant. He didn’t want to take his feelings out on Lena. “I’m sorry, I was just thinking about —”

“Your dad?” she guessed.

“How did you know?” He had thought of his father more in the past month than he had in his entire life, and he didn’t particularly like it.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist,” she said cryptically.

“What?” What was that supposed to mean?

“Earth saying,” Lena explained. “I don’t have to be really smart and educated to guess something obvious.” She paused. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“I want to forget about it,” he confessed. They were having a nice day. He didn’t want to ruin it.

Lena smiled and kissed his cheek. “Okay. Let’s go get food.”

Just like that? It was too easy.

But she let it drop and she didn’t give him any hint that she was thinking about it for the rest of the day. They ended up in the town’s nicest restaurant, though their options were limited. They only had three restaurants to choose from. And it took Solan a little while, but he figured out that the servers were treating them strangely, specially. It all became clear when their server explained that they were used to seeing newly Matched units coming down from the cabin up the road. Rumors had spread about the training facility, but the town had no idea it was run by the Synnr military. They thought it was a retreat frequented by newly Matched units. Neither he nor Lena was about to tell anyone the truth.

They took their time eating, and by the time they left the restaurant it was after nine o’clock. They had to be back at the facility by ten and it was a bit of a walk. But even in a rush the walk back was nice, and he and Lena kept their hands laced together. They made it back with ten minutes to spare and sat on the step in front of the door for a few of those minutes before going inside.

“What do you think the chances are that this murder house lets us sleep through the night?” Lena asked.

“Making that bet would be tempting the gods.” But no matter what the house threw at them, it couldn’t take away the memory of this perfect day.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

ONCE THEY STARTED SUCCESSFULLY completing assignments, the training drills began to all blur together. Lena knew it had been less than a week since she and Solan had spent