hesitate. If she were untrue, she just might off me with that extremely sharp katana sword of hers. Before completely psyching myself out of doing it, I ignited a globe. “Can I trust Lei?”
“What’s that?” Lei asked, coming back into the room.
I gasped as she crossed the distance between us, her hand on the handle of her sword. Why the hell is her hand always near her sword?
Chapter Fourteen
“Yes, I am trustworthy,” Lei’s image said within the globe.
Lei’s lips parted into a wide grin. “Brilliant. Yours is a truth globe.”
“Huh?” I totally wasn’t expecting that response. My body shook as the energy faded from it.
“Well, that’s good.” Nana said from the doorframe of the bathroom. “It would have been awkward if you weren’t true, Lei.” Nana went to the wardrobe, pulled out a nightgown and robe, and snatched my toiletry bag from the shelf. “Kale told me you found Faith. Is she okay?”
“Yes, she’s fine,” I said, with a hitch in my voice as I recalled Faith’s limp body shackled to the tree. “But it was so horrible.” She shut the wardrobe door. “What are you doing with my things?” I asked.
“You should take a hot bath and relax,” Nana said. “It’s been a long night.”
“Go and take a soak, Gia, and I’ll give Ms. Kearns the details,” Lei said.
I snapped up a banana from the silver tray and peeled it. By the time I reached the bathroom, I had scarfed it down, my cheeks full like a squirrel storing nuts. After skinning out of my clothes, I sank to chin level in the hot water. For a few moments, I pretended I was home in my own tub. I missed Pop like crazy. I stayed motionless, letting the warmth caress me. When I felt better, I pulled myself out, dried off, and slipped on my nightgown and robe. I wiped the steam off the mirror and ran a comb through my wet hair, pausing mid-tangle at a knock on the door.
“Come in.”
Lei eased in and stood behind me. I eyed her image in the mirror. We were almost the same height, but I was about an inch taller. “You’re upset?”
“I’m fine.” Why am I always saying that? Am I fine? Or just trying to convince myself I am? It wasn’t like everyone in Asile was mean to me. Well, except Veronique. “Hey, what do you know about Veronique?”
“She’s a nutter bunny.” Lei studied herself in the mirror and rubbed at a black smudge under her left eye. “She’s always throwing herself at Arik. I think he fancied her once, but it fizzled out after she showed her true spots. Be careful around her. The girl is dodgy.”
So they’re not together. Maybe I had a chance after all.
I smiled and dragged the comb through my hair again. “You have to admit she’s beautiful.”
“Yeah, a beautiful snake.”
I laughed. “Why do you say that?”
“She spent a year at academy training with us,” she said. “She had been privately trained before then. Sentinels work together in battles. She wasn’t a team player. She only wanted to be the top Sentinel in all the games.”
“Did she come out on top?”
“No. She could never beat Arik.”
I smiled at that.
She gave me a curious look. “Do you like Arik?”
I paused, and then shrugged. “Of course, I do. I like you, too.”
“I meant like like him.”
“Does it show?”
“Like a nasty gash in your arm.”
“Gross. Only a warrior uses analogies like that one.”
She pursed her lips. “Was it too much?”
I picked up Nana’s jar of face cream, scooped some out with my fingertips, and rubbed it onto my face. “Who am I kidding? I can’t compete with Veronique. Heck, I don’t even know if I want to try.”
She gave me a sympathetic smile. “You haven’t got the correct picture of yourself. Perfect heart-shaped face. Huge green eyes. Pouty lips. Your features are amazing. Men like to shake it up with a vixen like Veronique. But when it comes to love, they go for something deeper. Like you.”
I gave her reflection an appreciative smile. “Thanks.”
“It’s useless, anyhow. You’re a Sentinel, and it’s illegal to be with another one.”
I wiped the cream from my face with a wet washcloth. I decided not to tell her I was the Doomsday Child and it didn’t matter if Arik and I were both Sentinels.
“Besides, we’re supposed to stay pure for our betrothals.”
Betrothal for Sentinels. But I was something different. No matter what Carrig said, I wouldn’t be forced to marry a stranger.