Amaranth (25 page)

She whisked me off to the kitchen. “So, this situation with
Samira is quite a mess, wouldn’t you say?” She began sorting through the
fridge.

“I’m not sure if that accurately describes it.” I rolled my
eyes and thumbed through her recipes on the counter, working hard to conceal
the sadness I felt over her lover’s death. She seemed so happy, so at peace.
Though she was no longer with him, she appeared content, probably just knowing
he was out
there
somewhere, still existing in
the world. At least that’s how I’d feel about Gavin if we weren’t together.
Knowing he was alive, and that I had loved and lost him, would be better than
not having him at all.

“I’m not going to lie. You guys have certainly gotten
yourselves into some trouble. Word is spreading fast in our circles, and it’s
not going to be a pretty fight.”

I dropped the recipe card I held on the counter. “There’s
going to be a big fight?”

“Well, something has to be done. Gavin certainly can’t go
back by himself and face her, that’s useless.” She started slicing fresh
watermelon and crisp stalks of celery.

I thought a moment, nodded and picked up the recipe card. “I
guess I was hoping he wouldn’t have to go back at all. But I know how important
this is to him. Plus, our friends are there. They’re waiting for our help.”

“Yeah, poor Gabe. At least Gavin won’t be going back alone.
The resistance has been building, and he’ll have plenty of help to back him up.
But it’s going to take some planning, that’s for sure.”

“I’ll do whatever I can to help. I mean, if it weren’t for
me barging in and ruining his plan in the first place, he wouldn’t be in this
situation. None of you would.”

She stopped cutting for a moment to look at me. “If you
didn’t go get him, he might never have come back, Camille. I’m thankful you got
my brother out of there. I’m not opposed to his plans, don’t get me wrong. But
I wish he would’ve gone about it differently … waited longer … brought more
help with him. At least this time he’ll be able to do it right. When he first
mentioned his crazy plan, I told him to wait for me, to let me help him. I know
Samira better than he does, but you know Gavin, he’s so stubborn.”

I slid the card back in, tossed the recipe tin shut and
nodded, thankful she wasn’t upset with me. She already had reason enough to
hate me. “I hope you’re right. I just made it much harder now. There’s always
the chance …”

“Things will be complicated for a while,” she continued,
chopping lettuce, “and Gavin has a tough road ahead of him by going through
with this. Yes, there’s no guarantee it will work. It might turn into the
riskiest war our kind has seen in centuries, even more so than the last. But
there is no easy way to deal with Samira. And there’s
never
an easy way around a relationship like yours. Been there,
done
that.”

I leaned over the counter as she spoke, examined the
clusters of pictures aligned over the sink and stove’s backsplashes.

My stomach sank when I looked closer at the man in one
picture. Joel’s familiar, wise face stared back at me, Arianna standing next to
him, immense love and adoration in her eyes. “Where was this one taken?”

“Oh, that one.” She reached over to touch the picture. “That
was in London, many years ago. Joel, the love of my life. Gavin’s told you
about him, no doubt.”

“He has, yeah…” I choked and couldn’t finish; dread crept
through me like my old invasive enemies. What would she do when she found out
he was gone? That he died to save me? I turned my head, unable to look at the
picture any longer.

“Those were good times,” she shook her head as if bumping
Joel’s memory from her, moved away from the picture and back to the cutting
board, “but Samira never wanted us together in the first place. She made us cut
off our engagement long ago.”

“You were engaged?” My face dropped at her words. It was bad
enough I took her lover from her. Now I was a fiancé killer.

“Yeah,” she dumped the diced vegetables in a bowl, stared at
them for a moment, let out a sigh. “She never approved of our relationship. By
the time my father forced me to leave Amaranth and placed me with Gavin and his
family, I never saw Joel again.”

The oven’s timer went off, and I turned to help her pull out
the chicken. “What do you mean,
placed with Gavin’s
family
?” I set the perfect golden chicken on top of an oven mitt,
inhaled the succulent scent.

“My father wasn’t a very dependable man. He wanted me to
have a good family, wanted me to be as far from Samira as possible. So he made
an arrangement with a good friend of his. That friend was Gavin’s father. And
Gavin’s family became my own. We’re not brother and sister by blood, didn’t he
tell you?”

“No, I had no idea…” The fact that she looked nothing like
Gavin suddenly made sense, and my interest burned to know more. “You’d never
know it. I mean, you and Gavin seem so close.”

“Oh we are.” She smiled, started carving the chicken, placed
the meat on an antique platter. “I consider him my brother in every way that
counts, although Samira’s still my mother by blood, unfortunately. She’s a
wretched woman. But I’m sure you know that by now.”

Book Two of The Resistance Trilogy

Visit www.RachaelWade.com