THE RESIN ARE NOT TO BE TRUSTED.
Collin was pacing by the time we got into his room.
“How?”
“We don’t know. Someone is either tracking us—or someone we think we can trust can’t be trusted.”
I lounged on one of Collin’s beds. It irked Theo how comfortable I was with Collin. I could just tell.
“Who did you tell?”
The question was directed at me along with his pointer finger. I wondered why the speculation was pointed at me. He was the one who was in constant contact with Pema without our knowledge.
“I told my mother, and my two friends, that’s all. All three are trustworthy.”
The Viking was always teetering on the edge between me loving him like a brother and me wanting to send him to Valhalla.
“Obviously not!”
The redness now apparent on my face was no longer from our tryst in the other room, but from anger. How dare he accuse my friends, or worse, my mother of such treachery?
“And you, Mr. Guardian? Let’s not forget it’s you who works directly for the Synod. Maybe it’s you that’s been feeding them information. We all know they have spies in the Resin.”
Collin grabbed his chest. I’d fatally wounded him with my accusation. I didn’t really believe he would rat us out. But my hurt feelings at being the prime suspect made me retaliate.
“I would never. I know who Theodore is.”
Poor guy, I’d really hurt him. I did that with my big mouth, often.
“You told Sway,” Theo whispered, looking down at his shoes. One clump of hair had fallen out of place, like it was ashamed to be associated with what he had to say. His shoes always became interesting when he was telling me something he thought I would react strongly to. Accusing Sway of ratting us out to the Escuro was going too far. I wouldn’t even entertain the thought.
“Sway is my dearest friend besides Ari and you. There’s no way.”
How dare he? It was one thing to make broad accusations in my direction, but to directly implicate Sway. Sway was amazing. Yes, she’d been distraught after everything, but crying out traitor was a whole different can of worms.
My phone buzzed in my pocket while Theo and Collin went back and forth on several other outlandish tangents. I pulled it out to check, and my day went from flirty girl to whore in five seconds flat.
“What?” Theo eyed my change of expression.
I threw myself back on the bed in a dramatic fashion and held out my phone for him to see.
“What did you do?” he half accused, half joked.
“I can’t even think of anything this time other than all this.” I swirled a circle with my finger indicating the mess with Theo.
I felt a hefty depression on the bed and looked up to see Collin sitting next to me. “You must be prudent and respectful. Go in and be completely humble.”
And then I fell off the bed laughing.
“What is so funny, female? Is respect and decency something to be laughed at?”
“Colby hasn’t been anything but arrogant and sarcastic to the Synod in her life. Plus, she wouldn’t know prudent if it jumped out of the ocean and bit her in the ass.”
“Hey!”
Theo disregarded my offense.
“How long do you have?”
That was the thing about the Synod. When they said jump, it was common knowledge that you responded with how high, how long, and what you should wear while you’re jumping. Of course, I was a little rebellious. If they told me two hours, I flashed in one hour and fifty nine minutes. On the outside, I played it cool. But the Synod was a scary bitch—or bitches. It was made up of seven Lucents who had been together so long, my mother and I joked that their menstrual cycles were probably in sync.
At least, they always seemed to be PMSing when I visited.
“I have two hours. I need a shower. I smell like Tibet.”
“Are we going to plan this or are you just going to go in there and insult them?”
Theo and I both spoke at once. “Insult them.”
Ignoring the pleas of Collin, I went into the other room and quickly showered. I changed into my most unimpressive outfit. My rebellious attitude came from my mother. And she got hers from Rebekah. I didn’t even know why I went and answered their ludicrous questions. I wasn’t afraid of them.
Mean Girls made these ladies look like puppies.
I threw on a toddler-sized white t-shirt and tied it in the front and paired it with a long black maxi skirt. Flip flops made me look even more like a hippie. I put on every single bangle I owned.
Next was my favorite part. Regina, one of the Synod, tried to pass a law in the sixties about Lucents’ outward appearance. It included the overuse of make-up and big hair.
So every time I went there, I used enough eyeliner to offend Lady Gaga.
“Are you still doing that?” Theo leaned against the bathroom threshold. I applied a lethal amount of black eyeliner and then added a thick layer of smoke eye shadow to carry the effect all the way to completely offensive.
“Yes. What are they going to do?”
“Um, sell you to the Resin?”
“Ha, ha, ha. You think it looks sexy and you don’t want me to waste all this on the Synod.”
“So true. But hey, Colby?”
“Yeah.”
He was the epitome of cool, calm and collected. Or so he showed on the outside.
“Don’t piss them off, okay? And if they ask you—if they ask specific questions about me, just tell them. Don’t try to lie or get yourself tangled in something you can’t get out of.”
I smirked at him through the mirror. “Please, I’m like their golden child. They like to call me in to make me feel like I’m under their thumb. But they know better.”
“Colby, meu Amada, please.”
The eyeliner got thrown into my makeup bag, and I hopped up on the counter, now facing him.
“You know what I know about you,” I said, kicking my legs against the cabinets.
He shrugged one shoulder.
“I know that when your exterior is cool, you’re worried as hell inside.”
Theo rolled his eyes. “Is it so wrong to be worried about my female?”
When he called me his female, my insides turned to pudding.
“There’s nothing to worry about. I promise to be perfectly diplomatic, polite, disconnected and completely vague.”
“You lie so sweetly. But, I know better. Come back to me quickly, Querida.” He approached me then, placing kisses along my face, across my forehead, and on my temple.
“I will.”