“Ha ha very funny,” she says, but she hurries away from me and towards the classroom anyway.
I still don’t know how I feel about this whole Raven thing. Mel’s right. There’s nothing to tie her to the Boundless, but there’s nothing to rule her out either, and her sketchy past isn’t doing anything to make me feel better about her and Sailor spending the day alone together.
I decide to make one last attempt to talk Sailor out of this. In the meantime, I decide I might as well go to class and keep Nexus happy.
***
“Sailor. We need to talk,” I say as we leave the school at the end of the day.
“That sounds serious. Are Jinx and Aziza back?” she says.
“Not yet,” I tell her, shaking my head. “This is about tomorrow.”
“Don’t start this again, Rye. You’re not talking me out of this one.”
“Sailor…” I say.
“For God’s sake. What part of I’m doing this don’t you understand, Rye?”
“The part where you forget I’m the leader of the team and that I don’t want to lose anyone else,” I say.
She sighs.
“Look, I get it. But we’re going to the mall on a Saturday afternoon. Even if Raven is planning to take me out, she’s not going to try it there, is she?”
“I guess not,” I relent. “But can you not just put this off until we have more to go on?”
Sailor shakes her head. The anger seems to go out of her, and instead of looking angry, she looks sad.
“What is it?” I ask.
She shakes her head again and I stop walking and take her hands, making her stop and look at me.
“Sailor, tell me,” I say.
She looks down at the ground for a moment and when she looks up, I can see tears shining in her eyes.
“Rye, what you and I have, it’s putting me dad’s life in danger. But I told you I wanted to fight for us and I do. I trust you when you say you’ll find a way to appease the gods and save my dad. But I can’t risk his life in other ways, and if I’m right about Raven, then he’s not only risking his life every time he’s with her, he’s risking getting his heart broken. Because of me. And I can’t just stand by and watch that happen. Do you understand that?”
“Yes,” I say as my heart breaks for her.
It doesn’t seem fair that she has to risk so much, sacrifice so much. And if there are parts of that we can control, then of course we have to take the chances we’re given to do that.
“Okay, go out with Raven tomorrow. But I meant what I said earlier. Keep me informed of exactly where you will be and when you’ll be there. The team will be there every step of the way, and even if you can’t see us, we won’t be far away.”
She kisses my cheek and my heart skips a beat. God, I hope I’m making the right call here. I hope Raven has nothing to do with this and we can keep Sailor and her father safe. Surely she’s right though. Whoever Raven really is, she’s not going to try something in the middle of a packed shopping mall. And nothing can happen to Sailor on the way there or back without Adam knowing Raven was involved.
I just hope Sailor finds something definitive that proves this one way or the other, because the not knowing is the worst. Ignorance can be dangerous. But asking questions can be more dangerous.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: GIRLS’ DAY OUT SAILOR SPEAKS
If she tries anything, she’s dead, it’s that simple. I’m already starting to regret my day with Raven and it’s only been an hour or two since she picked me up. Rye was right; I should have just called it off. Not for the reasons he thought though. I’m not afraid of Raven. But my God, I’m going crazy here just listening to her voice. And she’s so pathetic. The meaner I am to her, the more she tries to kiss my ass. I mean, I’m the kid here and even I can see that she needs to man up a bit and tell me to show her a little respect.
As much as it’s going to kill me to buddy up to her, I do know I need to be a bit nicer to her. I can hardly expect her to let her guard down and let something slip if I’m keeping her at arm’s length—she barely dares say a word to me in case I bite her head off. It’s tempting though to keep pushing her, to see just how far I can go before she either yells at me, cries, or just gives up on this and goes home.
That’s not going to help me though, is it?
“Would you like to go in here, Sailor?” Raven asks quietly, nodding to a store to my right, cutting through my thoughts.
I make a snorting noise, and then I remember I’m supposed to be being nice to her. I guess in her own way, she thinks she’s being nice to me by choosing a designer boutique store to go in, because being a teacher she has to know this kind of store appeals to teen girls.
“Like I can afford anything in there,” I say, looking longingly at a pair of ripped jeans in the window.
Okay, I’ll give Raven her due. She was right. I would like to go in there and I would happily buy almost everything they stock. Assuming I was a millionaire rather than a high school student.
Raven sees where my gaze has gone to and she looks at the ripped jeans and smiles.
“Try them on. If you like them, I’ll buy them for you,” she says.
I round on her, my temper flaring despite my best efforts to hold it in check. If she thinks getting me to like her is going to be as simple as buying me a pair
