Remy
One thing I hadn’t taken into account when I gave Linette the radio was that I now had no alarm. No natural light to wake me. No idea what time it was. Thankfully my internal clock woke at the same time every day, but without the assurance of sunlight or a clock, I woke at all hours of the night, anxious. At some point in the morning, I got dressed, brushed my teeth, and lay on the floor in front of the door. When the guards came for me, they would give one knock and then open the door. I had to be ready.
Apparently it had been earlier than I thought, because I fell back asleep, leaning against the wall, and nearly had a heart attack when the door opened and hit my foot. I yelped and jumped to my feet as the guards looked at me like I was crazy.
“Sorry,” I said, smoothing back my hair. I picked up my teaching bag and went out, closing the door behind me.
When I got to the teaching auditorium, the lighting was dim, and I noticed how dark it was outside. Then I heard the steady white noise of rain. It didn’t rain much in Nevada, but during the summers we sometimes got huge downpours that caused flooding. Seeing the sheets of water coming down the windows, I worried for everyone in Primo Town.
It was hard to concentrate through my lesson, and when the physical instructor came in, I got exhausted watching the kids run sprints up and down the length of the room for an hour. Two of them vomited, which I rushed to clean up, and then they jumped right back in. I’d learned not to get emotional about it, but it never stopped being difficult to watch. I was surprised their instructor didn’t make them do the obstacle course in the monsoon. Crazy psycho.
At the end of the day, the guards met me at the door.
“You are to dine with Bahntan,” the female said, sounding snide, like I wasn’t at all worthy.
“What an honor,” I said brightly.
They marched, stiff, the female leading us, and the male behind me, until we got to the same library room where the Senator and I had touched hands. My nerves ratcheted up as I entered and saw him sitting handsomely, lost in thought. He stood and pulled out my chair, which I took, thanking him.
When the doors closed, our aloneness spread like a thick blanket of awareness through the room. Candles flickered, casting romantic shadows in the dim lighting. Through the window I saw that the rain had nearly stopped, but the skies were still dark.
The Senator lifted the cover off my plate, revealing stuffed chicken with pasta. It took all of my might not to tear into it. My hands shook as I cut it.
“Are you feeling well?” he asked.
“A little hungry and tired, but very well. Thank you.” I took a bite and held back a moan.
We ate in silence. He waited until I was nearly finished to ask me another question.
“Why are you sleeping on the floor?”
“Oh . . . I . . .” I shook my head. Did the guards tell him every mundane detail about what they saw me do?
“Is the bed not to your liking?” He was sincere. “Too soft?”
“No.” I set down my utensils. “I’ve been restless. I guess I got used to sleeping with others around me, and it feels weird to be alone. I was only sitting on the floor while I waited for the guards to come, and I accidentally dozed off.”
“It’s because of the girl, isn’t it?” he asked. “You miss her.”
I swallowed down a bout of emotion, and nodded.
“Your maternal instincts are strong.” He said it like a compliment, then sipped his wine. “I worry that if you become a mother by in vitro, you will have a difficult time allowing others to help you raise the child.”
Hot acid suddenly filled my veins. I knew I needed to get my emotions in check before I responded. I looked away, staring out of the window.
“I apologize,” he said gently. “This subject upsets you. It upsets me as well that you were given the treatment.” The treatment that killed my eggs.
I couldn’t help myself, I took my glass of wine and downed half of it. “I think some of the DRI have minds of their own outside of the Baelese cause.”
His jaw tensed, and he looked away. “Indeed. Some have wanted to undermine me from the beginning. They think I am . . . too soft. You see,” he twined his fingers on the tabletop. “After I was used as the face of our movement, many of my kind thought to be rid of me. To promote Vahni or another female in my place. I think many are irritated that I have fought to keep my position. But I am the only one who understands humanity.”
I took another gulp of the white wine and felt heady already. I had to be careful.
“I know you are sad,” the Senator said in a melancholy voice. “And when I take care of a few things, you will be able to visit Primo Town more frequently.”
Take care of what “things?” Tater and Linette?
I couldn’t look at him. I stared at my wineglass as he went on.
“The beauty of our way of life is that you will still be a mother. Each child is your adopted son or daughter. Please, Ms. Haines . . .” He leaned forward across the table, and his warm thumb swiped a tear from under my eye. Shoot. I’d gotten so good at holding tears back. And oh, my gosh. He’d touched me.
I shivered and looked at him. He had gone still again as he watched me. We stared for a long, tense moment before he sighed and sat back, looking away in thought. I downed the rest of my wine and wiped my mouth.
“Thank you for dinner.” As much as I knew I should take advantage of our time alone together, I was not in the mood.
He tapped his bottom lip. “Do you like riddles, Ms. Haines?”
I gave him a questioning look. “Sometimes.”
“Let’s see if you can figure this one out.” He sat up and cleared his throat. “Epare-pray or-fay ar-way.”
I snorted a laugh. “What?”
He repeated it for me twice more, a look of mild amusement on his face. I rolled the nonsense around in my head. All of the–ay sounds at the ends triggered a memory, which I thought about for a minute before blurting, “Pig Latin!”
A slow, tight grin came to him. “Very good, Ms. Haines. Now, tell me what I said.”
I rearranged the sounds, still smiling as I told him, “Prepare for . . . war.” My smile slowly faded. The Senator nodded, thinking, his jaw grinding as my abdomen suddenly tightened with awareness.
What had I just done?
“Smart girl,” he said softly.
Oh, no. Oh, no. I pulled my shaking hands into my lap. Where had he heard that? He’d tricked me! Whose communications had he intercepted?
“It is all right, Ms. Haines,” he promised me. “You have nothing to worry about. Just a riddle.”
I forced a smile and nod, though I knew I had just helped him with something he wasn’t supposed to know. My hands trembled fiercely without my permission, and my chest struggled to contain my short breaths.
“Look at me, Ms. Haines.” The Senator’s voice rubbed my anxiety like a balm, calming me immediately. A breath slowly released my lungs like a sigh, and I met his eyes. His passion-filled eyes.
“Tell me how my voice makes you feel.” The nerves in my body were frazzled, having gone from one extreme to another. The soothing sensation of his voice sent a rush of warmth to my core, like a massage to my soul. My inhibitions shattered and fell like rubble.
“I feel safe when you talk to me like that,” I told him. “And . . .”
“And?” He leaned forward.
“And turned on.”
His eyes sharpened, and his hands gripped the chair handles. We stared at one another so long that my sense of serenity began to wane, and cool awareness crept back into my head.
Holy . . . he was using that voice command with me!
I broke eye contact with a gasp, looking down and trying to catch my breath.
“W-why?” I stuttered in a broken breath.
“I have always been curious exactly how it affects a human. If it hurts or . . .” He shook his head. “I should not have done that.”
“I’m fine,” I said, sitting up straighter and feeling a streak of boldness coming on, spurred by some pissed off aggression. I wanted to punish him mentally, the way he’d done to me tonight. I gave a coy smile. “It’s a good thing I’ve got a room to myself now, isn’t it, Senator?”
The look on his face as he processed that was priceless.
“Thank you again for dinner, sir.” I stood, putting my napkin across my plate. “Good luck with your riddles.”
He sat very stiffly and made no attempt to stand like he usually did when I left. But that was okay. After tricking me, then mind-screwing me, I had no qualms about leaving him sitting there with his own temporary paralysis of sexual tension. He deserved it.