Page 106 of The Mentor
My eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
“Just that Archer is one of the five champions. I told you he was preselected for the next tournament, didn’t I?”
An acute dryness in my throat made it hard to speak and I had to sit down from the pace of my heart racing.
“But Archer wouldn’t…” As I said the words I remembered him asking me to marry him and the way he had been so sad when he made love to me the last time. My mouth fell open as I suddenly understood. Archer had known then. I swallowed hard but simply couldn’t produce enough spit to talk. He had been saying goodbye to me without the words.
“Boulder said that the young woman is surely going to choose Archer, because the other champions are too ugly or too wounded to be attractive.”
“Uh-huh,” I croaked out when I really wanted to scream at her: why hadn’t she told me sooner?
“Didn’t Archer tell you that he was going?” she asked.
I shook my head, using all my energy to hide the breakdown that I felt physically inside of me.
“Maybe he wanted to surprise you.” Christina lifted her shoulders in a small shrug. “Think of the bright side, now you won’t have to fight with him to keep from being attracted to him. With a new wife on his arm, he’s going to be too busy to come on to you.”
“Uh-huh,” I muttered again and somehow managed to add. “I can hear a child calling for me, let’s talk later, okay?”
“Okay. May peace surround yo…”
I had already ended the call before Christina had said the last words. My body trembling, I sat down on the bed, grabbing onto the bed sheets as if I could make the world stop spinning around me.
If Christina had known that I’d been sleeping with Archer, she would have been more tactful. It was my fault for being so adamant about keeping my relationship with him a secret. Not because I didn’t trust Christina, but because I hadn’t wanted her to get all giddy with hope that I’d stay here forever. And then, after I’d realized that I loved Archer, it had seemed like the right thing to tell him before anyone else.
Archer wasn’t hiking. He was getting married!
From the tip of my toes a wave of anger rolled through me, and my emotional intelligence was reduced to a pitiful need to throw an infantile tantrum. I launched out of my cabin determined to find someone to blame, but when I got to the school, I found Shelly, Marco, and the children doing the afternoon meditation. Spinning on my heel, I marched back to the row of cabins and without knocking I opened the door to Finn’s cabin.
“Knocking is completely overrated,” he said and looked up from the floor, where he was doing push-ups.
“Why did you not tell me that Archer has gone to the tournament?”
“Ehhm, because he asked me not to tell you.”
My nose was itching from all the emotions and my need to cry. “And why wouldn’t he want me to know? It’s not like he can sneak a wife past me; I would’ve found out eventually.”
“True,” Finn said and got up from the floor. “But maybe he didn’t want to hurt you.”
“Why would I be hurt?” I asked with the hardest tone I could muster. From the deceptive expression in Finn’s eyes, I wasn’t fooling him, so I tried harder.
“Archer knows that I am not interested in him for anything other than sex.”
I thought I saw a ghost of sympathy flash on Finn’s face before he played along.
“Oh, I’m sure Archer knows that. But you know how we men are – one woman or the other, it doesn’t make much difference. He was probably just being strategic and didn’t tell you because in case he doesn’t get picked, he’s planning to come back and continue his relationship with you.”
I snorted. “Ha!”
Finn’s eyes drifted to the door, where sounds of footsteps alerted us before Marco made his appearance in the doorway.
“Is something wrong?” he asked.
“Not at all.” Finn stretched with a yawn. “Kya just found out that Archer is at the tournament.”
“And you’re okay with that?” Marco asked.
For a moment I worried that Finn had told Marco about me and Archer, but there was no pity in his eyes.
