“Where did you learn to throw a knife like that?” he asked, feeling her begin to relax ever so slightly.
Luna shifted in his arms and he looked down into her eyes.
She seemed…startled…when she realized he was holding her like this. But she didn’t move away. Instead, she shifted slightly, getting more comfortable. A moment later, she pretty much collapsed against him, resting her cheek against his shoulder.
After a long silence, he heard her sigh. “Summer camp.”
It took him several beats before he remembered what he’d asked her.
“You learned to throw a knife in summer camp? Was that a normal activity?”
She smiled gently, pulling out of his arms and sliding off his lap so that she was sitting primly in the chair next to him. Luna smiled up at him, but her expression was tremulous, as if she were trying to figure out what had just happened. Being in his arms was definitely off-putting. For both of them.
“No. It wasn’t part of the curriculum. I just–” Luna stopped, her gaze returning to the spot where the snake had slithered out from underneath the bed. For a long moment, she trembled, her arms wrapping around her body as if she could somehow protect herself from the now-gone threat.
He touched her arm, encouraging her. “What happened?”
She shrugged, wrapping her arms around her waist. Again, her gaze returned to the spot where the snake had died.
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“I was about twelve years old and there was a boy, well, actually, a group of boys.” She smiled faintly, shaking her head. “I should probably back up a bit. There was a bonfire one night. I’d gotten into an argument with my cabin mates about who had to clean up the bathroom that day. I’d done it the day before, but one of the girls, a truly mean girl, claimed that I didn’t have to clean toilets at home, so I should have to do it more often at camp. She claimed it would make me more human, more approachable.”
“Sounds like a real prize,” he grumbled. “What happened?”
Luna sighed and looked out the window, hiding her expression.
“I didn’t agree with her. But she was one of those mean girls who…well, she ruled the camp. If you wanted friends, you had to be friends with her or she’d ostracize you. I knew she’d do it too, because I’d seen her do it to some of the other girls.”
“So, you remained friends with her? Got angry about cleaning the toilets and learned to throw a knife at her?” he teased, relieved when she smiled. “Tell me you pinned all of her underwear to the cabin walls the following summer.”
Luna laughed. “I wish I’d been that creative. But no. I walked out of the cabin. I’d done my share of the work and cleaned up my assigned part of the bathroom. But when the rest of my cabin mates arrived for dinner that night, that girl, the mean one, wouldn’t let me sit at our normal table. So I sat alone.” She sighed. “At the bonfire that night, I didn’t feel like being ostracized further, so I went down to the lake and sat on the dock, looking at the stars.” She stared out at the courtyard, silent for a long moment. “A group of boys came down. I don’t think they knew I was there, at first. At least, I was pretty sure that they hadn’t followed me.” She looked back at him, grimacing slightly. “I think I was more of an opportunity rather than a planned ‘conquest’.”
Tasim’s body tightened as he realized where this story was going. “Tell me they didn’t…!”
She gave an odd sort of half laugh. “No, they came down onto the docks, laughing and joking. But when they spotted me, alone, they started getting some really vicious ideas.”
“And you…?”
Luna glanced over at him, smiling crookedly. “I wasn’t going to be a victim. So, instead of trying to get past them on the narrow, wooden dock, which I knew they wouldn’t allow because they wanted to have some fun with me. So instead, I jumped into the lake.”
“You…?! In the dark? Wasn’t it cold?”
She smiled. “Yep. It was dark. And cold. I don’t think they wanted to get into the water that night. So, I swam under water as far as I could. When I surfaced, I was pretty close to the wooded area on the other side of the camp. The boys were still looking out to the middle of the lake, trying to find me. I climbed out of the lake and went back to my cabin.”
“And you told the camp counselors that the boys were about to rape you?”
She snorted, shaking her head. “No way. The counselors wouldn’t have believed me. Women are rarely believed, especially if the boys had ganged up and claimed that I’d teased them into coming down to the lake.”
He muttered something under his breath, which she took to be rather pointed expletives. “What happened?”
She shrugged. “I called my parents, told them what had happened. They came and got me the next day. When Elon heard what had happened, he gave me a small knife and showed me how to use it. He ordered me to practice at least an hour every single day until I could throw it accurately.”
Tasim nodded with arrogant approval. “Good man.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know if a knife would have been enough during a moment like that one. Six boys against one girl? And I was a few years younger than they were. I was terrified of those teenage boys.”
“Still, it’s not right!”