Sure the usual sights were all there: blond hair, blue eyes, stubby nose, flat chest—pretty much exactly the same as the last time I’d checked, but the glow that surrounded it was entirely different.
Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating.
Maybe it wasn’t entirely different.
I mean, after all, it was still green.
But the shade of green was different. The tone of it was changed.
Like a seriously noticeable, marked alteration.
The kind that can’t be disputed.
“Congratulations.” Bodhi nodded, flashing a quick smile my way. Though his face fell just as quickly, as he shook his head and said, “But before you get too carried away with yourself, you should know that there are consequences to our actions, as you’re about to find out.”
I nodded, aware of the words, noting the warning they contained, but still too entranced by my own reflection to really pay them much notice. Seeing the way the deeper, richer shade of green glowed and swirled all around me, and knowing it was the direct result of the choices I’d made.
“Remember what I told you,” he said, his gaze signaling that he did not trust my ability to not say a word, to not blow it, to let him handle things—not for a moment.
I frowned, started to push past him, watching my glow wave and retreat as he stood to the side and ushered me in.
“In case you haven’t noticed,” I said, pausing to look at him, “I’ve totally got my glow on. So really, how bad can it be?”
I checked my reflection again, convinced that no matter what happened, no matter what the Council might say, my glow would be with me. It was something I’d earned. It wasn’t going anywhere.
The thought instantly canceled by Bodhi’s voice at my ear, saying, “Wrong again, Riley. Whatever the Council gives, they can also take away. And now, thanks to you, by the time we get out of here, we may never glow again.”
author’s note
While the characters and the situations they find themselves in are fictional, the story itself was loosely inspired by the 1733 slave revolt in the Danish West Indies (now known as St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands). In Africa, a number of noblemen and -women, as well as wealthy merchants, had been sold into slavery after a revolt against them, then brought to the Caribbean to work as slaves. Eventually, they rebelled against the plantation owners and managers with the purpose of retaining other African slaves from different tribes to do their labor.
Purported to be among the first of those killed was a plantation owner and his young stepdaughter.
Also, the sadistic game of “beach bowling” is alleged to be true.
Coming in Fall 2011
Riley’s adventures continue in
Dreamland
The second I laid eyes on Aurora my shoulders slunk, my face unsquinched, and I heaved a deep sigh of relief knowing I had an ally, a friend on my side.
I was sure it would all be okay.
It was the way her hair shimmered and shone, transforming from yellow to brown to black to red before starting the sequence all over again.
Her skin did the same, changing from the palest white to the darkest ebony, and every possible hue in between.
And her gown, her gorgeous yellow gown, sparkled and gleamed and swished at her feet like a crush of shooting stars.
Even though I no longer mistook her for an angel like I did the first time I saw her, still, the whole glistening sight of her calmed me in a major way.
But as it turns out, I’d misread the whole thing.
As soon as I took one look at her aura—as soon as I noted the way its usual bright popping purple had dimmed to a much duller violet—well, that’s when I knew we were on opposite sides.
It was just like Bodhi had said.