Skaydal - Demon's Forever

Rot Beneath Roots

✦Dolly✦

By morning, I had almost convinced myself I had overreacted. Almost. The sunlight helped. So did the smell of coffee downstairs. As I entered the kitchen, I smiled as my mother hummed her favorite tune while my father pretended not to be watching me over the rim of his mug. Elias tried to act normally, too, which only made him more obvious. No one mentioned the text. No one mentioned the stranger. And because I hated being treated like something fragile, I ignored the whole thing and went to work. Project Future sat on the farming side of Skaydal, where the land opened into rows of crops, greenhouses, sheds, water tanks, and storage barns. It had started as my mother’s agriculture plan years ago, but now it felt like its own living thing.

Her living thing.

Mila and I were only interns, which was a polite word for people who got dirty, carried things, filled out inventory sheets, and listened while my mother explained soil nutrients with frightening excitement.

But I loved it.

Maybe because plants didn’t care what I was. They either grew or they didn’t. They needed water, warmth, food, protection, and patience.

Simple.

Most days, simple felt like a gift. Mila walked beside me through one of the greenhouses, her dark hair tied up messily and a clipboard tucked beneath her arm. She had already complained three times about being awake before ten.

“You chose agriculture,” I reminded her.

“I chose growth,” she argued. “Not suffering,”

“Those are usually connected,” I remarked, and she gave me a look.

“That sounded wise. Don’t do it again,” I smiled and checked the rows of young tomato plants.

“These need watering before lunch,”

“You say that like I’m the one holding the hose,”

“You are,” I reminded her, and Mila scoffed.

“I hate internships,”

“No, you hate being told what to do,”

“I’m Beta in training. One day, people will fear my clipboard,”

“That is the saddest threat I have ever heard,” I teased. Mila opened her mouth to answer, then stopped. Her expression changed so quickly that my smile faded. “What?” I asked. She looked past me, through the greenhouse wall, toward the main yard.

“Dolly,” she whispered, and my skin prickled as I slowly turned. At first, I only saw the delivery yard. Stacked pallets. Bags of compost. Rolls of irrigation piping. Crates of seed trays. A truck waited near the storage barn. Then I saw him. He stood near the gate. Dark hair. Broad shoulders. Dark clothing. Stillness that did not belong in a place built around movement and noise. And those pale grey eyes. My fingers tightened around the watering schedule.

“That’s him,” I whispered. Mila stepped in front of me.

“Stay here,”

“Mila—”

“I mean it,” she said before she started toward the greenhouse door. I couldn’t help but smile. Even though she was also adopted, she looked exactly like her father, Zack. Determined and annoyed. I swear it must be a gift. But I followed anyway, because being protected was sweet until it became suffocating. The man looked at us as we came out. He didn’t look surprised. Nor guilty. In fact, he looked calm. And that bothered me. Mila stopped several steps away from him. “Can we help you?” his gaze moved to her, then back to me.

“I’m looking for Amani Black,” my heart skipped a beat at the sound of his voice. Low. Soft. Rough. Mila’s eyes narrowed.

“Why?”

“I’m looking for work, and I was told to come here to speak to Amani Black,” he explained.

“Who told you that?” Mila questioned as she placed her hands on her hips. The man smiled, amused.

“The lady from the motel,” I stiffened. The motel meant Jack and Irene’s place. It meant he was staying in Skaydal. He hadn’t just passed through the festival and left. He was still here. Before Mila could interrogate him further, the office door opened behind us.

“Girls?” my mother called. I looked over my shoulder to see her step out of the Project Future office with a folder in one hand. The second she saw the stranger, suspicion filled her eyes. My mother had a softness about her that made people underestimate her. That was usually their first mistake. She glanced at me and then back at the man. “Can I help you?” she asked. The man turned fully toward her.

“My name is Riven Crowe,” he said, and for some strange reason, his name made me shiver. It suited him, which only infuriated me more. I hated that I noticed things like that. “I’m looking for work,” he continued. “Temporary. Loading, carrying, deliveries, and repairs if needed. I was told Project Future sometimes hires extra hands,” my mother didn’t answer right away. Instead, she moved closer until she stood between us. It wasn’t obvious, but I knew she was protecting me from his view.

“Who told you that?”

“Irene, at the motel,” he answered. Irene fed strangers and found them work before they had finished their first cup of tea.

“You aren’t from around here, are you?” my mother asked.

“No,”

“Passing through?”

“For now,”

“For now, is not an answer,” my mother shot back. Riven smiled, and I hurriedly looked away.

“It’s the only answer I can give. I don’t know how long I’m staying,”

“How convenient,” Mila muttered under her breath. My mother shot her a quick look.

“Mila,”

“What? It’s true,” she argued. I glanced back at Riven, only to find him watching me. A strange calm brushed against the panic inside me. Not comfort exactly. More like something pressing down on the noise. I didn’t like it. I should have felt more afraid. Instead, I wanted to know why he seemed to like watching me.

“My office,” my mother said to Riven. He nodded once. That was it. No argument. No explanation. He followed her inside, and the door closed behind them. Mila turned to me immediately.

“Absolutely not,” she said. I stared at the office door.

“What?”

“No,”

“You don’t even know what you are saying no to,” I pointed out to her.

“I’m saying no to all of it. His face. His timing. His mysterious little stare. No,”

“He gave his name,”

“A name is easy,”

“Mila, he said he wants to work,”

“So do half the criminals in history,”

“Mila,”

“What? I’m not wrong,” she said. I looked back toward the office. Through the glass, I could see my mother behind her desk. Riven sat across from her, shoulders relaxed, hands where she could see them. He looked normal. That made no sense. Nothing about him felt normal. “Do you think he sent the text?” Mila asked quietly. I hesitated.

“I don’t know,”

“I still think you should have called the number,” I didn’t answer, and we waited outside until they were done. When they came out, Riven was right behind my mother. My chest tightened.

“Riven is a wanderer,” my mother explained. “ He is human, and he is looking for temporary work,”

“Human?” I repeated.

“Yes,” she replied. “I checked,” Mila scoffed, but I stared at Riven, who met my gaze. “He will be helping with offloads…compost, fertilizer, seed stock, irrigation parts, feed bags, and whatever else Gavin keeps ordering, like storage space grows on trees,”

“As long as he isn’t a threat,” Mila said softly so that only we could hear.

“He isn’t,” my mother reassured us. I couldn’t believe it.

Human.

That means he isn’t a threat.

Then why did every shadow inside me wake when he looked at me?

✦✦✦