Shameful by May Dawson
8
Killian
The mistoff the lake seemed to bead on my skin as I waited at the end of thedock.
“Don’t have too much fun without us,” Rhett called from behind me, where he was drinking his coffee on the castle steps.
“You know you’re always welcome to come train with the Guard too,” I toldhim.
He scoffed. “Welcome, sure. You’re the one and only golden reject.”
No matter how long I’d spent on Reject Island, the word reject still stung. But Rhett seemed to embraceit.
“Did you get up early just to see me off on my work day, Rhett? That’s unexpectedly sweet.”
The mist seemed to make the world eerily silent, enough so that I heard the sound of his bare feet padding across the dock behind me. Then he sat down on the edge of the dock with a huff. The breeze blew his bathrobe open at the chest, whipped his dark blond hair around his face, but he didn’t seem to notice as he propped his chin in hishand.
“What exactly would you say you do around here?” he asked me. “Just endlessly preparing for that big moment when Cyrus calls youhome?”
His mocking voice made it clear he didn’t think that would ever happen.
“Why don’t you put on some fucking pants for once and do something with yourlife?”
Rhett waved his hand dismissively. “I’m not interested in doing anything that requires pants.”
Rhett talked a lot, even to me, but rarely said anything. West, on the other hand, owned an icy brand of silence.
The three of us had been close when we’d all first found ourselves here, but that had fallen apart during the first escape attempt.
“Cyrus might want to send us on more missions,” I said. “If we’re ready.”
Rhett scoffed. He’d hoped to use our missions before as a chance to escape. We could leave with Cyrus’s permission, and we had been sent to make ourselves useful. But the Guard would always find us again, and the packs would be our enemies if we ran. Rhett and West couldn’t seem to get that brutal reality through their skulls. We had to make Cyrus happy.
The buzz of a motor boat’s engine whined through the fog before the boat itself came intoview.
“Come on, Rhett,” I said. “Last chance.”
He spent his days lounging in the castle’s library. West spent his days playing on that piano, playing for no one. At least fighting with the Guard would give them an outlet for all the rage simmering under their boredom.
Rhett got to his feet, shaking his head, as the motorboat pulled into the dock. Gibs threw me the line, and I pulled the boat in the last few feet as the engine cutoff.
I jumped onto the boat and turned back to face him, but Rhett just shrugged. “I don’t think there are any chancesleft.”
Gibs was silent as we pulled away, bouncing over the rough water. A chill hung in the early dawn, and mist beaded in myhair.
“Still trying, huh?” he asked.
He was the only one who knew why I’d given up my own boat, why I asked him to come get me every morning. Rhett and West couldn’t be trusted, but I didn’t want to see them shot, either.
“Hope springs eternal,” I muttered.
But even my hope was beginning tofade.
Reject Island slowly tattered everyone’s optimism until there was nothing left behind but garbage.