Read Rebel's Consort - Phoenix Book 1 for Free Online Page B

the other side of the room with the rest of the children. “They all have issues. Better to let him acclimate than hold out for an impossibility.”
    He shook his head. Gar wouldn’t give up on his dreams any sooner than Trace would. He didn’t need communication to witness the boy’s determination. “The options aren’t mutually exclusive. He’ll need to adjust for now, regardless.”
    The long black braid down her back swished as she turned back to him. A tilt of her head and the proud set of her jaw pronounced her need to defend her cause, the boy’s cause. He held up his hand.
    “I’m not trying to stir up trouble for you. I understand you’re in charge. But looking into options won’t affect what you have planned for him.” Better to head to a safer subject. “Do you need me to look at any of the other kids while I’m here?” Trace bent back over his supplies, rolling the packets of antiseptics and drugs safely into their carrier, giving her time to frame an answer and freeing himself from the distant expression on her face.
    He didn’t blame her for her suspicions. Messaging didn’t constitute a personal acquaintance or social comfort. And clearance from Aaron didn’t grant him privileges here in her domain. The oddity of him being intimately familiar with her body via his dreams—no, nightmares—didn’t give him an advantage in casual banter either. Hell, it made his attempts at interaction harder.
    Yeah, give her space. At all costs, avoid the jarring reality of his dream angel’s conversion to a physical, beautiful woman, complete with emotions and morals to match. And a career choice that offered no forgiveness for his past.
    A squeal from across the cave preceded a light tap on his arm. Searching for the origins of what had struck him, he glanced at the children behind him. A smaller boy plucked something from within the leaves covering the wall and held it close to stomach with one hand. He launched two small projectiles at another child and popped a final one in his mouth.
    Trace whipped around, looking across the table for the projectile.
    A small green fruit, half-an-inch in diameter, gleamed among the black and silver jumble of his tools.
    “What the hell are they doing?” Bushy vines covered one full wall of the cavern. He glanced back at a basket of additional produce beneath the vine. Clusters of light green nodules nestled in the foliage, the tendrils wrapped in cords around a second, thicker plant. Fist-sized brown balls hung on the dangling roots.
    “Playing. Eating.” She looked over her shoulder, “Stop roughhousing, you two.”
    “He started it, Analena.”
    Two separate voices chimed in with the same disclaimer, and Trace stared at Analena. No more hiding behind monikers for either of them. He grabbed his scanner and the fruit, choking back a terse reply to her casual sarcasm. Maybe she didn’t know. But the Piper he’d been in contact with wouldn’t make that mistake. “This will kill them.”
    “No—”
    Ignoring her with a shake of his head, he pulled out two more tools and ran the med scanner over the fruit on the table.
    Salmonella bacteria negative.
    Not possible. Trace smashed the green berry between his thumb and forefinger and instigated a secondary scan with a fine optic beam from the scanner.
    Negative.
    He flicked the berry to the side, stalked to the wall of vines, and twisted one of the brown woody balls until it snapped free.
    A scan of that proved negative as well. Unconvinced, he shoved the scanner onto his belt and brought out a silver sample analyzer from his pocket.
    From the corner of his eye, he noted one of the younger boys backing away and Hena pushing him behind her. Trace frowned at their reaction but didn’t pause. Activating the sampler needle, he plunged it into the food.
    “How do they eat this?” he asked.
    Not that it mattered. No amount of cooking or preparation would eradicate the hardy and lethal strain of Salmonella bacteria.