Dark Heart Rising by Lee Monroe

voice.
    Soren rubbed his hands together. ‘I think now it is time for a plan.’
    I looked at the side of his face: imperious, calculating. I wanted to feel the same way. If my feelings weren’t in the way, I could see clearly, think straight. Soren seemed to find it easy.
    ‘But don’t you feel scared that Lila will reject you, too?’ I asked him. ‘That what we’re doing will be for nothing?’
    Soren smiled. ‘Worrying doesn’t change a situation … it will only make it worse.’ He put an arm around me. ‘This is our best bet.’
    Somehow Soren had a way of making the impossible seem possible. I had to admit it was infectious.
    ‘So. What next?’ I asked him.
    ‘We up the ante,’ he said calmly. ‘We give Luca something to throw him off balance.’
    ‘Like?’ I dug my hands in my pockets.
    ‘Like jealousy,’ Soren said quietly. He regarded me with his black eyes, a little softer now. ‘And I know this is wrong … but I am going to enjoy making him jealous.’
    I puffed out my cheeks. ‘Well, it’s going to be hell for me.’
    ‘I’ll try not to be insulted,’ he said, drawing up his shoulders. ‘I make a pretty good boyfriend when I put my mind to it.’
    I tried to smile, but found myself wondering how Soren could be so chipper about what we were doing. He didn’t seem to feel any anxiety or sadness about Lila. Maybe I was being too sensitive? It was just a boy thing: covering up their real feelings. Or was it because he couldn’t care less about her, and I was somehow implicated in a warped plan that he and Vanya had cooked up between them? I didn’t think so, but I still didn’t completely trust Soren Balzac.
    I couldn’t afford to.

CHAPTER TWELVE
     
    ‘R aphael was with them?’ Vanya set her glass down on the table. ‘He certainly seems to have ingratiated himself back with his old friends.’ She pursed her lips, considering something. ‘Clever boy, that one.’
    I looked at her, not knowing what she meant.
    ‘He seemed very friendly … as friendly as he would be in that kind of situation.’ Soren leaned back in his chair.
    ‘Angelic manners, you see,’ Vanya replied with some distaste.
    ‘Odd, though.’ Soren narrowed his eyes. ‘He was almost welcoming. I am a total stranger. Quite possibly a threat …’
    ‘Well.’ Vanya smiled tightly at me. ‘Who knows what goes on in that boy’s head?’
    I smiled tightly back, then glanced subtly down at my watch. It was half past four. Teatime. Who knew what time it was back home?
    Vanya got up to get us some food, just as there was a loud hammering on the door. She stopped, glaring at the sound.
    ‘Who the devil can that be?’ she muttered. ‘Nobody visits us. Nobody likes us.’
    Valdar, who had been intent on reading his paper, raised his head calmly.
    ‘Want me to get it, dear?’ he said smoothly.
    Vanya sighed heavily. ‘Let’s just ignore it. Whoever it is, they’ll get the message.’
    But the knocking grew louder and more persistent. Soren fidgeted in his seat.
    ‘It could be important,’ he told us. ‘I’ll deal with it.’
    He moved quickly out of the room, to the now deafening sound coming from upstairs. Vanya got to her feet, gliding towards the doorway, craning her head up the stairs.
    ‘A man,’ she said quietly. ‘It sounds like—’
    But the door was slammed shut, heavily, and Soren was coming back down.
    ‘Who was it?’ Vanya said, almost excitedly.
    ‘Just one of those boys …’ Soren glanced quickly at me, before smiling at her. ‘The ones that hang around in the town … some kind of prank.’
    ‘But I heard you talking to someone …’ Vanya frowned at him. ‘I’m sure I—’
    ‘I was shouting into thin air!’ Soren gave a forced kind of chuckle. ‘Whoever it was, they’d run off.’
    I eyed him suspiciously. Something wasn’t quite right here.
    ‘Really,’ Vanya huffed. ‘How irritating.’
    ‘Soren,’ I said, getting to my feet, ‘can I have a word?