Fallen 2. Torment(28)

recognizable mane of black-and-gold dreadlocks.

Roland Sparks had turned up at Shoreline.

Luce jumped out from her hidden perch. She might still be on nervous best

behavior in front of Francesca and Steven, who were dauntingly gorgeous and powerful

and mature ... and her teachers. But Roland didn't intimidate her--not much, anyway--not

anymore. Besides, he was the closest to Daniel she had been in days.

She slunk down the interior steps as silently as she could, then burst through the

lodge door to the deck. Roland was moseying toward the ocean like he didn't have a care

in the world.

"Roland!" she shouted, thundering down the last flight of stairs to the ground and

breaking into a jog. He stood where the path ended and the bluff dropped down to steep

and craggy rocks.

He was standing so still, looking out at the water. Luce was surprised to feel

butterflies in her stomach when, very slowly, he began to turn around.

"Well, well." He smiled. "Lucinda Price discovers peroxide."

"Oh." She clutched at her hair. How stupid she must look to him.

"No, no," he said, stepping toward her, fluffing her hair with his fingers. "It suits

you. A hard edge for hard times."

"What are you doing here?"

"Enrolling." He shrugged. "I just picked up my class schedule, met the teachers.

Seems like a pretty sweet place."

A woven knapsack was slung over one of his shoulders with something long and

narrow and silver sticking out of it. Following her eyes, Roland switched the bag to his

other shoulder and tightened the top flap with a knot.

"Roland." Her voice quaked. "You left Sword and Cross? Why? What are you

doing here?"

"Just needed a change of pace," he offered cryptically.

Luce was going to ask about the others--Arriane and Gabbe. Even Molly.

Whether anyone had noticed or cared that she'd left. But when she opened her mouth,

what came out was very different from what she had expected. "What were you talking

about in there with Francesca and Steven?"

Roland's face changed suddenly, hardened into something older, less carefree.

"That depends. How much did you hear?"

"Daniel. I heard you say that he ... You don't have to lie to me, Roland. How

much longer until he comes back? Because I don't think I can--"

"Come take a walk with me, Luce."

As awkward as it would have felt for Roland Sparks to put his arm around her

shoulders back at Sword & Cross, that was how comforting it was when he did it that day

at Shoreline. They were never really friends, but he was a reminder of her past--a bond

she couldn't help turning to now.

They walked along the bluff's edge, around the breakfast terrace, and along the

west side of the dorms, past a rose garden Luce had never seen before. It was dusk and

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the water to their right was alive with colors, reflecting the rose and orange and violet

clouds gliding in front of the sun.

Roland led her to a bench facing the water, far away from all the campus

buildings. Looking down, she could see a rugged set of stairs carved into the rock,

starting just below where they were sitting, and leading all the way down to the beach.

"What do you know that you aren't saying?" Luce asked when the silence began

to get to her.

"That water is fifty-one degrees," Roland said.

"Not what I meant," she said, looking him right in the eyes. "Did he send you here

to watch over me?"

Roland scratched his head. "Look. Daniel's off doing his thing." He made a

flitting motion at the sky. "In the meantime"--and she thought he cocked his head toward

the forest behind the dorm--"you got your own thing to take care of."

"What? No, I don't have a thing. I'm just here because--"

"Bullshit." He laughed. "We all have our secrets, Luce. Mine brought me to

Shoreline. Yours has been leading you out to those woods."

She started to protest, but Roland waved her off, that ever-cryptic look in his eyes.

"I'm not going to get you in trouble. In fact, I'm rooting for you." His eyes moved

past her, out to sea. "Now, back to that water. It's frigid. Have you been in it? I know you

like to swim."

It struck Luce that she'd been at Shoreline for three days, with the ocean always

visible, the waves always audible, the salt air always coating everything, but she still

hadn't set foot on the beach. And it wasn't like at Sword & Cross, where a laundry list of

things were off-limits. She didn't know why it hadn't even occurred to her.

She shook her head.

"About all you can do with a beach that cold is build a bonfire." Roland glanced

at her. "You made any friends here yet?"