We Set the Dark on Fire (We Set the Dark on Fire, #1)(22)

“Sound advice, se?ora,” she said instead, sipping at her own iced water with mint and lemon as the morning grew more humid around them. “But I assure you, I’ve never been accused of clinging to anyone’s anything.”

The other woman offered a wry smile. “Why do you think I chose you?”

Dani sat up a little straighter at the compliment. The sun warmed her face, the glass was cool in her hand, and Dani closed her eyes for a brief moment, enjoying the feeling that nothing was in immediate danger of falling apart.

But then she opened them.

At first, she saw only a gardener, probably one of the many she’d hired herself just a few days before. He had climbed a ladder and was trimming a flowering vine that had wound around the ornate railing of the breakfast patio. It struck Dani as strange that he would choose to trim it right then, while she was entertaining, and she was halfway out of her chair to tell him so when he turned his face toward the light.

The angular features, the thick, arching brows, the fox’s narrow smile. Eyes like obsidian, reflecting the sun. There was no mistaking him. But there was also no mistaking the emotion that welled up in her chest at the sight of him. The loosening of the bonds she’d tied up all her revolutionary sentiments with.

Suddenly, her fork felt too heavy in her hand again, her dress too impossibly soft against the back of her neck.

“Something wrong, Daniela?” asked Se?ora Garcia, who had her back to the railing.

“Nothing!” Dani said, just a little too hastily. “I’m . . . dizzy . . . from the sun, is all.”

Over her shoulder, the gardener-who-was-not-a-gardener had the audacity to smirk.

“I think I’ll head inside,” Dani continued, standing and edging toward the door. “Big night tonight, as you know.”

Se?ora Garcia pursed her lips again. Not a good sign. “If you’re going to make it in this family, Daniela,” she said, “you’re going to have to develop a hardier constitution.”

“Of course,” said Dani, still backing away apologetically. Every twelve-hour day she’d spent racing up and down the dirt roads of Polvo played behind her eyes, mocking her choice of lies. A Vargas? Dizzy from the sun? The sand itself would get dizzy first. “Let me see you to the door, please.”

“I’m more than capable of seeing myself out,” said her mother-in-law with another searching look. “And you really don’t look well. See that you get some rest before the party tonight; it’s your first chance to show him who you can be.”

“The most venomous viper in the pit.” Dani flashed a weak smile, torn between terror at Sota’s appearance and curiosity at the se?ora’s words. How much did she know about the way Mateo was treating his new Primera? But there was no time. “You can count on me,” she said, moving them both toward the door.

Se?ora Garcia gave her a once-over. “It’s not me who needs to count on you,” she said, then disappeared into the house.

Alone on the patio, Dani whirled around to face the intruder, but there was no one there. Just a neatly trimmed vine where chaos had been impending moments before.

She tried to look with only her eyes, to make sure she was truly alone. With Carmen watching her every move, she couldn’t afford to be chasing shadows on the second-floor terrace. When she was satisfied that no one could see her, she crept closer to the balcony rail, scanning the lawn below, taking in the waxy leaves crowding the edges as they threatened to encroach on the civil gardens.

Dani had hired a dozen gardeners this week, but the only person in blue coveralls was sitting casually on the east gazebo stairs as if he had an appointment, and Dani was sure his application hadn’t been in her stack.

I could go inside, Dani thought. Just hide in my room and hope he goes away.

At the thought, her heart sank in unmistakable disappointment. She could almost hear Sota’s letter and all her previously contained thoughts rattling in the still morning.

His posture hadn’t shifted an inch. This was a boy who was willing to wait.

Telling herself it was only to prevent what he might say if she left him alone, Dani took a deep, calming breath and descended the stairs to the lower lawn to meet him.





7


Though family is the center of a happy life, a Primera’s friendships can take her far. Choose your social circle wisely, and maintain mutual usefulness for optimal social opportunity.

—Medio School for Girls Handbook, 14th edition


“FOLLOW ME,” DANI HISSED AS she passed the gazebo. She didn’t stop. “At a distance.”

Her eyes scanned the grounds, the windows of the house open to the morning sun. There were a hundred places someone could be hiding. A hundred vantage points. Curious kitchen girls, downtrodden maids with a grudge against their employers.

Carmen . . .

Dani kept walking, focusing on her feet. She tried to act as though she were just out for an after-breakfast walk, no clear destination, just some exercise to aid in digestion. But it was hard to tune out the dangers: talking to a gardener in private would raise enough eyebrows, but talking to a card-carrying member of La Voz inside the government complex was good for a pair of handcuffs and a list of questions Dani could never answer. Not with the truth.

Not if she wanted to live.

Since the riots began, just before Dani was born, subterfuge had been the most powerful weapon of groups like La Voz, who no longer had anything to lose. They had been devastating in the early years, planning targeted attacks, delivering lists of demands, showing up two steps ahead of the military wherever they turned.