Shrike (Book 2): Rampant Read Online Free

doesn't have to ask who I'm talking about, only gives a hesitant nod. "I knew Seth. He was a good lad, excited about the future. Had a lot of prospects and a brilliant mind for putting things together. He was studying to be a geneticist, did y'ken?"
    I shook my head. "I read that he was studying biology, but that was it."
    "He looked at the human genome as a puzzle. He'd have loved to get his hands on your DNA."
    I know Seth is dead and was an ostensibly good person, but Taog's statement reminds me all too much of Edmund Frost and his research. I shiver before I can help myself. 
    Taog turns to look at me. "Sorry. I didn't mean it like that."
    "I know." I give him a small smile and lean into his shoulder. This time he reaches out an arm and places it around me. 
    I scoot down on the bed until I'm leaning with my head on his chest. I look up at him. His face is etched with worry lines, his eyes even redder than they were this evening. I can't imagine he's slept at all. Neither have I. 
    "Are you going to Seth's funeral?"
    He nods, his gaze centred on a point somewhere past his feet.
    "Would you like me to go with you?"
    He pauses for a moment, then nods. "I'd appreciate that."
    "Then I'll go. When is it?" 
    "Saturday at two o'clock."
    We don't speak again for a while, but Taog's breathing slows and grows deeper, more regular under my ear. It lulls me, and the weight of my exhaustion finally pulls me under into sleep.
     
    I wake to Taog thrashing under me. He lets out a muffled yell at the same moment his alarm goes off. I sit up, disentangling myself from his arm and reach out to touch his face. 
    "Taog," I say. "It's all right, love." 
    I don't know why I use that word, and I'm not sure he hears me. I pat his face lightly with my hand, and he opens his eyes. There's a tear at the corner of his left one, and his pupils dilate. I watch him focus in on my face, but nothing in his body relaxes. He swallows.
    For once, I haven't dreamed. But he has. I can see it in his every movement. 
    We have to find a way to get past this. 
    We watch each other until I can't bear to look at him anymore. My heart feels like it's been dipped in lead over and over, sinking farther into my chest with every pass. 
    "I'll make some tea."
     
     
    There's no email from Ross when I arrive at work the next day, and by the time I leave there's still radio silence. I lock up my office an hour early to make sure I have enough time to get ready for Magda's show. 
    I've chosen to wear a dress, and I didn't even let Magda pick it out. I arrive at the gallery fifteen minutes early, looking about as posh as the orphaned daughter of a pair of crofters can manage. The dress is knee-length and flouncy, which is a word I'll skelp anyone else square in the face for applying to me. It's got a jade green satin underskirt with a beaded mesh overlay, and it swishes and whispers when I walk. 
    I now refuse to wear heels. The number of times in my life I've had to run has increased exponentially in the last year, and it has convinced me that anyone to regularly wear the tortuous contraptions has a death wish.
    The gallery is a single square room on the top floor of a building, the bottom floor of which is a coffee shop and internet cafe. It's set up almost like a traditional art show, except that in place of paintings on the walls, Magda's dresses hang. The paintings themselves have been suspended from the ceiling. I wander for a bit before Magda catches my arm.
    "Gwen, you came." She whispers into my ear. "I am so nervous. What if they all hate them?"
    Her dresses are spectacular to me. But then again, I could barely sew myself into a burlap sack. I can hem trousers and make a wee black mask for myself, but I could never make the kind of wearable art Magda does. "They're lovely," I tell her. I point to one at random, an asymmetrical blue number with a ruched bodice and beading on the single strap. "Duchess Kate ought to be wearing that."
    I'm proud of myself