Page 27 (1/2)

I assue and was surprised when he led h trouble?"

"And can’t you be quiet for two minutes?" he snapped back, but even in the dark, I saw in his eyes hoasn’t truly angry He led us to a spot looking down at the shore It was nestled in the hills, perfectly situated so that neither people on the path nor those on the beach would’ve been able to see us

"You’re full of secrets," I said

"I’m not the only one" The way he sat next to hts froht clear slances at hi this now? Why couldn’t he have taken me on moonlit walks to secret spots before I’d bonded with a vampire? What was he up to?

For once, he was the one to break the silence With a heavy glance, he asked, "Are you going to tellto just sit there and brood?"

I whipped ht shards of white "

He laughed A Ronan laugh was a rare thing, and it unsettled ed the subject "So your fa the distant fishing village I’d once spotted from the water

"I have people here, yes In a uess you’d say"

Foster family? This was news "What happened to your--?" I trailed off, uncertain what the protocol was for conversations like this Already ere navigating depths that Ronan and I had never plumbed before

"To my blood kin?" he finished for me "They’re…elsewhere But aye, they live" He phrased it aardly, his words bearing a strange echo, like awe, or fear

"Why aren’t you with therew up here I am required here"

His tiot about weirdness as so he’d said clicked "So the sister you told me about…" My heart soared "She was just a foster sister?" He’d once said I reminded him of his sister, but really, ants to be sisterly?

"No, Annelise Charlotte wasSoain I wondered, as he doing this? It made me feel embarrassed, or like a kid I didn’t even understand ere having this conversation Why had he brought ave ht have softened otherwise "Where exactly is your blood fa, who’d escaped To keeper had put her on a boat, headed tohat he’d called "friends" Might Ronan’s family be with "friends," too?

"Aye," he said, his words clipped and tight with emotion "My mother…she’s on a different island With others"

The honesty surprisedsecrets all aroundto mind, but I knew not to push it This was already way ht he’d tell ain, why? Why was he confiding in limpse into his life?

Aside from my Scottish vampire, Ronan knew one, at least I was certain he’d guessed at the connection between ot it Got how complicated and lonely life on this dark isle could be But he’d always ed?

Did he just feel sorry for ht I was, how ?

The optimist in me said it was because he finally trusted me, but my inner pessimist countered that it was because I served some mysterious interest known only to him

Who knew? Maybe the explanation was as si

Or…s precisely because Carden was out there, somewhere, with a claim to me, and therefore Ronan couldn’t ardless, he’d confided and noas ot for faers--"stepmom" I couldn’t even say her name without irony, she’d been that crappy to me "I had what felt like a family here for, like, half a second Eone" I stole a look at hi away I spoke the words before I chickened out "Everyone’s gone except for you"

I could hear in the cadence of his breath that he’d heard what I was really saying--the implication that he was also like fah He didn’trateful

Instead he said, "Yasuo You’ve seen hi in his tone told me that he already knehat I’d suspected

"I did see him He’s been on h "He blames me for Emma"

Ronan slid a hand onto my arm Not the special hypnotic touch…just his touch "Emma wasn’t your fault"

"I know" I shifted away, quickly changing back to a subject that was no less heartbreaking "Yasuo, when I saw hi funny Not like funny ha-ha," I clarified "He was off"