Page 109 of Tempest

“Yeah.” She slumps. “I know.”

“I can’t kill you. I’ve already tried once and failed.”

I say it softly, but she perks up nonetheless.

“If I have your word you’ll stay silent.”

Ardyn nods. Not eagerly, but she does enough of an up-and-down motion for me to take it as agreement.

“You’re right about Hunter. Professor Morgan. He doesn’t know you were there, and I can entrust Rio to silence.”

“On one condition.”

My chin jerks back. “You realize you’re in no position to dictate terms.”

She meets my eyes again. “All I want to know is how. How you got into this. I know why my world became colorless,” Ardyn adds. She must notice the tight pinching of my features. “But I have no idea why yours went black. Please, just tell me. I’ve given all of myself to you. I want to know.”

I shake my head. “Giving me your virginity does not also give you the right to ask for something in return.”

“I’m not asking you. I’m asking the boy I knew, the one who played in the sun. The one who I watched from dark corners, caught me once and gave me a dandelion in my hiding spot. That impish jerk who blew the seeds in my face as soon as I reached for it.”

“He’s dead.”

“Then tell me how he died.”

“Ardyn…”

“Clover always told me how funny you were and that you made jokes out of every situation. I used to pine for a brother like you until I was old enough to realize people aren’t attracted to their siblings, and I was desperate for you. The meaner you were, the more pranks you pulled on us, the more I wanted you. I noticed so much about you, Tempest. How you prefer cucumbers in your sandwiches instead of tomatoes. How you could lower the room temperature in any tense situation between your parents by making some sly remark. Your preference for a tailored uniform you always kept impeccable and your messy, tousled hair. Your utter confidence while walking into an unfamiliar room. Your complete, undying loyalty to your friends. God, how I wanted to be your friend.”

I’m holding my stomach muscles so still that they ache. My face begs to be loosened from the vice-like, emotionless weight I’m forcing it to endure. Every sentence leaving Ardyn’s mouth flays me open like a bullet, small in the front, and a total, explosive mess in the back where she can’t see.

I had no idea she saw me that way; that the little pimply tyke saw me in any way. She was a figurine, delicate and fragile, that I was expressly forbidden to touch. I fucked around with her and Clover—what self-entitled big brother wouldn’t?

I told myself it was her kidnapping that changed my behavior toward her. I’ve never considered how closely tied our severed childhoods are until now.

I’m able to scratch out, “Is this your way of breaking down my walls, princess? I gotta say, you get an F.”

Ardyn draws in a deep breath. “If you won’t explain to me why you killed those people back there, help me understand why you destroyed the best parts of yourself.”

I sigh. Stare up at the canopy of skeletal branches, then scrape a hand down my face in a bid to bring myself back to center. Ardyn’s tilted me too far over a precarious edge. “Are you sure you want to know?”

“I’ve wanted to understand you since the day I met you. Yes. I want to know.”

“Fine.”

---