Page 55 of A Dusk Of Stars

I turn to look at him, seeing his features softened a little.

“You don't have toleave.”

Raven nods. “Stay, Anna.” She pauses a little before she says, “Unless you don't want to hang out with us.”

“Of course I do,” I reply with a frown. “Why would you say that?”

Alaric lets out a laugh. “It's not like you ever share anything with us.”

I frown. “What the hell are you talking about? I share plenty with you.”

“Yeah,” Alaric mumbles with an awkward shake of his head, “we don’t know a single thing about you.”

“Well,” I reply with a frown, “there’s a lot I don’t know aboutyou, either.”

“Like what?” he asks.

I look at him incredulously, then take a seat. “Well, it was only last time I saw you that I found out you weren't powerless.”

“You never asked,” he says simply. “That's another thing. You never ask anything but the most superficial stuff.”

Well, maybe I don't want tobeasked anything but the most superficial stuff. This, however, I keep to myself. “Doesn't mean I don't want to know,” I say with a sorry look in my eyes. “Would you tell me? Why you choose not to use your powers.”

To my surprise, he looks at me for a second then blows a soft laugh through his nose. “I mean, we’ve got so much power and look how we use it.”

“How?”

He hesitates for a moment. “Look, Anna,” he starts with this seriousness in his voice that I’ve never heard before. “Biologically, I’m twenty six years old, but it was in 1921 that I was born.”

What the… I glance at Raven, but she already seems to know all this.

“My family, the Siegers,” Alaric keeps going, visibly ashamed, “they were at the height of their power during the Second World War.” The way he says it makes it very clear to me which side they were on. Not the good one. “And they did horrible things, Anna.”

I throw him a sympathetic look. “I understand that that would make you cynical,” I say quietly.

He lets out a bitter laugh. “Not even family meant anything to those people. When the war ended and it was clear they’d lose everything, they went into hibernation and forced me into one as well.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “Damn.”

“We only woke up a couple of years ago, and now they’re rotting in prison, as they should be, but it doesn’t make it any better, you know?”

“I know,” I whisper, trying to communicate with my eyes exactly how much I’m sorry for all that he’s been through.

“Andthat’swhy I choose not to use my magic.” He shifts in his seat awkwardly and it makes me realize he’s had enough of vulnerability for one day, so I choose to lighten things up for him a little.

“Alright. You said you knew nothing about me,” I start with a smile. It encourages me when both him and Raven lean a littleforward with interest in their eyes. “Well, my favorite color is green, my favorite food nachos, I hate people who scribble their shit in books they don’t own, but I also kind of like it…”

Raven just blinks at me, but Alaric laughs. “Ooh,” he cuts in with a spark in his eyes as he slides his forearms down the table. “I’ve got a question for you. Would you rather be forced to eat a gerbil plant,” he starts in a low, excited voice, “or have someone spike your drink with blood gin…” He pauses, building tension as his eyes sweep over the two of us. “Just as you’re about to have a chat with the Pied Piper?”

“What kind of non-question is that?” I protest with a laugh. “I’d eat a dozen gerbil plants voluntarily and risk all the grueling consequences beforeeverembarrassing myself in front of Johanna de Groot.”

As the two of us laugh our asses off, I notice Raven still has a serious look on her face.

It’s sobering. I clear my throat. “Actually, you two,” I start in a somber voice, making Alaric’s smile slide off as well, “thereissomething I’d like to talk to you about.”

I decide to just tell them about everything that happened. Noteverything, obviously, but everything except the vision and the incident between me and Bane.

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