Page 60 of Blood Moon
“Yes.”
“Without the use of equipment?”
Julian raised a brow, stifled a laugh. “Yes …”
I took in a lungful of air, breathing in the rich smell of mums and hydrangeas from nearby. “But you …” I stared at his chest, watched it move, imagined the thudding there. “But you have a heartbeat. I felt it.” And then I remembered the fast stutter of it against my own body.
“Manythingshave a heartbeat, Mira. Not just humans.”
“But—” And I shook my head again.It wasn’t true. It wasn’t.
Julian gently touched my arm, and when I looked into his eyes, he leaned in. “Trust me … you know this,” he said, and no matter how earnest he was, I didn’t know if Iwantedto know this.
I clamped my mouth shut, refused to say a word.
Julian looked at me sternly. Waited a beat. “Think about it, Mira. I’m really strong. I can track humans and animals. I can hear and see beyond human capacity. I can climb and jump from tall buildings.” Then he added, his jaw clenched, “I’m hungry all the time, and verylittlesatisfies me. It is a constant ache that I must live with. I am relentlessly stuck between two worlds—the one you choose to live in, and mine.”
I was stunned and breathless, but we were already at my building. We stood next to a tree, the shade cooling the back of my neck and my shoulders.
Julian was spot-on when he said I was choosing to live in this world—the one that believed in the legends as fairytales, not as truth—and I did because I was content here, in this lie. And if I shattered that, it meant everything I ever believed in would be upended.
“What are you thinking?” he asked, each word slicing through my thoughts. I didn’t move, didn’t respond. My instincts were right, and I needed to trust my gut and just say it.
He sighed and looked away from me when I didn’t respond. “I need to get going.”
“You’re not gonna walk me inside?”
“Not this time, Mira. I think you need some time away from me to process. You’ve asked all the right questions, and I know once you put two and two together, you’re gonna have so many more for me. When you get out of class and you’re ready to talk about it, I’ll be over there.” He pointed past one of the wolf sculptures, to a bench that resided beneath a willow tree. “And,” he started, but then he closed his eyes while he exhaled, a pained look in his face. “And if you don’t want to talk to me after, you can walk past me, and I promise, I won’t ever talk to you again.”
The sound of his voice made my stomach twist. “Okay,” I mumbled. When he walked away, my heart raced so quickly, I felt it thumping against my throat, beating in my ears.
Julian Santos was a werewolf.
CHAPTER29
Many will not believe. Still, we push forward.
Article I, Lost Letters from Aadan the First
I should have skipped class and went straight to him. It wasn’t ideal to sit in a room full of people with the information I now knew.
Julian was a werewolf. Just like the ones in the story. He’d been one this entire time, and he’d tried to tell me, but I kept missing the hints, kept pushing them to the side, unable to cope with the idea that something like that could be possible. It was why he possessed incredible strength and speed, why he could track anything by scent, why he was dangerous.
When class was over, I hurried down the long hall toward the exit. Outside, I stood under the awning, determined to know if he was where he said he’d be.
Julian sat on the bench with his backpack on the ground beside his feet, a book propped on his legs, hair falling forward while he read.
“Julian,” I all but mumbled as I tried to balance my shock.
A single look confirmed that he’d heard me, and when our eyes met, he was expressionless. I wanted to know what he was thinking, if he was aware of what I now knew. Did he think I was afraid? I wasn’t, andI was.
I’d wrestled with this idea in class, allowing myself the option to leave, to back out. The thought grew aggressively in me. I had a choice. But to choose to leave right as the world had split would be foolish. Inexplicable as it was, I was certain Rena was tied to this somehow—the knots were too close together to not be spun from the same thread—and if I took this chance, swallowed that budding fear, I’d be one step closer to potentially understanding why she left, and another step closer to hopefully bringing her back.
As I stepped from the awning into the bright afternoon sun, I didn’t hear the voices of those congregating around me. Instead, I heard the birds singing from the highest branch and woodland creatures skittering from tree trunks as I ambled toward him, contemplating the decision I’d made.
Ishouldbe afraid of him. He was a monster, a grotesque beast.
Though, he didn’t appear as the bloodcurdling thing in my nightmares. Julian, more than ever perhaps, was beautiful, charming even, as he sat beneath the wispy canopy of leaves. Despite what I’d learned, he’d saved my life, so if he was this cold-blooded thing, he would have let me die. Or worse, he would have been the cause.
