"I only told you because I was trying to make small talk. It gets lonely in here," he confessed in frustration.
She laughed incredulously, this shifter always throwing her for a loop. "You have, like, two ends of the spectrum with small talk," Rem said, holding her hands out to show a distance. "One," she said, shaking her left hand, "is about favorite foods and colors, and your other," she said, shaking her right hand, "is about telling me your brother's master plan. You gotta learn to find a balance, Deacon."
His face didn't change until she saw a corner of his mouth twitch. It wasn't long before he broke into a chuckle. "Did you know shifters don't really conduct small talk? That's more of a human thing. Nia is much better at it than I am."
"See, that'sgood small talk," Rem said. "But we can't have that conversation now. I need to know what Owen was promised. I need to know what is going on. I am not an idiot, Deacon. Something is happening, isn’t it?"
He scowled and looked away again. "I already waited too long to say anything. If I tell you now, it will only make things worse."
"Well, what's the consequence you're facing now?"
"Probably death."
"So, then what's it going to hurt to talk to me? If you think you're going to dieanyway—"
"It's something, Rem, where if I told you now," he said as he faced her, his hair in his darkened eyes, "then you'd have to immediately leave Scarlet. The fact that Ronan isn't here right now with an army tells me that Owen, Gally, and Jackson haven't broken, so I won't either."
Shit. It was true, then.An army… He said an army.
Something washorriblywrong.
And Lothar was missing.
She looked back up at him, her hands shaking, fight or flight fueling her veins.
Rem wanted to get up and run, to grab Nia and just leave the jacket for Oliver back in Evensen. Through thin lips, she said, "What is it? Tell me Deacon. I have a right to know. My entire life was changed for it. What is going on?"
"I won't tell you.”
She stood up, pacing. Everything was falling apart again, all the progress she had worked so hard for… Crumbling. “I need to go,” she mumbled.
“Wait,” he commanded. “Please…Fuck,” he said, shaking his head. “I never wanted to be in this position!”
“Oh, don’t act guilty,” she remarked, her voice raising. “I’m not buying it. You’re probably a distraction—”
She paused, starting at the brick wall.Distraction. She wasn’t sure how that connected, but something told her she was closer to the truth than ever.
“You knownothingabout me, or what I am going through, or what haunts my dreams,” he growled.
She neared the bars, squatting down, and said, "The thought that my mother and father are all alone, with no idea what happened to their daughterorson, I promise, haunts me deeper than whatever you’re going through. And the reason for that, as far as I know, is just so an Alpha can have a mate because some shifter clan has some obscure goals. Do you know how frustrating that is? You ruined my life for nothing!” Rem stood again, staring at him. “Ihaveto go.”
Deacon gazed at Rem for an uncomfortably long time before his jaw trembled, his nostrils flared, and his eyes revealed a layer of humanity that she had yet to see.
"Owen promised me that I'd get to become a full shifter,” he said with a crack in his voice.
"Youarea shifter."
"No—No, I'm a half-breed," he said as he sneered, his eyes turning to loathing, “and the witches were going to fix it.”
26
THE BETRAYAL
R O N A N
Five Days Earlier
The homeof the Alpha of Warden was at the base of a tall, powerful waterfall, the entrance off to the side. An elaborately carved archway was cut away from the mountainside, like the entrance to a mine turned into a palace.
