“Not really,” I said, staring at the ground. I could barely see my feet.
“Didn’t think so,” he replied. I couldn’t see his expression and I needed to, because I could never tell what he was thinking and sometimes, well, his eyes were at war with his words. “Anyway, I’m…I am sorry about the whole lunch thing.” Surprised he apologized, I stumbled over a rock. He caught me easily, his breath warm on my cheek before he backed off. My skin tingled, but I pulled back. Daemon apologizing for the lunch debacle was like being doused with cold water. I wasn’t sure what was worse: him not knowing he’d been a jerk or fully aware of what he’d been doing to me.
“Kat?” he said softly.
I glanced at him. “You embarrassed me.”
“I know—”
“No, I don’t think you do know.” I started walking, hugging my elbows. “And you pissed me off. I can’t figure you out. One minute you aren’t bad and then you are the biggest ass on the planet.”
“But I have bonus points.” He caught up with me, always shining the light far enough ahead of me so I could easily make out exposed roots and rocks. “I do, right? Bonus points from the lake and our walk? Did I get any from saving you that night?”
“You got a lot of bonus point for your sister.” I shook my head. “Not for me. And if they were my bonus points, you’ve lost most of them by now.”
He was quiet for a few moments. “That blows. It really does.”
I stopped. “Why are we talking?”
“Look, I am sorry about that. I am.” He let out a long breath. “You didn’t deserve the way we acted.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. He sounded genuine and almost sad, but it wasn’t as if he didn’t have a choice in how he acted. Searching for something to say, I settled on what probably wasn’t going to take well. “I’m sorry about your brother, Daemon.” He came to a complete stop, nearly hidden in the shadows. There was such a long gap in silence I wasn’t sure he’d ever respond. “You don’t have any idea what happened to my brother.”
My insides were tight. “All I know is that he disappeared—”
Daemon’s hand opened and closed at his side, the other dangling the flashlight straight down. “That was a while ago.”
“It was last year,” I pointed out gently. “Right?”
“Oh, yeah, you’re right. Just seems longer than that.” He looked away, half of his face coming out of the shadows. “So how did you hear about him?”
I shivered in the chilled air. “Kids were talking about it at school. I was curious why no one ever mentioned him or that girl.”
“Should we have?” he asked.
Glancing at him, I tried to gauge his expression but it was too dark. “I don’t know. Seems like a pretty big deal that people would talk about.”
Daemon started walking again. “It’s not something we like to talk about, Kat.”
That was understandable, I supposed. I struggled to keep up with him. “I don’t been to pry—”
“You don’t?” His voice was tight, movements stiff. “My brother is gone. Some poor girl’s family will probably never see their daughter again, and you want to know why no one told you? ” I bit my lip, feeling like a jerk. “I’m sorry. It’s just that everyone is so…secretive. Like, I don’t know anything about your family. I’ve never seen your parents, Daemon. And Ash hates my guts for no reason. It’s weird that there are two sets of triplets that moved here at the same time. I dumped food on your head yesterday, and I didn’t get in trouble. That’s plain weird. Dee has a boyfriend she’s never mentioned. The town—it’s odd. People stare at Dee like she’s either a princess or they’re afraid of her. People stare at me. And—”
“You sound like those things have something in common.”
I could barely keep up with him. We were moving deeper into the woods, almost near the lake by now. “Do they?”
“Why would they?” His voice was low and taut with frustration. “Maybe you’re feeling a little paranoid. I would be if I’d been attacked after moving to a new town.”
“See, you are doing it now!” I pointed out. “Getting all uptight because I’m asking a question, and Dee does the same thing.”
“Do you think maybe it’s because we know you’ve been through a lot and we don’t want to add to it?”
“But how can you add to it?”
He slowed in his pace. “I don’t know. We can’t.”
I shook my head as he stopped near the edge of the lake and flipped off the flashlight. In the night, the water gleamed like a shined onyx. A hundred stars reflected off the still surface like the night sky, but less infinite. It seemed as if I could reach out and touch them.
“The day at the lake,” Daemon said after a few moments. “There were a few minutes when I was having a good time.”
My breath caught hearing that. There were a few minutes that I’d enjoyed it, too. I tucked my hair back. “Before you turned into Aquaman?”
Daemon was quiet, his shoulders unnaturally tense. “Stress will do that, make you think things are happening that aren’t.”
Looking at him, his striking features lit by the pale moonlight, he didn’t seem real. The exotic eyes, the curve of his jaw, all of it seemed more defined out here. Daemon stared at the dark sky, a brooding and pensive look to his face.