This is dangerous terrain andwaytoo close to my unshareable truths. “No.”
“Please?”
“It’s too long a story.”
Finn jokingly tugs against his restraints. “Fortunately, you’ve got a captive audience.”
I have to suppress a smile, but my skin prickles. I hate lying. I want so badly to be honest with someone, the confession threatens to climb out of my throat. I can’t imagine how good it would feel to come clean about all of it—my Talent, my mother, her absurd paranoia and insistence on my incompetence—but the truth is dangerous.
I settle for another half-truth. “My mother had some…problems in her old life.” Not quite a lie, but not the whole story, either.
His eyebrows rise, but he is quiet, waiting for me to go on.
“At a certain point, it wasn’t safe for us to keep living in my father’s hometown,” I continue, choosing each word carefully. “She took me and fled. We’ve been living here for as long as I can remember.”
“Here? In this cottage?”
I nod. “Or others like it. There are lots of empty places like this around the Ironwoods, left by families who moved when the wall went up.” I shift my weight. “What about you? You’re inwall?”
Finn smiles like I’ve made a joke, and only he knows the punchline. “My family’s about as inwall as it gets.”
“Did you grow up in town?”
“In the capital.”
“Really? Wow.” Illustrations of Crown City from books rise to memory: huge spiraling towers and gleaming cathedrals. “I’ve never been. Is it as beautiful as they say?”
“You get used to it.”
“I guess.” I fear some of the wistfulness clutching my chest has leaked into my tone, so I hurry to change the subject. “What about your family?”
“Well, there are five of us, including my parents. Plus cousins and aunts, but who counts them, right?”
I marvel at the idea of so many relatives. “What’s it like having siblings?”
Finn leans back. “Well, Damien, my younger brother, he’s…generally sort of a dick. But he’s not too bad most of the time, and he’s my favorite person to ride with or go hunting with. And then Sebastian, our older brother…he’s the best of us. Everyone would agree with that, too.”
“Thebest of us? What does that mean?”
He snorts softly. “In my parents’ eyes or mine?”
“Whichever one matters.”
“Hmm. I like your questions.” He considers. “They both matter.I’dsay it’s because Sebastian knows what he’s supposed to do with his life and he does it. Myparentswould say it’s because he’s the most responsible.”
“What would Damien say?”
“He’d sayhe’sthe best.”
I laugh. “And you? Damien’s the worst, Sebastian’s the best, so you’re…”
“I’m the fun one,” he says with a waggle of his brows.
“And what does that mean?” I ask, still laughing.
“What I said.” He smirks. “I’m the one you’d want to have fun with.”
“Is that what you tell the girls in Crown City?”
