“Precisely.”
I nodded, satisfied. It was quite nice, really. To be partnering with somebody so detail-oriented and competent on a project like this. No wonder he’d advanced so far in the military before coming here.
“Warden Hallum,” I said. “I have a question.”
“You need not pre-warn me of that,” he said. “Just ask me your question, as you have been doing this entire time so far.”
Hoping there wasn’t some insult hidden in there, I plunged on.
“But this question is a bit more personal.”
He made a snorting sound then. I supposed that was what qualified as a Warden Hallum laugh.
“You have asked me several of those already, also without warning,” he reminded me. “I seem to recall you rather bluntly asking me if I preferred to engage in sexual activity with men instead of women.”
“Oh. Right.” My cheeks boiled. “Well, alright then. I’ll just ask.”
Why did this feel so much harder than asking him about his previous love life?
“Why did you leave your post in the military to become a warden here?”
I stole a glance at him then, but his profile revealed nothing. His gaze was at the horizon. Focused, but also very far away.
“I believe I told you,” he said, “that, while I have not had any romantic attachments in my life, I have had others. Attachments that have bound me just as deeply, but in different ways.”
I nodded, unwilling to speak and interrupt him.
“There was one such circumstance…” He paused, seeming to chew on his next words, sorting through them with his fangs until he found the right ones. “One such person. A child that I felt duty-bound to protect.”
I spoke gently when he lapsed into silence. “A child?”
“A convict.”
Goosebumps prickled along my arms.
“You mean you escorted a convicted child here?”
“Correct.”
Which child?I was about to ask.Which convict?
But before I got the chance, he turned my own questions around on me.
“Why did you choose to come here?”
Ouch.
“Do you want the nice, fluffy version,” I asked with a defensive half-laugh, “or the truth?”
His gaze was fully on my face then. “What do you think?”
I already knew the answer. Warden Hallum had no patience for coddling, for false comfort, for the little white lies we use to smooth out the edges of our lives. He was more interested in stripping all of that away. Digging his claws into the reality of it all. Even if that reality was ugly. And made me want to bury my head in the snow and hide.
“I was engaged to be married,” I said.
Once I started, I couldn’t stop. I told him about Bryson. About the betrayal. About the need to get away from it all.
“I won’t hide out here forever,” I said at the end. “I’ll take this year as a chance to get my head on straight. Then, I’ll go back to Terratribe II. The planet I’m from.”
