“And you wanted me to see it?”
“I wanted you to know it was here.”
“Hale told me I wasn’t allowed.”
Something dark flashed in Kieran’s expression.
Only for a second.
Then the smile came back, lighter and less convincing.
“Did he now?”
“Yes.”
“And you came anyway.”
“I asked Rev. She said Hale has his own reasons for things.”
“Excellent choice.”
“You look pleased.”
“I am trying very hard not to enjoy this for the wrong reasons.”
“Is it working?”
“No.”
The air still felt warmer than it should near him. The moonlight shone on his face. Smooth, dark skin. Moonlight brightening his eyes.
His Pull was here on the roof with me. Some clean-wind edge that had grown sharper since the corridor.
An apple sat on the ledge beside him, already bitten once.
“You brought one for yourself?”
“I do occasionally eat my own food.”
“And here I thought they existed only as an invitation for baddecisions.”
“Several uses,” he said with a shrug.
He looked out over the roof and didn’t fill the silence between us.
Then the wind shifted.
He reached for the apple with his right hand and stopped halfway there.
A catch. A flinch he killed almost before it existed.
But I saw it.
His fingers curled once, hard, and for a second the cloth at his right shoulder glowed faintly green-gold from underneath.
Then it was gone.
“What’s wrong with your shoulder?” I asked.
