My jaw dropped. “Clever? They thought that little bloodbath was clever?”
“I told you, Annelise. It’s win by any means. And this is the last I’ll speak of it.” He strode to me, holding out his hand. “Now get up.”
I sighed. He was right—I was here, and I’d best get used to the fact that all that compelling training with Priti would have some very real-world applications. But it didn’t mean I needed to swim, not today and in the rain. Our competition would take place in a ring, not the pool.
I stared at his outstretched hand, fighting the urge to clasp it tight. His grip would be warm and strong. “Seriously, Ronan. Can’t we take a day off? Please? Swimming is the last thing I can bear at the moment. How’s swim going to help me, anyway? Combat challenges take place in a ring.”
“Combat challenges can take many forms, and I’d have you be prepared for all of them.” He leaned down and snatched my arm, tugging to me standing. “There are no days off. Now come.”
“I’m up, I’m up. Man, you’re being harsh.” I pulled away from him with exaggerated annoyance. “How, exactly, will swimming help me? Unless you plan on holding my head under and putting me out of my misery. Which isn’t a bad idea, actually.”
“Annelise.” His voice was stern, and it made me look at him. “Getyour other boot on,” he said more gently. “I have some ideas.”
Apparently his ideas involved me treading water in a freezing cove while holding my hands over my head.
“I thought you said this would help me be a better fighter.” I sank below the surface of the water and scissor-kicked back up. Coughing, I wiped my face against my arm. Though I’d become a decent swimmer, I still couldn’t stand the feel of water on my face.
Ronan stood in waist-high water not too far from me. He could’ve stayed on the beach—I don’t know why he didn’t—but I appreciated the gesture of support nonetheless. “You need to build core strength.” He nodded at my arms. “Arm strength will help with your throwing stars.”
“Not if I’m too sore to lift them. You’re killing me.” My shoulders burned. My neck ached. “I can barely hit the target anyway. What good will strong arms do me?”
“You are capable of hitting the target. You simply need to learn how to keep a consistently calm mind.”
“I’m drowning in here. Spare me the Zen crap.” Gradually, my elbows slipped closer to the surface. Water splashed in my face, and I spat it out. “Seriously, Ronan. Can I be done now?”
He turned his back on me, diving away. I didn’t get why anyone would choose to swim in this water. His head bobbed back up, and he slicked the hair from his chiseled face. I imagined it was what he might look like emerging from a hot tub.
I scowled even harder.
“You’re done,” he shouted, kicking away from me on his back. “Get out. Go run. I want five laps along the beach.”
I was cranky and sandy and totally beat by the time Ronan and I walked back to where he’d parked. But I’d had a lot of time to think. “So, if I win, I get to go off-island with Master Alcántara.”
Ronan opened the van’s rear doors. “Yes.”
Snagging a towel, I scrubbed my face hard, erasing the memory of water splashing into my eyes and up my nose. “What’s his deal, anyway?”
“Master Alcántara?” he asked, incredulous. “His deal?”
My mind went back to that night. The vampire’s strange words; the even stranger feel of his touch on my face. “Yeah, by the stones—” I stopped myself.
Ronan stared hard. “By the stones, what?”
I bent to pull off my swim booties, hoping he didn’t notice how my face was flushing. I improvised to cover up the blunder. “By the stones . . . on that first day . . . I’d wondered what other islands there are around here.”
I stood up, tossing my booties in the back of the van. Ronan was looking at me skeptically.
I shrugged. “I just think it’d be cool to travel off the island with someone like him. Did you know he met Descartes?”
He slung his towel over his shoulder, then crossed his arms over his chest. It made his upper body look even more cut than usual. “Beware Hugo De Rosas Alcántara.”
“Are you saying I should bow out of the challenge?”
“I’m saying no such thing. The girls who don’t enter the competition are fools who won’t survive the year.” He stared hard at me, weighing his words. When he spoke again, it was slower, gentler. “Don’t for a moment think the choices you make aren’t a part of your trials on this island. You must participate in the challenge. But you must also maintain distance, Annelise. Alcántara is Vampire, centuries old and lacking in the human mores to which you’re accustomed. Imagine yourself a professional. Because that’s precisely what you aspire to be. Not a special pet or project or plaything for Master Alcántara. Don’t let him lay claim to you.”
His mini speech stunned me. “But he’s one of them. One of the main vampire dudes, right? I can’t just stay away from him.”
“No, you cannot.” Ronan reached behind his back to undo the Velcro on the neck of his wet suit. I kept my eyes strictly above chin level. “But you can keep a polite distance. Speak when you’re spoken to. Don’t stare him in the eye.” He paused to glare at me. “As you seem to feel free to do with me.”
I laughed, taken aback, and Ronan gave me a grudging smile. “I’m serious, Annelise. This is life or death.”
I wasn’t ready to die. Which meant I had to be ready to kill. I suspected the Directorate challenge wasn’t so much about competing with the other girls as it was about eliminating them.
Ronan reached around his back, and with a tug on the long toggle attached to his zipper, he began to peel the wet suit from his arms. It revealed his tattoo, stark on his pale, chilled skin. Le seul paradis c’est le paradis perdu.
The sight of it, its possible meaning, held me transfixed. “What is it you’ve lost?” I asked quietly.
We stared at each other a moment. “Turn around, Annelise. A little privacy, please.” He didn’t sound angry, just tired.
I walked around to the front of the van, peeling off my own wet suit and pulling my sweats over the damp Speedo I’d worn underneath. I clambered into the front seat.
Ronan slammed the rear doors shut, then walked around and climbed in. He put the key in the ignition, but just sat there, staring at the steering wheel.
Finally, he said, “There are many things I’ve lost. Many people. Perhaps you’ll one day discover life here is not what it seems.”
I studied his profile, desperate to understand his meaning. “Then why do you stay?”
“It is where I belong.”
His reply had been simple, but it was no answer. Something held him on the island. Something more than just habit or home. I could see it in his eyes, green and sad. But clearly he wasn’t going to tell me.
I changed tack. I felt a connection with Ronan—I always had, despite his powers of persuasion that’d gotten me into this mess. “Why do you do this? It’s more than just someone asking you to look out for me. Why have you been kind to me?”
He glanced at me. He looked so bleak in that moment, I wished I could touch him. Just a simple hand on his shoulder.
“I told you once before. You remind me of someone,” he said. “A girl who’d been smart, like you.”
I had been right. We did have a connection. But who did I remind him of? An old lover? High school sweetheart? Electricity pulsed through me, but I managed to keep my voice calm. “Who?”
“Acari Charlotte.” He leaned back to stare out the windshield, his hands extended in front of him, resting on the wheel. “My sister.”
My heart fell. Not a lover. I reminded him of his sister. I supposed it beat football teammate or pub buddy. But still. The sentiment was lovely. Heartwarming. Nauseating.
“She trained to be a Watcher. She didn’t last a month.”
I swallowed hard, keeping my cool. “Your sister?”
“She was a lot like you. Defiant. Misunderstood.” He looked at me, and the desolation in his eyes made me forget myself for a moment. “She tried hard, but there was something in her that was too . . . gentle. These girls, they scent weakness. Charlotte never had a chance.”
I glanced down, unable to hold his gaze. My heart broke for him.
But embarrassment skewered me, too, making me feel ashamed. Ronan had lost his sister, and yet I couldn’t get away from my own selfish disappointment. I’d thought he was going to tell me something else. I’d thought he’d felt a different kind of connection with me.
I felt him reach for me, his movement tentative. He traced a single finger along the line of my face. His touch was warm, and it made my throat clench. My body tingled, but it wasn’t because of any supernatural powers. It was because this was Ronan, and he was touching me.
I dared a glance, and his hand cupped my cheek as I turned to him. The eerie twilight made his hair appear darker, his eyes deeper.
“But Charlotte wasn’t nearly so beautiful as you.”
The air whooshed from my lungs. My body prickled to life, heat spreading through me. Ronan had called me beautiful.
He sighed and pulled away from me. “You are lovely, Annelise. And you are strong. I believe you can win this. But you must believe it, too.”
I gave him a tight nod. Ronan wasn’t a vampire. Not a monster, not a Draug, not an undead creature of the night. He was a guy, and he thought I was beautiful.
Granted, he had some crazy powers that made him more than your average person. But he’d believed in me when nobody else had. Even if he had used his supernatural mojo to get me here, it was because he had faith in me. Believed I could do it. Part of me suspected that maybe he even thought I’d realize some sort of potential here.