So that’s his plan. Suicide by hurricane.
“Becky’s never gonna let you do that,” I tell him. “That’s stupid. She’ll get Leo to drag your ass on the boat.”
He laughs. “I’d like to see him try.”
“Hart –”
“I can’t leave her here.” His voice is so twisted up that it’s almost unrecognizable. “I was supposed to look out for ’er. I can’t leave her here all by herself.”
It hits me that maybe Elora was lucky. She disappeared all at once. But Hart’s been disappearing a little bit at a time. Every time I see him, there’s more of him missing.
I reach for him, and he lets me wrap my fingers around his. He doesn’t say anything for a few seconds. And then I realize it’s because he’s staring at my finger.
At the little blue pearl.
I try to snatch my hand back, but it’s too late. He’s got a death grip on me. Hart’s mouth is open and his eyes are dark. He can’t look away from the ring.
“Where the hell did you get that?”
“I found it. Just now. In her room.” I hate myself for the lie, but I can’t think what else to tell him.
“Bullshit,” Hart whispers. “You’re lying to me.” He pulls his gaze away from my hand and looks up into my face. And I see the exact moment my own fear settles behind his hazel eyes. “You’re afraid.” He breathes. And my chest rises and falls. “I can feel it.” We both shiver. Mirror images of each other. But I can’t make myself say anything. Hart tightens his grip on my hand, and I wince.
“Somebody gave it to me,” I admit.
“Who?” My brain stalls out, and Hart loses patience. He clamps down on my hand even harder. I yelp and try to pull away again. But it’s no use. He’s so much stronger than I am. “Who gave it to you?” he demands.
“You’re hurting me,” I whimper. But he doesn’t seem to care.
“Elora loved that ring. She never took it off her damn finger. If somebody had it, they stole it off ’er after they killed ’er.”
“No.” He’s getting things all wrong. But I don’t know how to fix this. “It’s not like that.”
“For fuck’s sake! Stop playin’ games and tell me the truth, Greycie!” Hart’s voice is rising. There’s a frantic undercurrent to his words. And it throws me off balance. “Tell me where you got it!” His eyes are wild, and I wonder if the panic I see in them is his. Or mine. Or if it comes from both of us. “Please!”
“Zale gave it to me.” I spit out the truth. And then I wish immediately that I could swallow it up again.
Hart is staring at me. Confused. “Who the hell is Zale?”
“He’s Dempsey Fontenot’s son.”
Hart’s reaction is instant. He lets go of my hand and recoils like I sucker punched him. “That’s not possible,” he stammers. But I tell him he’s wrong, and his face turns to ash in the moonlight. “You need to tell me the rest of it, Grey. Right now. No more secrets.”
“Okay,” I agree, and I rub at my sore fingers. “No more secrets.”
So I finally tell Hart all about Zale. Starting with how I saw him outside my window. That very first night I was home. And once I get started, it all comes out so fast. In such a breathless rush. Like water over a spillway.
Secrets over the dam.
I tell him everything Zale’s told me. All about how he met Elora. How they saved each other. How she gave him her ring as a friendship token. That night on the dock. Right before she disappeared.
The night she sneaked away during a game of flashlight tag to meet her secret love.
Hart looks like he’s going to be sick, but he doesn’t interrupt me.
I tell him about what Zale remembers of the night their cabin burned, too. Thirteen years ago. How his mother carried him through the dark.
And how I know now that my mother was the one who started the fire.
I end with how Zale came back here to find Aeron. His twin. So he could lay him to rest.
And to find out what really happened to his father.
“Holy shit.” Hart tries to light another cigarette, but he fumbles with it and drops the lighter in the muck.
I explain that Zale was a hurricane baby. A boy born with all the power of the sea and the sky.
Just like Dempsey Fontenot.
Hart laughs an ugly laugh. It’s nothing like the sexy chuckle that used to make me swoon. “Like father, like son,” he mutters. “Isn’t that what everybody says?”