But my mind blanked when I saw what he’d pulled out. It was a tarnished brass key—one of those old-fashioned skeleton keys—long and thin with an elaborate loop at one end and jagged, misshapen teeth at the other. It was like something you might use to unlock a haunted house.

He held it out to her, offering it. The whole thing made me desperately curious. What on earth was it to? A dungeon? The city? His heart?

She glared at it, shot me an icy look, then glared back at Ronan. Finally, she snatched it from his hand and slid it into her coat pocket. She gave him a brisk nod of thanks, tossing another sneer my way for good measure. “Do me a favor and tell this nutter she shouldn’t be kissing any vampires.” She stormed off to join the others down on the beach.

“What was that about?” he demanded, his face suddenly shuttered of emotion. His green eyes, unexpectedly vibrant in the steely light, were focused hard on me. His hair, jet-black when wet, jutted in messy spikes along his head.

As I caught the boyish sight of it, an errant pang of affection twinged my chest. Was he angry? Or was this him giving a damn?

I didn’t let myself think twice—I just dove in. “Alcántara almost kissed me.”

Those green eyes froze into a hard stare. “Walk with me.”

He set off briskly down the other fork in the trail, not looking to see if I followed, toward the small dirt lot where he’d parked the Range Rover.

I followed in silence. Suddenly, it felt too much to bear. Maybe it was the fault of the Dimming—I was desperate to feel the sun on my face, or to see the blackness of night around me—but this constant twilight was making me crazy. It was making me emotional.

I was learning some hard lessons about myself, among them that I was a hormonal teenager who liked to flirt with danger. But I wasn’t proud, and this profound burst of self-knowledge didn’t stop me from trying to get a rise out of Ronan. “He’s been friendly. Alcántara, I mean. Just chatting and stuff.”

“It’s the and stuff that worries me,” he said through a clenched jaw. “I’ve warned you about getting close to the vampires.”

He stood at the back of the SUV, and I stayed at the front, leaning against the hood to give him privacy. I heard the splash of fresh water he kept in a jug for rinsing, followed by the rustle of clothing. I waited till it grew quiet, then said, “Alcántara and I aren’t close.”

“You have no notion what you’re toying with.”

I crossed my arms tightly at my chest. “Please give me a little credit. Contrary to popular opinion, I wasn’t born yesterday.”

“No. Not born yesterday. But you could die tomorrow. If you go on like this.” He sounded angry. Maybe his relationship with Amanda clouded his judgment, or worse, was a sign of bad judgment to begin with. I wished I could challenge him on it, but I’d learned my lesson from my chat with Amanda: Don’t go there.

He came around the front, towel drying his hair. His T-shirt clung to his still-wet torso. “Are you attracted to him? Is that something you want?”

“No…I…” The tight T-shirt coinciding with a question about attraction threw me, and I cringed at my faltering reply. Not only was I a hormonal teenager; I was also an awkward hormonal teenager.

But I saw in his eyes that I’d taken too long to reply.

“Never mind,” he snapped. “Don’t answer that.” He tossed his towel in the back, standoffish now, as though he’d made up his mind about something.

I wanted to tell him to wait, that we could talk it through. That it was something I wanted, just not with a vampire. I craved attraction and all the things that came with it—stupid stuff like sharing jokes and French fries and secrets. The feeling of someone caring if I lived or died. I wanted to tell him how I worried I might really die before I ever experienced it. That he was the closest thing to someone who’d ever cared about me—and how messed up was that? That I thought about relationships all the time, speculating about vague boys I’d never met, or him, or Josh, or vampires, too, but it was because I was young and healthy and normal, with normal, young, healthy urges. That I worried about him and Amanda, and speculated about Emma and Yas, and wondered how people even found themselves in relationships in the first place, since all I ever seemed to do was heal from bruises and sprains, and evade death as best I could.

But he didn’t give me the chance to tell him any of that. He simply said, “I’ll see you back on campus.” Then he got in the truck and drove away.

And he didn’t even offer me a ride.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“You’re a Gloomy Gus.” Emma nudged my butt with her boot. She was seated a few steps above me, hanging out on the dorm stairs.

It was the first “sunny” afternoon in days—meaning the sky had gone from gray to a washed-out white—and I’d let her and Yasuo drag me outside. Guys weren’t allowed in the girls’ dorm, and we’d taken to hanging on the front stoop. Annoying as it was, when the Trainees were around, the Initiates tended to leave us alone.

I craned my neck to look up at her. “Only you would say something so corny as Gloomy Gus.”

“And get away with it.” Yasuo winked at Emma, and farm girl actually giggled.

I rolled my eyes. “It’s only because she knows she could fillet us with that crazy Buck knife of hers.”

She glowed from the compliment—as bizarre as it was. “We don’t say fillet; we say skin.”

“Okely-dokely, redneck.” I leaned back to elbow her in the calves.

I was trying to cheer up for her sake, having spent the past couple weeks moping around. Since the thing at the beach, both Ronan and Amanda had been acting distant.

To cope, I dove one hundred percent into my studies. Forget German business etiquette—I was ready for the freaking United Nations.

Once Alcántara had seen I’d mastered the business stuff, he asked me to review my Old High German. Not only had I done that, but I had brushed up on my Latin, too. I’d even become halfway decent at the waltz. Nonetheless, I was desperate to know why he was forcing me to focus on such an odd hodgepodge of subjects. I mean, decorum and Althochdeutsch? Weird.

The irony was, all of my discipline had put me at the top of Alcántara’s teacher’s pet list. He was seeking me out more, reviewing my work himself, he’d even alluded to our upcoming mission once or twice. Which didn’t do much for the Ronan/Amanda situation—more irony there.

Whatever. I was getting the hell off this rock. I was sure of it now. I’d travel off-island with Alcántara and make my escape at some point during our mission.

I’d escape the likes of Kevin, the jackass Trainee who’d almost urinated on me, whom I now spotted headed our way. “What’s this meathead want?” I grumbled under my breath.

“Yo,” Yas called to him.

I shot my friend a dirty look. “Do you have to be friendly with everyone?”

“That’s just how I roll, Blondie.” Yas had spoken the words to me but hadn’t taken his eyes from Kevin, whom he greeted with a lazy nod of his head.

Kevin joined us, and to my surprise, he looked a tad nervous when he caught my eye. I gave him an evil smile.

“Whatcha got?” Yasuo asked, referring to the large rectangular box in Kevin’s hands. “You bringing D. here a peace offering?” He guffawed in that dopey way boys have perfected through the ages.

“Actually, it is for Acari Drew.” Kevin walked up the few stairs to hand it to me. If I was surprised before, I was floored now. I took it from him, but my blood froze when he added, “With regards from Master Alcántara.”

Kevin and Yas proceeded to make lame chitchat, which I completely ignored, aware only of the box in my lap. It was long but not too heavy, like a coat box. Emma and I exchanged our WTF looks.

Kevin left—finally—and Yasuo asked, “Are you going to open it?”

Emma scooted down a few stairs to sit next to me. “I bet it’s her dress.”

Yas turned to me. “You haven’t gotten yours yet?”

“What are you talking about?” I looked between them, settling my frown on Yasuo. “And what do you know about dresses?”

“Everyone’s getting dresses,” Emma said. “They’re issuing them for the dance.”

“Farm girl got hers this morning.” Yas had an appreciative gleam in his eyes that irked me.

Emma was the closest thing to a bestie that I had on this island—shouldn’t I be the one she turned to for dress chat? I gave him an incredulous look. “How do you know?”

“I saw her on the quad after she got it.”

He and Emma shared a look, and it made me feel even more alienated than before. I knew they had it for each other, so why didn’t they just come out and tell me? I was their best friend after all. I could be trusted.

It felt like Noah’s ark around here, everyone pairing two by two, while the only person who seemed to have the hots for me wasn’t even a person. Scratch that. Alcántara didn’t have the hots for me so much as he was jonesing for a taste of my blood.

I’d flirted with a vampire, and he’d flirted back. I was so screwed. It sucked to be me—pun intended.

I placed my hands flat on the top of the box. It felt like a thousand pounds on my lap.

Emma gave one of her stoic shrugs. “I don’t think it means anything.”

“Maybe it’s because you’re his favorite,” Yas teased in a singsongy voice.

I gave him a look that could kill. “You shut up, or next time we’re on the dance floor, I’m stomping on you with my fancy new stiletto heels.”

“I’d like to see you try, shortie.” He nodded at my package. “Well? You gonna open it or not?”

The box was a nice one, thick cardboard covered in shiny gold fabric, just as I imagined an old-fashioned hatbox might be. I slipped the lid off.

But I slammed it shut again. There was indeed a dress inside…with a rose on top.