Tempting Fate

Sixteen: A Strange Farmhouse

They left me behind!

The words still sent a pang through Ronan's chest. Since the moment Brynn said them, they'd etched themselves deep into his brain. He would never forget the agony in her tone as she said them.

They had to be true. Perhaps the truest thing Brynn had said to him.

In that moment, that brief, real moment back in the sedan as they made their way into North Cape Town, Ronan finally saw Brynn. The real Brynn, for the first time.

Now it made sense to him: Brynn's desire not to discuss the past, why she stayed with Daedre for so many years, and why she hadn't wanted to talk about what had happened.

Brynn had been abandoned. And, if his timeline was correct, they'd left her at a young age.

He could not imagine ever leaving one of his own behind. But other territories were not like his own.

The Northern Isles. She hadn't come from the Eastern Wielder Territory. She'd come from the small islands to the north. The territory many of them knew hardly anything about.

He still had so much to learn. But now, knowing that small yet crucial detail about Brynn, something inside him settled.

Brynn was a young woman with a painful past. His brain conjured instances of what might've happened. Each image had the beast inside him clawing at its cage. He bit back a snarl. They had left her behind.

She could not have been more than thirteen or fourteen at the time. How scared had she been?

He knew what it was like to be left behind. Though his situation was different. His family hadn't chosen to leave him. Death provided little choice.

He imagined Brynn's experience left her with a lot of hollow sadness and bitter regrets.

His only left him with a churning, white-hot furnace. One that would burn as long as necessary until the need for revenge was satiated.

Ronan glanced up at the square shaped clock on the wall of the small coffee shop. Almost two in the morning. When they arrived, he'd asked the barista about their closing time. The woman told him in a soft-spoken voice that the cafe was open all hours during the school year season for those kids in the area who needed a place to study.

He and Brynn would put her words to the test. Already they had been here long enough that the small soft-spoken woman had switched shifts with an expressionless young man who spent more time focused on his phone than cleaning up the cafe.

Ronan only raised a brow at the kid and glanced pointedly at the table a few feet from them. Three abandoned cups and two smaller plates rested there, and had been for the last two hours.

Across the cafe, two women giggled to each other in soft tones as they bent over another phone.

Ronan sat back in his chair.

Brynn still had her gaze on the computer, her fingers typing away when the corner of her mouth curled. "Restless?" she said in barely a murmur. Only for his sensitive hearing.

Something tightened in his chest when she did that. She was so in tune with the people around her, and he had to admit it felt good when she considered him and his needs.

But then he frowned. It was a double-edged sword—her being hyper-focused on everyone else meant seeing the real Brynn was hard. Back at her apartment, he had literally watched her as she altered herself to fit her role as the Governor's assistant. And at the office, she slipped into the persona so easily, like sliding into a favorite pair of pants. It only made him scowl. How many other personas had she taken on?