Torment - Lauren Kate [108]
Miles stepped closer, lowering his face to hers. “What is it?”
She looked up into his dark blue eyes. His hand was still on her shoulder. She felt her lips parting with the truth, or what she knew of the truth, ready to pour out from inside her.
That Daniel wasn’t who she’d thought he was. Which maybe meant she wasn’t who she’d thought she was. That everything she’d felt about Daniel at Sword & Cross was still there—it made her dizzy to think about it—but now everything was also so different. And that everyone kept saying that this lifetime was different, that it was time to break the cycle—but no one could tell her what that meant. That maybe it didn’t end with Luce and Daniel together. That maybe she was supposed to shake herself free and do something on her own.
“It’s hard to put it all into words,” she said finally.
“I know,” Miles said. “I have a hard time with that myself. Actually, there’s something I’ve sort of been wanting to tell you—”
“Luce.” Francesca was suddenly standing there, practically wedging herself between them. “It’s time to go. I’ll be escorting you back to your room now.”
So much for doing something on her own.
“And Miles, your aunt Ginger and Steven would like to see you.”
Miles tossed Luce one last sympathetic smile before trudging across the terrace toward his aunt.
The tables were clearing out, but Luce could see Arriane and Roland cracking up near the bar. A cluster of Nephilim girls crowded around Dawn. Shelby was standing beside a tall boy with bleached-blond hair and pale, almost white skin.
SAEB. It had to be. He was leaning into Shelby, clearly still interested, but she was clearly still pissed off. So pissed off, she didn’t even notice Luce and Francesca walking nearby—but her ex-boyfriend did. His gaze hung on Luce. The pale not-quite-blue of his eyes was eerie.
Then someone shouted that the after-party was moving down to the beach, and Shelby snagged SAEB’s attention by turning her back on him, saying he’d better not follow her to the party.
“Do you wish you could join them?” Francesca asked as they moved further from the commotion of the terrace. The noise and the wind both quieted as they walked along the gravel path back toward the dorm, passing rows of hot-pink bougainvillea. Luce began to wonder whether Francesca was responsible for the overriding tranquility.
“No.” Luce liked all of them well enough, but if she were to attach the word wish to anything right now, it wouldn’t be to go to some party on the beach. She would wish … well, she wasn’t sure for what. For something having to do with Daniel, that much she knew—but what? That he would tell her what was going on, perhaps. That instead of protecting her by withholding knowledge, he would fill her in on the truth. She still loved Daniel. Of course she did. He knew her better than anyone. Her heart raced every time she saw him. She yearned for him. But how well, really, did she know him?
Francesca fixed her eyes on the grass lining the path to the dorm. Very subtly, her arms extended out at either side, like a ballet dancer at the barre.
“Not lilies and not roses,” she murmured under her breath as her narrow fingertips started to tremble. “What was it, then?”
There came a soft thrashing sound, like the roots of a plant being pulled from a garden bed, and suddenly, miraculously, a border of moonbeam-white flowers sprang up on either side of the path. Thick and lush and a foot tall, these weren’t just any flowers.
They were rare and delicate wild peonies, with buds as big as baseballs. The flowers Daniel had brought Luce when she was in the hospital—and maybe other times before. Edging the path at Shoreline, they shimmered in the night like stars.
“What was that for?” Luce asked.
“For you,” Francesca said.
“For what?”
Francesca touched her briefly on the cheek. “Sometimes beautiful things come into our lives out of nowhere. We can’t always understand them, but we have to trust in them. I know you want to question everything, but sometimes it pays to just