Reckoning (The Watchers Book 5) by Verónica Wolff Read Free Book Online

discovered, I’ll tell them I had you running a midnight beach circuit.”
    I snapped out of my stupid reverie and scooted deeper into the shadows. “I’m not going back.”
    He turned and thoroughly scrutinized me, his gaze raking down my body, sizing me up, assessing my layers of clothing, the extra sweater, my coat and scarf, finally lingering on the bag at my knees, which burst with enough gear to last several days. I was hidden in shadows, and yet every second his eyes were on me felt like a blaze of light, warming me, illuminating my darkest places.
    “Where are you going?” he asked finally, and for a second, I imagined he sounded injured.
    I numbed myself to the stabbing in my chest. I had a mission, my own mission. I was on my way. I was in a race to save my mother. I was gunning for Charlotte.
    I gave a hard nod.
    “So, you were just going to leave?” This time there was definitely something in his voice.
    “Yes,” I said simply.
    “With no goodbye?”
    Yeah, right. Bye, I’m off to kill your sister…or be killed by her.
    “Sorry. I have to. But I’m, uh, I’m glad I got to see you…” I tapered off lamely.
    His face became a mask, absent of all expression.
    What did this tense silence mean? Was he disappointed I was leaving, or merely disappointed I’d break the rules so flagrantly?
    He was waiting for me to say more, but I couldn’t reveal anything else. Finally, he spoke again, his voice grown cold. “So you feel you can’t trust me enough to tell me what you’re about? And to think…”
    “To think what?”
    “Never mind, Ann.” There was that sigh again. “Never mind me.”
    I felt an invisible wall inserting itself between us. We were each building a dam, holding our emotions away from each other.
    I couldn’t let him believe I didn’t trust him. Sometimes it felt like Ronan was the only person in the world I did trust.
    “I do trust you,” I said finally, unable to bear this tension. “I just can’t tell you.”
    He looked down the beach, right toward what I’d thought was a well-hidden cove, and guessed my intent. “You’re going by sea. You’re off to meet Tom. Is that it?”
    I shifted, uncomfortable all over. It was exactly what I was doing. How did Ronan manage to guess everything about me?
    I checked my watch. “I need to go.”
    Tom had helped girls escape before. He knew me and liked me. I knew he’d help, and sure enough, it’d not taken more than two minutes in his cottage before the old Draug Keeper got a look I knew well. He sucked on his teeth and in a bored voice, had said, “’Bout time you flee this place. I’d flee the vamps if I could.”
    Fleeing. It was tempting…so tempting. I could not believe I wanted to travel to an island with yet more vampires.
    Neither could Tom, but he offered to take me in his boat all the same. He’d drop me in Shetland, the first hurdle in this deadly race with Charlotte.
    “You didn’t answer my question,” Ronan said. “Is Tom the one helping you?” He waited patiently, his attention unwavering. He had that ability, comfort in uncomfortable silences. He’d wait forever for me to speak next if he had to.
    I wonder what else he’d wait for.
    I shook the thought from my head.
    “If you say so,” I replied, even though I knew the comment would annoy him. I had to get rid of him. The clock was ticking. I had to go. I didn’t know why I was even still sitting there, but I was trapped in a web, and Ronan was one very large, very handsome spider.
    His expression hardened, suddenly suffused with some carefully controlled emotion. “Does he know where you’re going?”
    “Tom?”
    He hissed. “Och, Ann, you know who I mean. Him . Carden.”
    I squirmed with the knowledge that whatever I said next was of unutterable importance. The truth might cut him in a way I never would’ve intended. “Didn’t you want to ask more about Tom?”
    Once more, his face became a careful blank. “So he does know.” Another