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She moved closer until her hip touched mine. Putting my glass on the flagstone path, I slid an arm her shoulders.
She relaxed into me, her fingers toying with the rose. “I love this garden. I’ve been coming here every day. And itisromantic, especially tonight, with the mist and that moon." She glanced at the silver crescent hanging low in the sky.
I rubbed a cheek against her shiny dark hair. She smelled like fresh air, as if she’d spent the day outside. “Zoe designed it.”
“The prima?” She took another look around. “Color me impressed. Although, I remember that conservatory in the Tremblay Chateau…”
“She designed that, too.”
“That’s what I figured. She spent a lot of time there.”
I grunted. Zoe was a good friend but I wasn’t out here to talk about her. “Tell me about yourself. Was your father a slayer, too?”
The detective I’d hired had said that he and Twilight were estranged.
“No. I’m not even sure how they met. Maybe it was an arranged marriage. I don’t know. I haven’t seen him in years. He was born in Korea, and he moved back after…after my mom passed.”
“I’m sorry.”
A small, sad shrug. “We weren’t that close. He pretty much washed his hands of me after I stayed with SI even after what happened to my mom. She was killed while on a job, you know.”
“The PI put that in the report, but I don’t know the details.”
She gave a humorless laugh. “Neither do we. It was in South America—I don’t know which syndicate. Even my dad doesn’t know exactly what happened. All he got from the SI Board was a fat check. Like we wanted their fucking money.”
I pulled back to scrutinize her. “You really loved her.”
It was like encountering a person from a foreign country, a country you’d heard about but had never visited. One with different customs and a language you knew you’d never be able to learn.
Jules had discouraged affection from me. To keep me strong, he said. I wasn’t even allowed to call him “Father.”
And my mother had been very beautiful and very demanding, a woman who’d expected perfection in everything. The gods knew I’d tried, but no matter how hard I worked, it was never good enough.
Iwasn’t good enough, and I never would be.
I’d almost preferred Jules’s beatings.
Twilight finished her prosecco and put the glass on the ground next to mine. The rose she set on the bench beside her.
“I didn’t really know her. Mom was always gone, you know? She dropped me off at training camp when I was twelve, and she was captured pretty soon after that. My halmoni—my grandmother—was the one who raised me. But yeah, I loved my mom. Hell, I wanted to be her. She’s a legend in SI, you know. The Shade.”
“Your mom was the Shade?”
Twilight was right; her mom was a legend. Strong, relentless, incorruptible.
“You’ve heard of her.”
“Oh, yeah. I wouldn’t want her on my island, but from what I heard, she had integrity.”
“She did.” Twilight’s smile was pleased.
I laid my cheek against her temple. We fell silent, watching the fish trace shadowy loops in the dark pool. The night was filled with sound: leaves rustled, the waterfall burbled, a cricket’s insistent chirp.
We spoke each other’s names at the same time.
“Twilight…”
“Brien…”
