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“Sloane is intense,” Sabrina says. “Ivan too, but I expected that. I knew Sloane as Miss Robin at Kingmakers—she was our librarian. I know her, but I don’t know her—same with Rafe, actually. It’s a little disorienting. Worse for Nix, I’m sure.”
“Sloane is hard to know under any circumstance. Her father was insane. He raised her like a child soldier.”
“Nix told me.” Sabrina nods. “She was a killer for hire?”
“One of the best. Two hundred commissions—only missed once.”
“Ivan.”
“That’s right.”
Sabrina squints at me, slowly buttoning her shirt.
“The Petrovs are forgiving.”
“You know how it is in our world. Everyone is a rival, ally or not. Your only true friends are your family. And the inverse is true—family are friends, whatever they might have been before.”
The last two buttons ripped off and bounced somewhere under the bed. Sabrina ties the bottom of her shirt in a knot instead.
“Family can hurt you. My father was shot seven times at my uncle’s wedding.”
“But not by your uncle.”
“No.” She smiles. “Though I’m sure he thought about it a time or two.”
“None of us know the span of our life. You have to trust somebody. I’d rather be stabbed in the back by a friend than have no friends at all.”
Sabrina is a quiet a moment. “I’m not sure I agree.”
I hold her gaze. “Then you’ve never had a friend like me.”
“Is that what we are?” she says softly.
“We’re going to be something. I can promise you that.”
The corner of her mouth tilts up. “Whether I want it or not?”
“There’s no choice about it. From the moment I saw you, I knew our paths would converge.”
Sabrina smooths her hair down with both hands, an action that does little because her hair seems as intent on insubordination as my own, especially this close to the ocean.
“You fascinated me before we ever met,” she admits.
“I heard about you, too.”
“From who?”
“Kade. The first week of school, he told me he’d never seen a girl so beautiful.”
“Hm,” Sabrina says.
“He’s not very observant.”
She laughs. “What does that mean?”
“Your looks are the least interesting thing about you.”
Color comes into her cheeks. I understand that this is the compliment Sabrina most wants to hear. She’s been told she’s beautiful all her life—you might as well observe that the sky is blue or water is wet.
