“Oh, yeah? Like what?”
“Like it would mean taking you Darkside, for one. And for another, no one knows exactly who your father is. Your birth records were incomplete—they only discovered the discrepancy after the head of the Experimental Breeding Program disappeared.”
“Why did he disappear?” Keira’s words were careful, her voice measured and even.
Walker crossed the room and knelt in front of Keira. His eyes begged her not to be angry. “He had to. He was supposed to take you from your mother and bring you back to our world to be raised. But he didn’t. And even when the extermination started, he wouldn’t tell anyone where you were. He claimed to have ‘lost’ you, but no one believed him. He became the most wanted man in all of Darkside.”
Her mouth went dry.
“I think he was your father. I think that’s why he left the records blank. Why he hid you here.”
“They were going to kidnap me?” Keira asked, horrified.
Walker frowned. “It didn’t seem like that. Darklings—they don’t think of humans as equals, Keira. To them, it was like picking up a puppy from the breeder. Humans do that all the time—take dogs away from their mothers. The Darklings saw it the same way.”
Keira shuddered, thinking of the abandoned dogs who died in shelters every day. Her death wouldn’t mean any more than that to the Reformers.
“You were the only Experimental who was ever raised in the human world, Keira. Because of him. And no one’s seen him since. There was some evidence that he crossed between the two worlds a few times during the first years after he went into hiding, but then his trail dried up. The Reformers never found him. And believe me, they searched. Seekers died looking for him. Eventually, everyone realized that he must be . . . ” Walker pressed his lips together, like keeping the word in would make it less true.
“He’s dead,” Keira said flatly. “He’s the only one who knows where I come from, who I really am, and he’s dead.”
Walker sat next to her on the bed. “I’m sorry.” He slid his hand through hers. The dark stone that shimmered into view drove Keira’s ache deeper. She’d lost her history before she’d ever really found it.
Even though it brought Darkside closer, she squeezed Walker’s hand. In spite of the sun pouring into the room, a chill wrapped around her. “I need to talk to my mother. I can’t believe she never told me.”
“Keira, he wouldn’t have told her he was a Darkling. And can you really imagine your mother sitting you down and announcing that she’d had an affair?”
The idea of talking about her mom’s sex life was disgusting. “No, I guess not.”
“That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. Being without your parents makes the universe feel like a lonelier place,” Walker said.
Keira looked over at him. He’d lost both of his parents. If it hurt this much to be without someone she’d never even known, how much pain had Walker been through? She couldn’t imagine.
He cupped the back of her neck. “Maybe I can take some of that away? The universe doesn’t feel so empty since I found you.”
He stared at her. Without taking her eyes from his face, Keira wound her fingers through his.
His hand tightened around the back of her neck in response, and Keira’s stomach dropped. In that one instant, their connection deepened immeasurably. It felt like a free fall.
“I definitely don’t feel empty,” she whispered.
The pull between them was irresistible. It felt wrong not to kiss him, not to create some physical evidence of the way she felt. His lips were so full and so soft and so close.
Walker’s thumb traced the curve of her cheekbone. He leaned in until Keira was dizzy with his nearness.
“I swear to you, the second it’s safe, I am going to get you alone.”
He shifted his weight, sliding her back and lowering her onto the bed. He braced himself above her, his arms framing her head. Keira was vaguely aware that he was very carefully not touching her, but right then, she would almost have traded being found by the guards to feel the press of his weight against her.
“We are alone,” she murmured.
He shook his head, growling in a pained way. “You know we can’t. But when we can—” He dipped his head. His lips barely brushed her ear, but the touch sent a sparkling explosion of fireworks through her. It also brought the Darkside ravine back, close enough that Keira could smell wet stone. She closed her eyes, focusing only on the bed beneath her, Walker’s weight above her, and the hot press of his breath against her ear.
“When we can,” he whispered, “I am going to kiss you until you catch fire.” For a white-hot second, his teeth caught her earlobe and Keira gasped. “I am going to make up for every single second we’ve lost. I swear.”
“Oh, my God,” Keira whispered, half-desperate with wanting him. “Then can we please hurry up and get to that part?”
“Good idea,” he said against her neck.