Page 223 of A University of Betrayal

“Let Adrian live in his bubble,” Miles just said, as if that was the easiest thing in the world.

Enough was enough.

I placed my hands on my hips.

“Maybe I should train with our father instead.”

The look Miles gave me was full of disdain for the man who had introduced himself as my father a few weeks ago. And I continued to avoid him, even though I used his damn gift because it was the only bike I still owned. Lara had disappeared from the parking lot in front of the Dark Lion Club.

Bastien had already warned me twice to take my training seriously, and he himself had tried to talk to me. I just wasn’t ready to deal with Tristan yet.

“If you want something like today to happen again, then go to him. Because he couldn’t care less if people die because of us. Even better, he enjoys killing them.”

I stared at him in shock. And I didn’t know whether I should believe him. After all, he had stood between us and the homeless freak back then.

What if he had never had bad intentions?

Drive

Halsey

Miles suddenly laughed.“Good Lord,why didn’t Camille takeyouout of Sacramento back then?”

“Me?”And what did he mean byCamille?I didn’t understand a thing.

“I wish I had grown up away from this unnecessary shit,” Miles sighed, shifting a little as I joined him on the stone bench in the middle of the park.

He looked exhausted. Not physically, but mentally.

“What exactly do you mean?”

“I see your ambition, and I see you wanting to be better than you have to be.”

Miles looked down from the hill of the park meadow to the foggy lake with a sigh.

Mist hovered among the dark conifers in the distance on the far shore of the lake, behind which Blairville's conifer-studded mountain range stretched.

I had my reasons, but not everyone needed to know them. Back in Sacramento, people had often laughed at me when I had shared my plans for university or other lofty life goals.

“Tell me about Sacramento.”

Something inside me tightened.

What was I supposed to say? That I had grown up in an orphanage? If he knew that, he definitely wouldn’t want to trade places with me.

“It’s warm there, definitely not as dark as here.” I found it harder than expected to think about this place and then put those thoughts into words. “Where I used to live there are a lot of gangs on the streets, a lot of clubs, but also a lot of guys who don’t know their limits.”

Miles looked at me as if I’d broached an uncomfortable subject. “Are you implying something?”

I shook my head, puzzled, then I realized and wanted to hit myself. “No. God... I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” he laughed, trying to cover something up.

I immediately noticed, probably because I was his sister. We barely knew each other, but there was this similarity in our facial expressions.

“What exactly happened the other day? With the girl in the bar?”

I was afraid I’d broached the wrong subject, because I knew Miles was carrying a lot around with him. Especially the thing with his father.