She didn’t tell me the truth. She knows why Fitz came after her. It’s the same reason I came after her—to figure out her secret and find the treasure she’s hiding.
My heart thumps hard like the beat of a war drum picking up steam. I used to like the lies we shared. Not anymore. There is too much at stake.
Liesel looks over at me, either because she can hear the heavy beat of my heart or because she wants to see my reaction to her lie.
Her lips thin as she tries to hide her emotions, but I can tell I’ve lit a spark of fear in her. I look like a deranged madman and the possibilities of what I will do scare her.
“No more lies, Liesel.”
She sits up, tucking her knees to her chest as she tries to stay warm on the opposite side of the fire from me.
“We don’t know how to do anything else, Langston. Don’t pretend like you’ve told me the truth either. I’m not here because of some silly promise when we were five. I’m not here because I owe you for killing Fitz. I’m here because of that damn letter you ripped in two.
“Nothing has changed, though. I won’t tell you what my half said, and you won’t tell me what your half said. So why try to get answers now? Why am I here?”
She hasn’t earned the truth. She hasn’t earned an answer. But I’m about to give her more truth than she’ll get from me the rest of her time here.
“I want the truth. And I will get the truth—no matter what it takes. The sooner you tell me everything you know, the better for you.
“Let’s start with one. One truth you’ve never told another soul. One piece of yourself that has only ever belonged to you.”
The wind stops. The leaves stop rustling. It’s eerily quiet as my words are the only sound on the island.
“I tell you a truth, and I go free?” she asks, her voice pained. She’d rather be raped, tortured; her body pulled apart limb by limb than offer me a truth. She will never admit that to me, but it’s true.
I shake my head. “One truth buys you more time on this planet. A lie shortens my patience, resulting in less time.”
“That gives me no incentive to tell you anything!”
I gave her a path to freedom. Death is freedom, right?
For most people, one honest truth would be easy. Not for Liesel. Not for me. Not when your whole life has been a lie.
She takes a deep, exhausting breath—one that consumes her whole body, and then as she exhales a breath so strong it persuades the winds to pick up again. And then she looks to me like a scared little girl.
I try to squeeze out the thoughts of the girl I used to know. The one wearing pigtails and pretty pink dresses, who would run through the forest and chase after me and our boy crew. She was the princess we all protected. We all failed.
She was the one that got away.
Not anymore.
Now, she’s mine. I have her trapped physically, but I need more.
“So what will it be? Ready to tell the truth and earn more time? Or lie and be punished?” My voice is deep and haunting. She has no idea why I’m pissed—what she did that makes me so willing to hurt her, kill her. She never will. But she knows that I’m serious when I say that I will hurt her if she doesn’t tell the truth.
She nods as she shakes out her hands, but I can see them trembling. She’s trying to psych herself up to speak—to tell the truth.
“I’ll tell you a truth, and for every truth I tell you, I’ll be the one hurting you. I’ll kill you with truths.”
Liesel means every word she says. I have no doubt that she will choose whatever vicious truths she can come up with to hurt me. To cut me down until I beg her to stop.
However, the only things that could hurt me are her lies.
15
Liesel
Langston wants a truth.