his uniform, and I breathed harder just staring at how strong he looked, how incredibly handsome he was. But I prayed on the inside that I wasn’t making a mistake by having us alone out here to talk.
“A girl doesn’t reveal all her secrets.” I tucked the key away and wandered down the narrow space flooded with light. “Do you know how much I missed natural light?” The two buildings on either side of us were just stone walls. No windows or doors, throwing us in complete privacy. Up ahead and behind us were lofty metal fences, not revealing what lay beyond them. I didn’t care as long as I got fresh air.
“Fair enough,” he said and strolled through the overgrown lawn.
I took a seat in a thick patch of grass, crossing my legs, while Keon strolled to the end of the yard, studying the walls for what I guessed was any way others could see us.
When he returned, he dropped to his ass, his legs stretched out before him. He sat across from me. “You asked me earlier if I’ve killed someone else.” He licked his lips. “I want to be honest with you, not scare you. Growing up, I lost control of my demon three times before you.”
I swallowed the boulder in my throat.
There was a moment of silence. Keon stared at me, but before I could find the words lost to me from the utter shock of hearing he’d killed four people, including me, he spoke again.
“It was a very long time ago when the first three took place. I was born different and never fit in. I’m not giving you excuses, just a bit of background. My entire life, I’ve struggled to feel emotions like most people. You see, the demon side changed me.” His lips thinned as he huffed. “Shortly after my birth, my parents split, and my father brought me up. My mother skipped off, maybe to other realms for all I know. And well, humans are not quite cut out to bring up demons.”
“I didn’t know your mother abandoned you. That’s horrible.”
He shrugged like he’d dealt with that pain long ago. “You know what I missed about her? It’s not the motherly love, but that she never fucking taught me how to control my demon side. Growing up, my demon would slip out of me randomly. My first kill was when I was fourteen. I was home alone, and someone had been breaking into our house.”
Silence filled the moment, and I could easily fill in the gaps of what had taken place.
My stomach clenched at the thought of what it must have felt like growing up that way. To have his mother leave him, to have no one teach him how to control his demon side. It broke me to listen to him.
“After the third death, my father put me into an institution, as he didn’t know how else to help me. I didn’t hate him for his decision. I spent three years there, and I learned so much more from the other patients. Two others had demon parents as well, and they taught me what my mother never did.” He glanced at the wall beside us, lost in thought.
“Is your father still alive?” I asked.
“He’s in a nursing home, but he’s starting to forget things, including me.” The sorrow crackling through his voice sliced through me like glass.
When he looked at me, he tilted his head. “Don’t feel pity for me. I know exactly what I am, Selena, and I accepted it long ago. A monster.”
“No, you’re not a monster,” I said almost instantly.
“Yes I am,” he insisted. “Until the incident with you, I had held my demon under control the only way I could. By feeding it death and souls.”
“You let it out on purpose?”
He sighed heavily. “There are two ways. Either it controls me, or I control it. And why do you think I work here? The worst of society resides within these walls. People who don’t deserve to live after everything they’d done. They sate my demon so I can keep it under control. I hold control of him when I release him to feed. That’s the difference to him taking me over.”
I licked my lips, listening to his words. They all made sense and I got it, but he was telling me he killed people regularly. Well, not him, but that thing inside him.
“Around you, I feel things I never have,” he said. “Emotions that are so powerful,