“Your brother was wrong about you,” Kieran said.
“What do you mean?”
“He said you were gentle, the most gentle person he knew.” He smiled, and there was a cold beauty to his face when he smiled, like the crystalline surface of frost. “You are not gentle. You have a ruthless heart.”
For several long moments Julian was silent, hearing only the sounds of their steps on the stairs. At the last step he turned. “Remember it.”













