Ronan kept staring at Whelk. He was good at staring. There was something about his stare that took something from the other person.
Adam was in the dream, too; he traced the tangled pattern of ink with his finger. He said, "Scio quid hoc est. " As he traced it further and further down on the bare skin of Ronan's back, Ronan himself disappeared entirely, and the tattoo got smaller and smaller. It was a Celtic knot the size of a wafer, and then Adam, who had become Kavinsky, said "Scio quid estis vos. " He put the tattoo in his mouth and swallowed it. Ronan woke with a start, ashamed and euphoric. The euphoria wore off long before the shame did. He was never sleeping again.
In the end, he was nobody to Adam, he was nobody to Ronan. Adam spit his words back at him and Ronan squandered however many second chances he gave him. Gansey was just a guy with a lot of stuff and a hole inside him that chewed away more of his heart every year.
He left Chainsaw behind, much to her irritation. Ronan didn't want her to learn any bad language.
Ronan didn't need physics. He could intimidate even a piece of plywood into doing what he wanted.
Ronan Lynch lived with every sort of secret.
