Soul of Darkness (24 page)

“It was a small button that needed to be pushed,” Aaron explained.

At first, Aidan didn’t detect anything. There was nothing resembling a button. Scrutinizing the surface more closely, however, his eyes finally made out something else: Close to the right edge of the table base, a tiny latch had been fastened onto the wooden surface. The same latch was locked in place and securely held by a corresponding fixture that had been attached to the cave wall near the opening.

After a few tries of keenly tapping against the tip of the latch with his finger, it finally retracted, giving off a slight clicking sound. Aidan pushed against the wooden surface and was relieved to find that he could actually lift it and push it out of the way.

Having carefully climbed through the hole into the even darker room above, he felt his way around and waited for Aaron to join him with the much needed beam of the flashlight.

“The door to the rest of the house is closed,” Aidan observed after Aaron had followed him through the opening along with the flashlight that now illuminated the room.

“How does the door open?” Aidan asked.

“Well, from inside the study we opened the door by tipping an old leather-bound volume that sits on the bookshelf. But it closed again right after we lifted the…Book of Light…off the stand on this table,” Aaron explained while returning the table they’d shifted in order to climb through the opening back to its correct position.

After it clicked back into place, Aaron continued:

“Lifting the book is what closed the door, so we’d have to put it back for it to open again, I’d say. But the book’s with Malcolm…It might be enough, though, to imitate its weight by leaning on the surface of the table,” Aaron concluded.

“Okay,” Aidan agreed, “let’s give it a try.”

He waited while Aaron approached the table and lightly leaned on it. A clicking sound filled the small room, and the door to the study swung open to reveal a cozy round space flooded with light and so crammed with books that they covered nearly every available surface throughout the room.

So this was Adam’s study
, Aidan thought, amazed at how this small space could make such a huge impression on him after only one short glance.

Aidan hadn’t been among the members of the guard who had come here to collect Aaron and Persephone, so he’d never seen Adam’s house before. Observing this study, which was filled with light and warmth, he could imagine the happy childhood Aaron must have had growing up in such a place.

And he could only guess how his brother must be feeling right at this moment, seeing this space as it was now…void of the one person who must have always brought it to life.

Aidan walked through to the study and lifted a heavy volume off the floor to take the place of the Book of Light on the table in the hidden room, imitating its weight. Luckily it worked and the door remained open.

“Why don’t you…stay…for a bit while I look around the rest of the house?” Aidan suggested awkwardly after clearing his throat.

“Thanks…I will,” Aaron answered, his voice slightly breaking.

“Okay,” Aidan said and headed for the door leading to the second floor landing.

Having silently moved around the house and property for quite a while, he concluded that they were alone. There were no traces of enemies lying in wait or of anyone having followed them…yet. Though he was sure that the ones hunting them would eventually find their hiding place, at least for now they’d be able to move about freely.

After meeting up with the others and letting them know it was safe, they all grabbed their luggage from the cave and moved into the house.

His brother explored the property and discovered that his car was still parked where he’d left it. Apparently, their enemies hadn’t had any interest in it and had left it sitting there. And since the local authorities hadn’t been informed of Adam’s death, no one had visited the property to find a strange vehicle parked there.

While Aaron drove his car into town to get food, water, and other supplies, Malcolm discussed the sleeping arrangements with Persephone and Aidan.

The three of them sat around the small wooden kitchen table with steaming hot mugs of black tea in front of them, Persephone and Aidan staring down at the cups in their hands while Malcolm assigned the bedrooms.

Aidan had purposefully avoided sitting opposite Persephone, plunking himself down on the chair next to her, instead, so that he could better prevent meeting her gaze.

He didn’t want to look at her.

Not after what she’d done.

He realized, of course, that she’d acted under the influence of the curse’s magic. Yet nothing she could say and no amount of explanation
―
reasonable or no
t―
could erase what he’d gone through at the moment he’d entered the compartment to find Persephone with her hand in his brother’s pants.

He’d never felt anything like it before…the pain…the rage…and he’d wanted to pay Persephone back a hundred fold for the suffering she’d caused him and strike back at his brother with everything he ha
d―
no matter the consequences.

But for the sake of everyone’s safety, Aidan had forced himself to rein in his anger and had attempted to bury the pain. Since he couldn’t allow himself an emotional outburst of any kind so as not to lose control over his powers, he was left without any means to vent his frustration. Consequently, there was only one thing he could do to at least
try
to lessen the hurt he still felt: completely ignore her.

For the sake of his own sanity
―
and as well as he possibly coul
d
―
he would pretend she didn’t exist. That was all he could do for himself.

Therefore, he feigned not to have noticed out of the corner of his eye that her gaze continually sought to meet his own and waited for Malcolm to come up with a plan.

“Now, let me see,” Malcolm mumbled mostly to himself, probably picturing the layout of the house in his mind, “There are three bedrooms: a master bedroom on the second floor as well as two guest bedrooms on the first.”

“So, two of you should share the master bedroom, and I’ll stay in one of the guest bedrooms,” Persephone said hastily before Malcolm could suggest otherwise.

Though her voice didn’t give anything away, the speed with which she had made the proposition indicated how keenly she wished to avoid sharing her room with anyone…that anyone being Aidan, of course.

So, she wished to avoid him as well, at least when it came to sharing a room for a longer period of time.

Was it because she was too embarrassed?

Or had she been affected by the way he’d been brushing her off?

“Persephone,” Malcolm answered slowly as though carefully weighing his words, “I am afraid that is quite out of the question.”

“Why?” she hastily asked, her trembling voice filled with a desperation she seemed unable to suppress any longer, “I don’t understand why I still need to have a babysitter. I’m fine now…I’m back to normal…can’t you see that?…Since Aaron, Aidan, and I were at the beach, I haven’t heard any voices…haven’t detected any signs of Darkness inside of me. Why would you continue to babysit me…and act as though I can’t control myself?”

“Please calm down, lass. It is not like that…you are misunderstanding. Rather than wanting to control you, we are trying to keep you safe. You should not be by yourself, especially at night while you are sleeping and are vulnerable,” Malcolm explained, sounding so sincere that Aidan would have bought it
―
were he not fully aware of Malcolm’s conviction that Persephone was still under Darkness’s control. Aidan knew Malcolm wouldn’t want her to be without constant supervision.

“Fine,” Persephone sighed, sounding resigned to her fate, “then you can be my roommate from now on,” she addressed Malcolm with a fierce ‘don’t-you-dare-stick-me-in-a-room-with-Aidan-again’ stare.

Following Persephone’s declaration, Malcolm seemed to nearly choke on the sip of tea he’d just taken. After coughing a few times and spraying tea everywhere, he finally found his voice again.

“I beg your pardon, lass,” Malcolm replied, sounding a bit shocked, “Did you just suggest that we share a room? Can you not see that I am an old man? How can I sleep in a bed with a young woman who is not my daughter? No, that would be most uncomfortable for me, I am afraid. Furthermore, I am very set in my ways, and I cannot have anyone disrupting my sleep. It will not do.”

“What
exactly
do you mean by ‘sleep in
a 
bed’?” Aidan confronted Malcolm, his voice displaying just how angry he felt at being put in such a position.

“Well, as you know, there is only one bed in the master bedroom, and we cannot use magic at the moment to create another. So…you will just have to make do with one bed,” Malcolm explained, his tone matter-of-fact, as though there was nothing wrong with such a scenario.

“That’s not going to happen. I’m fine with the floor,” Aidan simply answered, not once looking at Persephone.

At this point, he couldn’t have cared less about sleeping uncomfortably. What mattered was keeping Persephone at a distance. If Malcolm needed him to be by her side at all times, then fine, he would do that.

But he’d be damned if he couldn’t at least control the proximity they shared. This time, he would be calling all the shots.

I
was just finishing my tea a while later when Aaron returned from the store and placed four large bags and several bottles of water on the counter top.

“You should go up to your room and rest a bit, Persephone. I will let you know when dinner is ready. Aidan, go with her, please,” Malcolm said.

“Why is she taking the master bedroom? And why is Aidan going with her?” Aaron suddenly asked in a low, slightly angry voice.

“You’re putting them in a room together again? It’s not safe. Don’t you know that there’s obviously something going on between them? Do you really trust them not to do anything?” Aaron added, completely ignoring the fact that Aidan and I were right there while he talked about us in such a way.

An oppressing silence fell. Having listened to him talk about us so bluntly right in front of us and Malcolm when things were already so tense between all of us, I felt incredibly embarrassed and just wanted to disappear.

Pointedly, I noisily scooted my chair back from the table, ignoring the screeching sound as its legs scraped against the kitchen floor, and headed upstairs in search of the master bedroom.

When I passed the door to the study on the upstairs landing, I heard the faint sound of footsteps coming from the staircase behind me…Aidan’s, I presumed.

I walked straight ahead toward the only other door branching off of the landing, hesitating for a moment when I reached it.

I felt a bit uneasy about trespassing into someone else’s bedroom. Even though Adam was gone, it felt a bit disrespectful to enter the most private room of Aaron’s late adoptive fathe
r―
someone I had never even met and only remembered as a blood-drenched body lying on the floor.

I had no right to be in this room.

But seeing as the decision had already been made and Malcolm had fully explained our options, there really was nothing I could do about our sleeping arrangements but feel uncomfortable.

Turning the doorknob, I slowly opened the door and entered. The room was very spacious and tastefully furnished. At the center of the wall opposite the door stood a king size canopy bed, its hardwood bedposts ornately carved and fitted with heavy, crimson curtains that hung around the bed to create a comfortable, intimate space.

The sight of the canopy bed made my insides churn. Only one bed…

At the back of the room to the right, there seemed to be another door leading from the bedroom. I walked toward it, turned the doorknob, pushed the door open, and found myself in the master bathroom. Nearly the size of the bedroom, it had a high-quality finish and was even equipped with a floor-level rain shower.

I headed back to the bedroom, pretended not to see Aidan frozen in place in the doorway coming from the hall as though he’d suddenly turned to stone, removed my shoes, and plunked myself down on top of the mattress.

I pulled the comforter up around me, snuggled into it, and hugged it tightly to my body. Feeling really comfortable for the first time in weeks, I relaxed and closed my eyes, sighing contentedly. For once, I was too tired to care about Aidan’s presence and fell asleep moments after my head hit the pillow…

The road lay black and twisted before me, a place of darkness neither penetrated by the light of the moon nor by that of the stars, which seemed to be hiding out of fear. Yet, even in this black abyss I could clearly see the eyes of thirty men gazing at me as the life seeped from their bodies along with their blood, staining the surrounding darkness a vibrant red.