Soul of Darkness (28 page)

But I was certain one of these days our little sanctuary would be discovered.

Time went by slowly, the monotony of our daily routine getting to me more with each passing hour.

To be sitting around and waiting while being confined to the house, as it was too dangerous to venture outside, was putting me on edge, making me feel so restless and anxious that I momentarily wished for something to happen…for any kind of incident to occur and break this stupor.

The idiom ‘Be careful what you wish for’ came to mind almost immediately afterwards; a moment too late, as it seemed my wish had already been granted.

As Aidan and I had been late coming down for breakfast one morning, Malcolm and Aaron had already finished and headed upstairs to Adam’s study for some research, leaving the two of us behind at the table at the very moment when our fleeting peace was finally shattered.

We were in the middle of clearing the table when several unfamiliar voices suddenly drifted toward us from the direction of the front entrance.

Aidan’s reaction was incredibly fast. As if he’d prepared for precisely such a scenario, he quickly pulled me to the side and out of view of the see-through glass door panel at the end of the short hallway separating the kitchen from the front entrance.

Opening the door of a tiny kitchen pantry I hadn’t even known was there, as it was partly hidden behind a large, fully stacked storage rack, Aidan shoved me inside, swiftly followed, and silently pulled the door closed behind us a moment before the first vicious-looking stranger entered the kitchen.

The space in which we stood was so small that we were pressed tightly up against each other with hardly any elbow-room. Trapped in this tight, dark space while potential murderers were roaming the house, I was overwhelmed by panic and once again in danger of hyperventilating.

Although there was bound to be an ample amount of air to last us for a while, I felt as though I was slowly suffocating.

And the desperate breath rushing in and out of my lungs was loud even to my own ears. If I couldn’t stop myself from making noise, the men would definitely hear me through the thin walls.

Malcolm, who was familiar with the subject, had pulled me aside after my previous episode and told me what to do whenever I started to panic…that I needed to control and slow down my breathing in order to minimize my body’s loss of carbon dioxide.

Since I had no paper bag to breathe into, I was about to clamp my hand over my mouth and exhale into it instead, when I suddenly felt Aidan’s hands reaching for and finally cradling my head between his hands.

Before I could even think about what he was doing or concentrate on my intake of breath, Aidan’s lips softly closed over mine.

Instead of shocking me or causing me further panic, the touch of Aidan’s lips, his presence, and the closeness we shared had a comforting effect on me. As I was forced to breathe through my nose, preventing me from inhaling and exhaling too quickly, I gradually calmed down and was able to take normal breaths again.

When our lips parted, Aidan put his arms around me and held me while we waited for the men to leave so that we could run to the hidden room in the study and meet up with the others. Having heard strangers’ voices, they were probably already in hiding, waiting for us before heading toward the secret escape route in the cave below the house.

Listening to the intruders’ voices, Aidan and I were able to make out at least three men. Ordinarily, we would have been able to deal with as few men as these. But we knew better than to assume that there weren’t more following directly on their heels. Therefore, the best option was to disappear completely unnoticed.

Patiently, we waited until we could hear their voices drifting further away from us in the direction of what I assumed could only be the living area behind the kitchen. I’d never been to that part of the house, but Malcolm had told me it was a large area.

As quietly as we could, Aidan and I left our tiny hiding-place and headed up the stairs, carefully avoiding the steps known to make creaking sounds. Before we reached the door to the study, the image of my quilt suddenly flashed before my mind’s eye.

If I lost every single possession…even the clothing that kept me warm while on the run…I wouldn’t have cared at this point. But my quilt was the one thing I couldn’t bear to lose. It was all I had left of my parents.

Before I could run past the door to the study and into the bedroom, Aidan’s hand wrapped tightly around my wrist, stopping me in mid-step.

“I’ll get it. You go ahead to the study,” Aidan whispered, once again having read my mind.

I merely nodded and headed toward the study as soon as his hand let go of my wrist. After hurrying toward the bookshelf, I swiftly pulled the corner of the ‘Elders’ book toward me. The hidden door started to swing open just as Aidan appeared at my side, startling me, my folded quilt tucked securely under his arm. He seemed to have moved with incredible speed.

We hurried through the opening to find Malcolm and Aaron staring at us apprehensively. Since there was no book on the table to imitate the weight of the Book of Light, the door to the study shut immediately after we’d crossed the threshold, plunging us into darkness. Aaron quickly took out the flashlight and provided us with light.

“We will guard the room while the two of you hide out in the cave underneath the house,” Malcolm instructed Aidan and me in a low whisper, “If anything happens to Aaron and me, if you hear noises coming from the ladder, get ready to run for your lives. Do not wait for us. If we can…we will meet up with you in the mysterious cave we discovered after…fleeing from the scene where the men…had come after us. Only run if you hear noises and if we do not call out to you from the ladder to identify ourselves.”

Fear tugged at my heart at Malcolm’s declaration. What if I never saw them again…if I never saw Aaron again? I hesitated, wanting to say something, wanting let him know that I still cared…but no words came out of my mouth.

“How can you possibly let the two of them hide out alone together? You can’t be serious,” Aaron whispered urgently, keeping his voice low so as not to give our presence away.

“I have no choice, lad,” Malcolm answered, “I cannot let her go with you; that would be even worse. And I cannot take her myself and leave you and your brother here, because even your combined magic is not strong enough to stop the intruders if they do find this room. I need to be right here and you need to stay with me.”

At first, Aaron looked as though he was about to continue arguing. Yet, after a short moment, he pressed his lips together into a thin, angry line and nodded. Though clearly unhappy about his father’s decision, it seemed he understood there was no choice.

“Come on, show me how to open the passage,” Aidan spoke in my direction, his voice flat and void of emotion. Well, at least he was talking to me instead of ignoring my presence as he’d been doing for the past few days.

I turned away from Malcolm and Aaron, knelt down in front of the table, and pushed the tiny button on its base. After hearing the telltale click of the mechanism, I lifted the table up and to the side, revealing the opening into the cave.

“Here, take the flashlight,” Aaron said, handing it to Aidan, “You’ll need it more than we do.”

I wasn’t sure how long the feeble light was going to last, and the thought of having to climb down the ladder in the pitch dark if the light happened to give out was terrifying to me. Though not as terrifying as setting out with no light at all. Nevertheless, I had to make sure it was okay for us to take the only light source.

“But you’ll be completely in the dark,” I whispered to Malcolm and Aaron.

“It does not matter, lass. We will merely be sitting here waiting. If the door opens and they find us, we will have enough light pouring in to be able to see our surroundings and defend ourselves. Let us hope, though, that this will not happen. I do not mind sitting in the dark for hours…or days…if it means we will not be found.”

I nodded, turned toward the entryway to the cave, and watched Aidan carefully descend a few steps after illuminating his way with the flashlight. Following him, I placed my feet on the wooden rungs and started to climb down the ladder.

In the room above, Malcolm returned the table to its former position, the following clicking sound echoing ominously around us.

Standing a few rungs beneath me on the ladder, Aidan guided my footing in the flickering beam of the flashlight. The batteries seemed to be draining more by the second, making me feel anxious about being stranded high up in the air in the dark.

Halfway down the ladder, the already feeble light finally died on us, leaving us stuck in the pitch dark just as I’d dreaded.

“It’s okay,” Aidan’s voice drifted toward me, “Just take it slow…one step at a time…and make sure to place each foot securely before shifting your weight onto it.”

“Uh-huh,” I replied, not even summoning up enough energy to answer properly, saving every last bit to concentrate on getting down in one piece.

Rung by rung, I descended with agonizing slowness. After a few minutes, I felt more secure and started to relax a bit while going through the motions, trying not to think too much about my movements.

That, of course, was my mistake.

Ignoring the precautions I’d taken before, my hands had already loosened their grip on the rung above me before I’d fully shifted my weight. Not having placed my foot correctly, I lost my footing and sailed through the surrounding darkness as my heart beat in my throat and adrenaline rushed through my body.

I knew a moment of absolute terror, feeling certain I would die this time around, before my fall was abruptly stopped, my body having been caught between the ladder and Aidan’s body, the impact of him catching me making the whole ladder shake. It seemed Aidan had anticipated I might fall and had pulled back just in time to catch me and pin my body in place.

When, at long last, the ladder stopped rocking and we finally let go of the breaths we’d been holding, I became acutely aware of the pressure of Aidan’s body against mine…and the fact that he was shaking slightly.

He appeared to be trembling.

After clearing his throat, he abruptly spoke, not quite managing to subdue the slight tremors in his voice, though he seemed to be doing his best to sound unperturbed.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“I’m okay,” I managed, surprisingly sounding less shaken than Aidan had.

Why was he trembling?

Had he been afraid of falling or…of not being able to catch me?

We descended the rest of the way together, his body securing mine in case I slipped again. But after what had just happened, I concentrated hard on not making the same mistake, finally reaching the ground without another incident.

For a moment we just lay at the bottom of the ladder, catching our breaths. After resting a bit, Aidan got up and walked around the cave, blindly searching around for the brackets lining the walls so that we could put an end to the overwhelming darkness. When he found the matches and lit the first torch, relief washed over me.

Though, I had to admit: this time the dark hadn’t unsettled me as much as it had before. As I started to wonder why, an urgent voice in the back of my mind told me it might be better not to go there.

After Aidan had finished lighting all the torches, he came back to where I was still lying on the floor of the cave.

Rushing straight toward me, he picked me up off the ground and stood me against the wall of the cave, holding me upright by my shoulders.I had a brief moment to wonder about his sudden change in behavio
r―
I’d been sure he’d go right back to ignoring my existenc
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before he raged at me out of the blue.

“What the hell were you thinking?” he hissed in a low voice so as not to give away our presence.

Had I expected anything from him, this would not have been it. He seemed genuinely angry at me, and I couldn’t understand what I’d done to piss him off. Mystified and utterly speechless, I only managed to glare at him as I waited for any kind of explanation.

“How can you have been so careless? Do you think it’s a game? You climb well for only two minutes and then completely forget about the danger? You could have died…You survived countless attacks so that you can die from falling off a ladder? How stupid are you? Honestly…do you even know how close I came to not catching you when you fell?” Aidan was in a rage, slightly shaking me as he went on, as if he thought he needed to wake me up.

After he had finished, he let go of me, turned around, and walked toward the center of the cave where he threw himself on the mattress and let out an audible sigh of frustration.

So, he was upset with me because I hadn’t taken enough care of myself. The shaking I’d perceived earlier must truly have been out of fear that he could have been too late to catch me.

I wasn’t sure whether to feel touched or be angry at him for shouting at me because I’d been careless. However, I had to admit it was nice to know he still cared about me. His heated reaction was, by far, better than the icy cold shoulder he’d been giving me ever since the incident with his brother.

Did this mean he’d forgiven me? Or had he merely slipped up and would go right back to ignoring me?