Soul of Darkness (29 page)

Since I didn’t much feel like socializing with Aidan after what had just happened, I remained rooted to the spot where he’d left me, not knowing what to do next.

There was nothing for me to do aside from standing around stupidly and watching the flickering light of the torches send shadows dancing across the cave wall while waiting for news about the intruders or for them to find the cav
e―
in which case we would need to make a run for it.

After standing around for a quarter of an hour, realizing we might be stuck down there for quite some time, I decided to just ignore Aidan, and headed toward the mattress, intent on getting at least my share of the makeshift bed, since there was nowhere else to rest comfortably.

When I approached the mattress, Aidan’s eyes suddenly flicked to mine. Throwing me one last disdainful glance, he held my gaze for a moment before turning away from me onto his side.

Carefully, I plunked myself down on the very edge of the mattress, not wanting to make myself too comfortable with Aidan lying right next to me. After a while, though, my back started to ache slightly from the awkward and tense position I sat in.

What the hell,
I thought at long last, kicked off my shoes, and lay down on my back, sighing as I stretched out my aching muscles.

“Stop sighing so fucking loudly,” Aidan grumbled from beside me, his back still turned.

“Oh, are we talking again?” I said sarcastically, irritated by his once again hostile behavior toward me.

Excepting rare moments when he’d comforted me about the loss of my parents, I felt as though we’d come full circle and he’d gone back to despising me the way he had when we first met…when he’d shoved me against the wall and grabbed my throat, intent on throttling me.

Despite everything we’d been through together, despite our changes of heart along the way, all he made me feel of late was his animosity toward me.

As I closed my eyes, trying to ignore Aidan’s presence as much as I possibly could, my thoughts involuntarily strayed to the time I’d spent there with Aaron…to the two of us kissing, touching…making me recall what I’d felt at the time.

Suddenly, Aidan shot around and grabbed me by the collar of my sweater. Holding it tightly in his clenched fists, he hovered over me, his face set in anger.

“Wasn’t it enough that I had to watch you make out with my brother on the train? Now you’re throwing mental images of the two of you at me, as well? When is it enough, dammit? How much more?”

“How much mor
e
― what?” I asked, thrown by his sudden reaction.

“How much more…are you going to make me suffer?” he finished, his voice low and sounding strained.

“How am I making you suffer?” I managed past the lump in my throat, my voice a low rasp as I gazed up at him, taking in his image.

His fists were still clenched around the fabric of my sweater, his body large and imposing…hovering over mine.

“You really don’t know?” he asked in a low whisper.

“Know what?” I whispered back.

I gazed up at his face directly above mine, at his raven-black hair carelessly falling around it. His eyes, a clouded dark blue, were like windows to a stormy sky.

He looked wild…and so beautiful it made my heart ache just to look at him.

And with a sudden start I realized that my feelings for Aidan were so much stronger than anything I’d ever felt for his brother.

There was no comparison.

Though I’d met Aaron first, though my physical reaction to him often exceeded the attraction I felt toward Aidan…which was probably merely due to the curse…and though there had often been times when I’d felt emotionally close to him, my heart had never before ached as it did just now.

While my head had been busy making up my mind, it seemed my heart had already decided.

And in that moment, I finally knew.

“…that I’m in love with you,” Aidan’s confession reached me at the same time I realized that my heart belonged to him.

I was in love with Aidan…and Aidan alone.

And as I finally grasped my own feelings, Aidan seemed to have grasped my thoughts, the look on his face suddenly changing into one of surprise, his eyes hopeful as he gazed into mine. Then, his whole expression turned deadly serious again.

“Do you really mean it?” he asked, seemingly holding his breath as he waited for my reply.

“W-what…mean what?” I stuttered, shocked at myself for having thought about my feelings at such a moment when I knew Aidan had always been able to read me so well.

What on earth had I been thinking?!

This wasn’t how I would have wanted to tell him about it.

Would I even have wanted to tell him how I felt?

At some point, certainly. But right now, at the very instant I’d sorted out my own feelings…before I could even talk to Aaron?

How awkward…and embarrassing!

“Don’t be embarrassed,” Aidan said softly, gazing down at me with an expression I’d never seen on his face before. He seemed genuinely moved by my admission.

“Instead, tell me…again…I’d like to hear you say it,” Aidan requested, his arms moving possessively around my waist.

“But…why would I say it when you’ve just picked it directly out of my head…why can’t you just be happy with what you overheard?” I asked, feeling suddenly shy about confessing openly.

Though it shouldn’t have made a difference, whatsoever, it somehow
seemed
  different to actually speak those words out loud…even if he already knew.

Aidan bent toward me and gently touched his lips to mine. Pulling away, yet remaining so close that his breath mingled with mine, he looked into my eyes and whispered ‘Say it’ in a way that had goosebumps erupting all over my shivering body.

I gazed up into his blue eyes, saw his heart, and took courage from the emotions he revealed.

“I’m in love with you, Aidan,” I whispered in a soft voice that, for once, didn’t break or waver, filled with all the conviction I now felt about what he really meant to me.

It had taken me long enough to understand my true feelings, and the truth was the least I could offer him at this point, as there wasn’t much more I could give him under the current circumstances.

The curse was still intact…we were as forbidden as ever…nothing had changed through our confessions.

Aidan seemed to have been listening in on my thoughts again.

“So, where exactly does that leave us?” he asked, a sad longing apparent in his tone of voice. It seemed he had temporarily forgotten…or suppressed…the reality of our situation.

“Nowhere, I guess,” I quietly replied, a tear I hadn’t even realized was there slowly trailing down the side of my face.

Aidan reached out with his palm, cupped my cheek, and gently swept the salty traces of my pain away with his thumb. The air lay silent and thick between us…the atmosphere crushed once again by the burden of our fate.

For a second, all I could hear was our breathing.

Then, all hell broke loose…

Chapter 19 * Prophecy

L
oud cracking noises and muffled screams drifted toward us along with bits of crumbling stone and other debris that seemed to have been blasted off from the cave walls near the entrance to the house.

The unmistakable traces of magic suddenly lay in the air around us.

“Get ready to open a portal…we will leave together!” Malcolm’s shout from the room above rang in my ears, followed by creaking and breaking sounds indicating someone’s presence on the already badly battered wooden ladder.

I felt relieved to hear that we would be fleeing together. Though there seemed to be trouble, Malcolm must have decided that it would be safer for all of us to leave togethe
r―
for which I was extremely glad. It wouldn’t have felt right to leave them behind. I would have felt as though…I might never see them again.

I looked up and spotted Malcolm and Aaron near the top of the ladder, moving toward the bottom so fast that they seemed to be jumping rather than climbing down, skipping several rungs at a time.

Splinters of wood sailed toward the ground as the rungs split beneath the force of the large men’s hurried movements as they rushed toward the ground as fast as they could without actually dropping.

Aidan grabbed my quilt, and we jumped to our feet and joined hands, waiting for the others to arrive. Aaron had already reached the bottom of the ladder and started to sprint toward us when our attention was caught by the battle that had begun raging near the lower half of the ladder.

One of the men chasing after us had caught up with Malcolm, and the two men were fighting each other, each struggling to hold on to the ladder while trying to throw the other off.

Malcolm landed a powerful blow to the other man’s stomach and managed to put some distance between him and his attacker while his opponent held on to the ladder, slightly doubled over and fighting to breathe.

A sudden bolt of lightning flashed through the air, knocking a large section of the ladder along with the man following Malcol
m
straight off and onto the hard ground, where he lay motionless between splinters of wood. Whether or not he was dead, I couldn’t tell and couldn’t stop to care at that moment.

I was just glad it wasn’t Malcolm lying on the ground at our feet at an odd angle. He’d already been at the bottom of the ladder when he’d released the lightning and had managed to jump out of harm’s way as the man and the ladder fragment had sailed toward the ground.

Malcolm caught up with Aaron, who had stopped in mid-sprint when he’d heard the loud blast behind him, and the two of them hurried toward us.

When they finally reached us, I could see the backpack carrying the Book of Light on Malcolm’s back. He must have kept it nearby in case we were forced to flee at a moment’s notice. I was glad he’d thought of keeping it close. It was one thing less to worry about.

The four of us gathered and clasped hands, forming a tight circle.

“Remember, we are heading for the stretch of beach in front of the mysterious cave we discovered on the run that night,” Malcolm whispered low enough for no one besides us to hear.

“Should we really go there? It seemed like a very strange place…in a dangerous sort of way,” Aidan suddenly interjected. His voice sounded apprehensive, as if he sensed trouble in our path.

“I agree,” Malcolm answered, “However, I have no other plan at the moment. Let us just hurry and get there…and we can devise a new one when we are at the cave. We do not have time to discuss this here. Now, everyone please concentrate on the location.”

We closed our eyes and thought hard about our chosen destination, feeling our connecting powers stream through our bodies to form a new, overwhelmingly strong magical energy that came from and belonged to all of us…ours to command.

The pain it caused each and every one of us to hold such power was a price we gladly paid at such a momen
t―
when the enemy was close and our lives hung in the balance.

Focused on steadily breathing through the growing pain in my entire body while I watched the portal forming between us, I nearly missed what was happening in the cave around us.

When large, fist-sized rocks abruptly started to sail past my line of vision, nearly missing our heads, I quickly gazed up at the ceiling of the cave to see enormous cracks building and stone breaking away. The whole cave…and consequently Adam’s house seemed to be in the process of crumbling.

Above us, I saw a dark figure lurking and reaching through the opening leading to the hidden room to send bolts of lightning toward the stone above our heads. Wondering why he would target the cave ceiling rather than the four of us directly, I then came to the conclusion that the circle we formed must be shielding us from other men’s magic but not from natural elements. Thus, it seemed the enemy was trying to get around our shield by using nature’s weapons.

Directing my thoughts hastily back to our destination, I concentrated hard and watched as the portal grew in size until it was finally completed. I could smell salt and seaweed in the air and hear the ocean’s roar.

As if of one mind, the four of us immediately jumped toward the portal and landed on the sandy beach in a heap, our bodies piled against and on top of each other from colliding inside the portal.

Untangling myself from the three other bodies, I struggled through the sand on hands and knees until I had left the others far enough behind me…