When she takes every single drop I give her, I pull out of her and drop beside her on the sand, both of us breathless.
Twenty
AURELIA
There’s a loud bang coming from downstairs. My eyes fly open, and I gasp, looking around the room. Nathaniel is still fast asleep beside me, and careful not to wake him, I slip silently toward the door. Another noise follows, and I freeze for a second, trying to place it. It sounds like someone is trapped in one of the rooms below, fighting to get out.
Something inside me tells me not to follow it, but something stronger pulls me forward anyway.
I make my way downstairs, taking the turn to the right and following the hallway to the very end. The sound is coming from behind the wooden panel beneath the staircase. I press my hand against it, feeling along the cold wood, hoping to find some kind of handle. When I push near the top, the hidden door creaksopen. Behind it, there’s another door. I push that open too and stare at the narrow staircase disappearing into the dark below. I realize this must be the basement Nathaniel told me about.
I swallow against the sharp knot in my throat as a cold breeze brushes my skin, raising goosebumps along my arms. I step down slowly, one stair at a time, until my feet finally touch the basement floor.
A faint light spills in from the left. I move toward it, deeper into the dark, and then I see a man is chained to the wall.
I gasp, my hand flying over my mouth.
He lifts his head, and the second my eyes meet his bruised, bloodied face, I recognize him.
It’s Daniel.
He’s alive.
Nathaniel is keeping him here.
“Aurelia,” he whimpers in pain.
I take a step back, my hip knocking into a table. A bucket tips over and crashes to the floor, teeth scattering across the floor with a chilling, clattering sound. My breathing turns ragged as my gaze drifts across the basement, unfocused at first, until it catches on a closet at the end of the left wall.
A tear slips down my cheek, and as I look at Daniel, everything comes back. Every single thing he did to me. And Nathaniel made sure he got the same in return.
I move closer and see him begging, see how broken he looks now, how weak, how pitiful.
My jaw clenches, my brows lifting as I step in front of him. I free one of his hands, only then noticing the other is severed. Carefully, I help him up.
“Let me take you out of here.”
“Thank you,” he cries. “Thank you.”
I hook his arm over my shoulder and drag him up the stairs. His weight fights me with every step. When we reach the basement door, I shove it open, then slam it shut behind us.
We stagger toward the front door. My pulse pounds so hard it blurs everything, and I’m still not sure what I’m doing. But the second I see Nathaniel’s car in front I rush towards it. I open the back door, and Daniel weakly folds into the seat.
I slide into the driver’s seat and grab the key from the passenger compartment, right where I saw Nathaniel leave it earlier.
My hands shake as I start the engine and pull away.
“How did he find you?” I ask, glancing at him.
“I survived,” he hisses. “I went home, and something hit me from behind. Next thing I knew, I was in that basement, being tortured by one of his men.”
“Name?” I ask, pressing harder on the gas.
“Victor.”
I nod and look at him in the rearview mirror.
“How do you know Nathaniel?” I ask, trying to piece everything together.
