He didn’t let himself explore what kind of chance he really hoped for, jogging over to the warden’s office just as Aiden shut the door. He knocked and waited to be invitedbefore he slipped inside, finding Aiden sitting behind his desk. He looked up from whatever he was typing, said nothing, and returned his attention to the screen.
Darren took his usual spot on the couch, draping an arm over the backrest. Even from here, he could see the effort it took Aiden to maintain his mask of composure when he was anything but. Darren was on edge himself, not quite sure where they stood now that he didn’t have to hide the truth anymore, but wherever it was, it was definitely complicated.
After minutes of just charged silence between them, Darren’s nerves couldn’t take it anymore, so he cleared his throat. “Well, Aiden Kesley. Did you find your answers?” It came out more hostile than he’d meant it to, but there was nothing he could do about it.
The look Aiden gave him was venomous, a quick flick of his gaze that shook Darren to his core. “Not nearly enough of them to make up for the mountain of new questions.” He threw another loathsome glance Darren’s way. “Sir Barnaby Albus II.”
“Not here,” Darren hissed, scanning the room. He didn’t see anything out of place, but he wouldn’t know for sure if Marcus had left a listening device unless he did an actual sweep. “Shall we go inspect the renovated area?”
Seeming to catch onto his concern, Aiden nodded and turned off his computer. He led Darren to the fields outside and once they reached the edge of the enclosure, they claimed a bench along the span of glass separating them from the cold, suffocating embrace of space. Darren sat on one end and Aiden on the other. It felt like they were on the opposite sides of that window. One was inside, one was outside, their worlds not any closer than they’d beenbefore Darren had sent Aiden to hunt down an old fairytale no one even remembered.
Despite the sting of sadness thinking about the past brought forth, Darren smiled, picturing the easy smile of the girl in the red dress. He hoped his gamble had paid off. He hoped that the truths hidden on that asteroid had shaken Aiden’s world, exposing the lies it had been built on.
It was cruel, but it was also the only way. Breaking Aiden all over again was the only option Darren had if he wanted to survive this. To live.
“I assume you met the lovely princess. She is quite the force of nature, isn’t she?” he said, trained his gaze on Aiden’s profile, and waited.
Aiden stifled a smile at the mention of Sara. The friendly girl with her red dress and cap and her teas and biscuits had been the most advanced AI he’d ever interacted with. He’d thought about her on the way back from Mars, today too during his commute to Horizons, but he still had no idea how something so human-like could exist.
Who’d built such an AI and for what purpose? How come the Global Nations didn’t seem to know about it, considering the resources it must’ve taken to develop?
“Would’ve made for a fearless queen one day,” he acknowledged, keeping his gaze on the cluster of rocks passing by on the other side of the glass. He could feel Darren’s eyes on him, but he wasn’t ready to meet them.
“She would have,” Darren agreed, longing lacing his words.
Darren would have known Sara while she was still alive. He was one of her knights, so maybe he’d lived in the mansion as a boy. Maybe he’d even hung out with her and her younger brother, drank tea that actually tasted of something.
Imagining Darren as a boy brought on the memory Sara had shown Aiden. He didn’t want to relive it. He’d been avoiding it, shutting it down whenever it tried to resurface, the tragedy he’d lived through in Sara’s VR not something he could handle when he was barely functioning. Darren must’ve been around the same age, maybe he’d even been in the house too, hiding in some other room and hoping he’d make it out alive.
“Do you know where the heir is?” Aiden prompted, changing the topic. He doubted Darren would give up the location so easily, but he had to ask anyway.
Darren chuckled, the sound carrying genuine amusement and a note of… Mockery? Or maybe it was bewilderment. In any case, a smile accompanied the laugh too, and when Aiden scowled at Darren, he also noticed a spark of something in the man’s indigo eyes, something raw… but in a new way than before. It wasn’t hostile, and certainly wasn’t meant as a seduction this time. Whatever it was, Aiden couldn’t exactly decipher it.
“I do,” Darren said, looking away first as he laced his hands together atop his knees.
“And I don’t suppose you’d be willing to tell me,” Aiden followed up with, even if he knew it was pointless to press the issue.
Darren’s shoulders sagged, displacing a few of the longer locks of his raven-black hair. They fell forward andcurtained his face, but he didn’t seem to be bothered. “What is it to you?”
Aiden’s fingers itched to tuck Darren’s hair away, so to stop himself from acting on that urge, he rolled back one of his shirt sleeves and started massaging his wrist. He also pretended he didn’t notice Darren’s eyes following the movements of his fingers.
“You have a point. Whatever happens to some forgotten prince is none of my business,” Aiden said, trying not to sound bitter about it.
“Unless you make it so,” Darren countered, his gaze snapping up to Aiden’s face.
Electricity sparkled along Aiden’s nerve endings, the determination in Darren’s voice and eyes speeding up his heart rate. Swallowing, he bit back, “I’m afraid that isnotsomething I intend to do.”
Darren’s scoff filled Aiden with brewing irritation. “The princess would be disappointed in you, Kesley.”
“Warden Kesley.”
“Tell me,wardenKesley, why was Marcus DuLaurent here earlier?”
“You saw him?” Aiden narrowed his eyes.Had Darren been watching him?
“Happened to walk by.”
Aiden contemplated answering, but the question he’d had on his mind since leaving the hideout poured out of him first. “Why did you kill Claudia?”
