4
Aiden
“Welcome back!” Sara beamedat them from the dais, still swinging her legs.
Aiden smiled at her as he calmed his frantic heart down, then glanced at Darren, who still looked surprised at the scientist’s announcement. He met Aiden’s gaze, lingered in the eye contact for a heartbeat as if he couldn’t help it, then directed his attention Sara’s way.
“Sara, do you know what Dr. Batbayar discovered?” he said, a note of urgency worming its way in his voice.
Sara shook her head vigorously. “Sorry, Ren! I know as much as you do. Father never mentioned anything to me, so you and Sir Kesley will have to find out on your own!”
Darren looked at Aiden again. He didn’t say anything, didn’t really need to, his guardedly hopeful expression and the glimmer in his soul-stealing eyes communicating the question clearly. The request,the plea, the need he seemed to have for Aiden to agree to help him.
Aiden suppressed a pleasant shudder. He let his gaze jump from one sibling to the other, comparing the differencesand similarities. Where Darren’s eyes shifted from indigo to midnight blue depending on the light, Sara’s retained a brighter, bluer hue, though were just as imploring. Their noses were the same, regal and straight, and their hair was the lushest raven-black Aiden had ever encountered. Sara’s smiles were always beaming, slightly uneven on one side just like Darren’s had been when he’d shown his playfully flirty side at the prison.
How much of it was part of the real Darren and how much had been fake?
Sometimes, when Aiden found himself in the privacy of his own company, he thought back to Darren before his revenge had turned into something a lot more complicated. And whenever that happened, the memory of the night in Darren’s quarters would inevitably surface and plague his mind and senses until he’d exhausted himself to sleep from fighting it.
So, therefore, spending more time with Darren was the last thing Aiden needed, and yet, the two expectant expressions that welcomed him as he snapped himself back to the world outside his head made it hard to say no. One was brimming with childish hope and the other one… Aiden sucked in a sharp breath. The other one wasbegginghim despite the resignation and the regret shimmering in Darren’s eyes, which were just as heartbreakingly hopeful.
Why? Why did Darren look like Aiden’s refusal was going to break him?
Aiden clasped his elbow and steeled his aggravated nerves. Why did Darren have to show that side to him? The vulnerable, raw, real side that he couldn’t get out of his mind. And, more importantly, why didn’t he want to let Darren face alone whatever he was about to face? Whycouldn’the?
It was the same feeling as the one that had sprung him into action on that night in the mess hall when Darren had beenabout to lose himself to his demons. It was what made him save the man from himself every single time he dreamed about it.
Aiden tilted his head in Sara’s direction and flashed her a small smile, then locked eyes with Darren. Inhaling to steady his voice as he made his decision, he said, “I will help you find out what the doctor discovered.”
His words caused something dark and deep to flicker inside Darren’s indigo gaze, something that lit tiny flames under Aiden’s skin and made shivers dance along it at the same time. And when Darren smiled at him with the kind of sad longing that he looked at Sara with, there was a profound shift deep inside him that squeezed at the core of his entire being.Like a new piece slotting into place, even if it had no place inside him.
“Sara.” Aiden forced himself to look away before his heart had jumped out of his ribcage. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Darren face Sara, too. “Do you have any idea where we could start looking?”
“Hmm…” Sara waved her hands in the air in smooth motions that resembled a conductor in front of an orchestra, though Aiden guessed she was skimming through data on the web. “I am sorry, Sir Kesley. I can’t find anything.”
The fact that there were no clues online was probably a good thing, but it also meant they were blind to both what it was they were supposed to find and where they could start searching for it. But they had to get to it before Marcus, Aiden felt it in his bones, just like they had to retrieve Sara’s ring so the first half of the evolutionary sequence would be where it should—in the possession of the last Valrais.
“It’s okay, Kesley,” Darren said, shifting next to Aiden. “We’ll sit down with the rest and figure it out.”
Aiden let go of his elbow and nodded. It was no guarantee they would, but somehow Darren’s affirmation made the clump of nerves in his stomach settle a little.
