“No matter what, we’ll figure something out. Just like we did here.” Darren gave Aiden’s shoulder a final squeeze, then tipped his head toward the bedroom where Raj had passed out. “Let’s pack up and leave before our guest wakes up. I’ll…” He considered taking a shuttle to Mars, but now that they most likely had Dr. Batbayar’s research, it seemed too big of a risk compared to the Maine swooping in to pick them up. “I’ll contact Bea with a rendezvous location.”
“Wait.” Aiden shot up and grabbed his forearm. “There is a place I’d like to visit before we go,” he said, his nostrils flaring and his eyes wavering with uncertainty.
A queasy feeling took Darren’s stomach hostage, but he forced himself to ask, “Where?”
Aiden’s fingers dug deeper. His hazel gaze filled with determination that trapped Darren, rooting him to his feet. “The mansion where you and Sara grew up.”
The bad feeling spread out, turning into impending panic which slithered its way through Darren’s insides until it had reached all of him. It made his toes and fingertips prickle, his skin turn tight and constrictive, and his heart try to rip itself out of his ribcage.
His home was the one place Darren couldn’t bear to return to. The palace ruins had been bad enough, but more foreign than familiar, lacking the myriad of memories from the cozy mansion atop the hill. The dinners with his parents, the afternoon tea with Sara and Sir Barnaby, the small chapel with stained glass where the three of them would sneak in and eavesdrop when their dad met up with Liu. It was all locked away, tucked into a dark corner of his mind that he didn’t ever let his thoughts visit.
And Aiden was not only asking him to break that rule, but to go to that haunted place and relive all over again the horror from the night he’d worked so hard to forget.
Darren closed his eyes and tuned out the world, focusing on his breathing. He didn’t want to go to the mansion, he didn’t think he could take it. But could he deny this man anything when he was the reason Darren was now free and so close to claiming the only thing his family had left behind?
Slowly, Darren stifled down the agitation and opened his eyes. Aiden stepped in closer and reached out, grasping Darren’s shoulder. His hold was light, undemanding, but it soothed Darren nevertheless.
They stood like that for a while, watching each other until Darren felt ready to give his reply.
“Okay,” he whispered, his voice barely audible in the silent room.
Aiden nodded, but didn’t let go and so Darren draped his hand over Aiden’s, squeezing back with the grip of a drowning man taking a deep breath he knew he would need.
