Aiden took a final look at her amber-gold eyes and the bullet wound in her chest. All these years not only had Marcus been lying to him, to everyone, about her death, but he’d denied Aiden the chance to see her one last time and say goodbye. And even if he understood why he’d been robbed of closure so the Valrais secret could remain hidden, even if he recognized the obsession Marcus had with his daughter, it didn’t make it any less cruel. Marcus had preserved her body. He’d not let her go, despite his pleas for Aiden to move on.
Shifting his attention to the second tank, Aiden studied the features of the man inside it. His emerald-green eyes looked just as empty as Claudia’s, their uncomfortable blank stare making Aiden look away.
“Liu Zhihao,” he muttered, sensing Darren stiffen next to him even if they weren’t touching anymore. Liu was the man who’d supported Darren and paid for it with his life.
But why was his body here, too? Had Marcus been obsessed with him in the same way he was with Claudia? Or was it a war trophy? A reminder to himself and those who followed him that he stood at the top of the food chain?
“Why would Marcus…” Aiden trailed off, leaving it a half-question.
It was strange, but Aiden didn’t have the capacity to figure that out now. Besides, Marcus did a lot of things that made little sense.
“I don’t know. But we need to retrieve him.” Darren cut his gaze to Aiden, apprehension making his features tense. “Both of them. They should be buried, not displayed like they are trophies.”
Aiden examined the tanks. There was no way the two of them could move them on their own even if they could disconnect them. “We can’t move them now. We’ll need to come back.”
Darren nodded, walking over to one of the vault consoles. “There should be a catalogue listing all the items in the vault. We retrieve the ring as planned. Once we’ve met up with the rest, we’ll figure out a way to get the tanks ou—”
An air-splitting clank reverberated through the vault, drowning out the rest of what Darren said. Aiden shuddered all the way to his bones, freezing mid-step as Darren whipped his head back like a spooked rabbit. It had sounded like a heavy door opening after years of no use.
Alertness put Aiden on edge as he scanned every inch of the vault for the loud noise, but he couldn’t find a source nearby… which meant that the sound could’ve only come from one place.
Above.
“Aiden. This… I think it came from above us,” Darren rushed out, panting in between the words.
As if on cue, the recessed light fixtures changed color to a menacing red, filling Aiden’s stomach with dread. The platform shook and they both darted off it just in time as metal columns descended from above and enveloped it in a protective energy field.
Cold sweat covered Aiden’s body, his heart rate spiking.Someone knew they were down here.And that someone couldonly be Marcus. A myriad of questions flooded his mind, but he had no time to wonder how Marcus had detected them or made it here so quickly.
Focusing on the now, Aiden looked between Darren and the terminal he’d been about to access. They didn’t have time to look for the ring. They had to go now. But if they left without the ring, they might not get another chance to retrieve it.
Aiden pinned his eyes on the two tanks. Swallowing hard, he tried to keep his breathing steady. If he ran now, he had to abandon Claudia’s body. Marcus would move it or hide it or make it impossible to infiltrate the warehouse again.
The ring, the Valrais Legacy… None of it mattered at this very moment. Only Claudia. Only Aiden’s past. Only the lies and the secret truths. He tried not to think of the now, he tried not to dream of a future, because if he stayed, he’d bring things full circle. He’d connect the beginning to the end and he would arrive at his destination.
“Aiden, we need to go,” Darren said, his voice muffled as if already far away.
He stood a few feet away, his hand outstretched.Waiting for Aiden.His mouth was moving, but Aiden couldn’t hear the words.The pleas to go. They didn’t matter, he’d made his decision.
Hadn’t he?
Aiden saw it in Darren’s eyes then. They burned with something that made his heart try to jump out of his chest. It gave him pause, it annihilated his resolve, it stripped him of the self-destructive determination. It threw everything into chaos and within that chaos, he found it. The flicker of light, the sunlit grove in the forest of darkness. It beckoned him and he couldn’t resist it. He didn’t want to. He craved it, he needed it and so he walked toward it.
It led him to a crossroads. One that he’d only encounter this once. He had to pick, he had to make his final choice. To let the past swallow him or to fight for the future.
Aiden looked at the two tanks. Drank Claudia in. Smiled at her as his eyes stung. It hurt thinking about leaving her here, never knowing what exactly had led things to play out this way, but it hurt even more imagining a life, however short, where he’d never see Darren again.
“Goodbye, Claudia,” he muttered and grabbed Darren’s hand, squeezing it like it was the only thing keeping him afloat in a bottomless ocean.
Darren held onto him with the same desperation, breaking into a run. The red lights overhead remained on as they sprinted down the corridor and rounded the corner, heading for the conveyer belt. As quickly as they could, they climbed up, their earpieces hissing with static the moment they were in the power room.
“Darren!”Nyle’s shout screeched over the comms.“Shit, Bea, I’m through! Get your damn asses out of there immediately!”
“Nyle! What the fuck is going on?” Darren shouted back, helping Aiden through the opening in the wall. “Someone’s coming down here!”
“It’s Marcus. He knows there’s been a breach. They’ve flushed the whole system and I can’t get back in! Fuck, I’ve no idea what’s happening. You need to leave now before they’ve put the whole place in lockdown!”
“Fuck!” Darren groaned, peeking out from behind the nearest power tank. Once he’d made sure there was no one in sight, he herded Aiden in front of him. “How long do we have?”
