Page 49 of Dark Soul

“I just need to relax a bit. Could we … could we take a walk together, maybe?”

He didn’t hesitate. “Let me grab my coat. I’ll let the guys know we’re going out,” he said.

She looked around the room, struck again by how neat the house looked. There wasn’t a glass or plate in sight, and all surfaces looked like they’d been recently wiped down.

Then Dark was back, wearing a black coat. “Okay, I’m ready.”

He held her coat out for her to put her arms through.

Soft puffy snowflakes landed on her blue jacket as soon as she stepped outside. It’d started snowing again. Alexia tightened her scarf and pulled on her hat and gloves.

“Come,” Dark said, taking her hand in his. She noticed he hadn’t bothered to put on his gloves yet. “I want to show you something.”

He led her up the hill, matching her pace, though she knew with his longer legs he could have gone much faster. At first, they walked on the road, but eventually took a turn towards a smaller, snow-covered trail, surrounded by beautiful trees on either side.

“I come running here every morning,” he said.

“All the way up here?” she said, trying not to huff and puff.

“I enjoy the quiet, and the … the sense of space.”

“You don’t have that back home?” She realized she’d never even asked where home was. “Where do you live, actually?”

“Kansas, for the last few years,” he said quietly. “But my friends and I have been offered a new job, in Switzerland.”

“Are you going to take it?”

“Probably. It’s the only thing I’m good at.” He shrugged his massive shoulders. “But enough about me. Tell me about yourself. You said you have a month left in your contract. What happens then?”

“Nikolai will probably go back to Russia,” she said. The thought of not seeing the boy again made her sad. “And I’ll … I don’t know what I’ll do. I should go back to New Hampshire. I have a job waiting for me there.”

The thought of going back to New Hampshire didn’t thrill her. She took a deep breath. Nothing about her life thrilled her. As if everything she’d done, every decision she’d made the last five years, had precipitated from the same instant. From her brother’s death. And maybe it was time to start living a different way, before her entire life passed her by.

“Or maybe I won’t go back,” she said, voicing the thought out loud for the first time.

“A moment of change for both of us, then,” he said. His blue eyes glittered with an unexpected intensity. He opened his mouth to speak—just as the shrill sound of his phone pierced the afternoon’s silence.

He looked down at the screen, then back at her apologetically.

“Sorry. I need to take this,” he said. She moved back a few steps to give him space, heard him listen, then answer several questions with monosyllables before hanging up.

“Everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine. The guys are going out for dinner. They just wanted me to know they’ll be back late.”

“Really? Are they … like … giving us space?”

He smiled. “I think so.”

“Maybe we should go back to your place and make good use of it, then.”

“Is that what you want to do?”

“I know it was my idea to go out for a walk, and it’s beautiful out here, but I can’t feel my fingers and my toes anymore, I’m so cold.”

“Shit. Sorry. Let’s get you inside.” He took her hand in his, pulling her gently forward. “Come. It’s quicker this way than the way we came.”

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