Page 66 of What Whispers in the Dark
Shelovedrain. Thoughlovedidn’t seem like a strong enough word.
Growing up in tunnels, the only rain she had ever witnessed was inside killing arenas above ground. And that was rare, considering her kingdom was one where it hardly rained. Otherwise, she’d only felt a droplet of liquid falling on her skin when it dripped from the sharp cone formations on the Underground’s rocky ceiling. Or when hot droplets of blood splattered her face in the arena.
She much preferred this. The droplets like tiny sighs of relief against her skin. Each one ran down her cheeks and neck and washed away the tightness in her chest.
Her eyes must have been closed for some time because when she noticed only the sound of the rain filling the stormy night did her eyes open to find Aiden’s head slanted toward his chest. His fingers mindlessly picked at a loose thread on his folded, buckled boot.
A muscle flexed in his cheek. “It was him again, wasn’t it?”
There it was. The question she’d dreaded since the garden. She had hoped he’d forgotten about it after all this time.
To whomhe referred to, she couldn’t determine. Of the manyhimsin her lifetime, only a few haunted her nights.
Jade pulled her knees to her chest. Toweling her arms around her legs. She closed her eyes but immediatelyopened them when that memory—that nightmare—threatened to return.
And instead of striking the weapon that was her rage at the nightmare, Jade unleashed it on him. “Why?” Why did he care? Why did he bring her up here? Why stick around when she was always …soawful to him? Awful toeveryone. Why did they give her a chance? Allow her to stay? So, she asked him, with fire and shame and pain and all, “Why do you fucking care?”
Warmth bloomed in his gaze. Aiden tipped her chin upward with his knuckle, bringing her eyes to the shale color of his. “Do I need a reason beyond the fact that I simplydo?”
Her glare could have set Elysian aflame.
Aiden sighed and searched the stars as if they held the words he struggled to form. With a shake of his head, he turned to her. “Know there isnothingyou could have done orneedto do to earn my care for you. But if you need a reason, then I will give you this one.” His knuckle remained steady so she could see the truth lying there. “To all the realms, I am just some unwanted annoyance. A once black-hearted plunderer who cared not for those I stole from.” His eyes softened. “But when I met you?—”
“Oh, please. I’m going to throw myself off this roof if you tell me you love?—”
“No,listen.” There was no room for arguing in his tone. Jade huffed at this most uncomfortable turn of roles, his absurdity and authority all the same, but unwillingly humored him. “But when I met you, I had such a gaping hole in my heart. I lost a piece of myself with losing Kallias.” Aiden mournfully scrunched his face at the mention of his twin sister, Aleyna’s late husband. His eyes went glassy. “I’m not saying he resurrected in you, only that you reminded me so much of him… Like my best mate once again stood and lived and breathed in front of me, and you mended my grief by simply existing in my life. Of reminding me and Aleyna there was one after his death.
“Hells, Jade. You could have beenhistwin. All attitude and giving no sailing-shits, allowing me to pester you to all-ends withoutevermaking me feel lesser for the way I was created or the way my mind works… With you, I’m not just some idiot?—”
“You’re still an idiot.”
He smiled at that, seeing it for the lie it was, and went on, “You allow me to be me as he did. I’m not embarrassed to let my thoughts rule me. To allow my mind to control my mouth. To watch as my hands make crazy gestures and forget what I was saying half the time. I know when you call me a fool, I’m probably being one. And for some reason, with you, I like it.”
“You just enjoy tormenting me wholly.”
“Aye, love. I do. But … I think you need it, too.”
His torment? Why would she need …
She was silent as Aiden brushed his thumb over her lips as if in answer to a question she had never asked him. Silent as his words stirred around them, and she realized her mouth had curved upward.Smilingat him, half-hearted, but smiling nonetheless.
And the simple truth dawned on her as he traced her lips.
Before Aiden … she had never smiled, much less laughed. And she found herself doing both in moments he was around, no matter how much of a moron he was being.
Perhaps he was right … perhaps shedidneed him. Perhaps … she liked it.
Withdrawing his touch, Aiden was quiet as he changed course, “I knew the moment Deklen found you stowed away on my ship and you threatened to run me through if I didn’t depart with you, that you meant a great deal to me. But I didn’t know exactly why. I didn’t see you as a helpless female—hells, you scared the shit out of me—but I…” He shook his head. “You became much more than I ever imagined—to Aleyna, too. Muchmore than familial blood, like a cousin or whatever-the-hells, you weren’t just one of the crew, you becamemy family.”
And Jade knew the depths Aiden would go for his family. Their pursuit of Soulstryker and existence in Elysian was proof.
She swallowed the emotion swelling inside her throat. At the truth in his words he didn’t speak, screaming in the silence of the rain.
Aiden said so plainly she couldn’t deny it, “I chose you.”
A breath escaped her, brutal and swift.
“I chose to carry your burdens and ease the pain from your world. Ichooseyou. Every day.”
