Page 51 of Avelina

“What is he trying to find?”

Aaron looked at me obliquely, then over at the undersized door. “Anything that might get him what he wants.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What does he want?”

Aaron rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t quite suppress a smile. “You really can’t let anything go, can you?”

“I told you. It’s my best feature.” I batted my eyelashes at him for effect.

Aaron raised one eyebrow at me like he was Spock analyzing an alien lifeform, a comparison that made a lot of sense if you thought about it. “He still wants Farrah,” he said, “but he can’t just take her because of Jorin’s influence.”

Ah, right. The incomparable Farrah. How could I forget?

“He’s searching for any reason to bring the hammer down on my cousin, which is why he comes so often or sends his minions. Worst case scenario, he would find a reason to execute both my uncle and cousin, and then he could take Farrah and the entire farm. Of course, he wouldn’t live long enough to enjoy it.”

He dropped his pack beside the bed, then walked over to the trapdoor and opened a small panel that looked down into the closet. Aaron observed Ward for a long moment, then shut the panel again and headed back to the bed. I watched him as he moved around the room, not sure if I should be nervous about the casual way he’d just threatened to murder his enemy. I understood the sentiment, but I’d never heard someone speak that way before. Would I be safer with someone like this?

As long as he was on my side, I decided, yes. And if he can keep his temper.

“Is it common to have this kind of place in your house?” I asked, changing the subject.

Aaron shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, but I suspect this is not the only one.” I wondered how many of these existed in Neesee. I hoped many. If we could find Jorin, I’d ask him if he knew of others who resisted in these small ways. It would be a good place to start with our own resistance.

“What’s through there?” I asked, pointing to the little door.

“The escape route. There’s a hallway leading to a removable panel with a rope, then another room like this one on the other side, accessible from Terik’s room. That’s where they go when they want actual privacy. Jorin installed the escape hatch about fifteen years ago when Axel burned down a home near the Moore farm, just southeast of here. Killed two kids.” He walked back over to his pack, sat in front of it, and pulled everything out to reorganize.

“Your family are all rebels,” I commented, not bothering to hide my admiration.

“No, I’m the only rebel. The rest are silent resisters.”

I watched him fastidiously reorganize his pack, glad that I was in his room instead of the other way around. My bedroom was always embarrassingly messy. I had a perpetual basket of clean laundry that I never folded and three years of papers on my desk that I’d been meaning to shred.

Well, that’s one problem solved, at least. My bedroom isn’t there anymore. I sighed. “I should do that too,” I said, motioning to the pack. Aaron smiled, shaking his head. “What?” I asked. “It could happen. Not tonight, though. Maybe tomorrow.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” he said, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “You should check in with Spirit before we sleep.”

“Okay. I just hope I don’t float away with her when she leaves this time.”

Aaron considered that for a minute. “Maybe you should sit next to me.” His expression remained blank as he said it, but his eyes were searching. He watched me walk toward him like a starving man watching a turkey come out of the oven. I felt a flush creep up my neck as I approached him, though that might have been Farrah’s stupid scratchy dress.

“Good idea,” I said and plopped down on the bed next to him, setting my pack next to his. “Spirit,” I called.

“I’m here,” she said. She sounded close, her voice more solid somehow. I turned to see her beside me, lounging on the bed.

“Holy crap! I can see you, Spirit.”

She directed a dazzling white smile at me. “I know,” she said. She was so stunning I couldn’t speak for a moment. She wore one of her usual boho dresses in a midnight blue that made her gray-blue eyes seem like they were glowing. It had a deep V-neck that drew the eyes down before you could stop them. Her white-blond hair was longer than I remembered and flowed around her body as if she posed for Botticelli. I wanted to get her a freaking scallop shell to stand in. I just stared, remembering the last time I had seen her sprawled out on a bed like that. I wondered if I could reach out and touch her.

“You can’t,” she said.

“Can’t what?” I asked.

“Touch me. Or do anything else to me,” she said, sitting up. She appeared to sit on the bed, but there was no indentation. The shift in posture drew my attention to the slit in her dress. It was right in the front, went up to mid-thigh, and opened up to show her gorgeously smooth legs.

“Um, wow. That’s too bad,” I said, glancing at Aaron a little guiltily. Though I knew he couldn’t hear Spirit because we weren’t connected, he looked at me with that same expression he’d had when Ward appeared. This time, it was probably warranted.

I was glad to see her, but leering was not the best idea. Instead, I leaned my head on Aaron’s shoulder to distract myself and hooked my arm in his. Resting my hand on his forearm, our shared mental space opened, and I discovered that he was jealous again, but he didn’t understand why he needed to be. The man was so perceptive that I knew I would have a hard time hiding my feelings from him the way I had done with everyone since Drew. I tended to keep friends and lovers alike at arm’s length, but that might not be possible with Aaron. That fact made me even more nervous than his willingness to kill someone.

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