Page 66 of Queen of Darkness
All eyes turned to Fenrir.
“There’s your better idea,” he said when I lifted my eyebrows in silent question. “And it’s actually a pretty good one.”
“Absolutely not,” Aaron snarled, storming out of the room.
“Aaron!” I called, too shocked by his behavior to do much more, but he ignored me, tromping down one of the hallways, making nearly as much noise as Drakul.
I stared after him until he was gone around a corner.
“Well, go on,” Fenrir said, breaking the silence.
“What?” I looked around the room at the prompt, noting that all eyes were focused on me and me alone. “What am I missing? Why am I going after him? He’s in a mood for no reason. I don’t want to deal with that.”
“Because,” Jaxton said softly, “he’s in a mood ‘cause of you.”
“Me? What the heck did I do? Is it because I brought the idea up?”
“Of course not,” Jaxton said, shaking his head. “He’s worried about you. Just won’t admit it. Not here, around us at least. Has to be all macho. You know how it is.”
“You’re saying he’s mad because he’s scared? But he can’t admit to being scared because …”
“Because he’s a man who grew up twelve centuries ago and has certain ingrained notions of women and ‘how to be a man’ that you’re going to spend decades undoing if he doesn’t get any therapy? Yes, pretty much,” Dave said dryly.
I shook my head at him. “Where did hefindyou people?”
That brought a round of laughter from the group, but still, none of them went after him. Which meant I would have to do it. There was no way I was walking into the Underworld without him, that was for sure.
“Okay, here I go,” I said.
“Have fun,” Dave said with faux innocence.
I stuck my tongue out at him and then followed Aaron down the hallway. I had an inkling of where I might find him based on the exit he’d chosen. Coming to a halt, I knocked on the door to his old room.
There was no response, but my wolf’s hearing picked up the sounds of someone breathing inside.
“Aaron,” I said, resting my palm on the door. “Aaron, it’s me.”
When he still didn’t say anything, I took a breath and opened the door.
I’d been prepared to be lambasted and put on the receiving end of a verbal tirade of epic proportions, but it wasn’t anything like that at all. Aaron was sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed, knees drawn to his chest. His head was resting on his arms, which were crossed over his knees.
“Hey,” I said, closing the door behind me and moving to him, taking a seat next to him. “What’s wrong?”
This was so uncharacteristically unlike him that I approached the situation with hesitation, moving slow, thinking slow. What was making him like this?
He lifted his head slightly to look at me with those bright blue eyes that had snagged me so thoroughly once I’d let him in. They were troubled and full of what I thought was anger. But why was he so angry?
“Talk to me,” I said, getting in close to him.
“About what?” he said gruffly. “We’re going to do it anyway.”
“I have to,” I said. “But why is that so upsetting to you?”
Aaron sighed. “It’s … not easy to admit to.”
“What isn’t?”
“Down there,” he said slowly, looking straight ahead. “The Underworld. Hades. I … I can’t.”
