A swarm of partially realized questions buzzed between herears.
“The Key did something to her,” he continued.“They used her...”He twirled the air as if trying to generate an explanation.“Ran tests onher.”
Elodie’s thoughts began to fall into place like tumblers in alock.
Aiden shoved his hands into his pockets.“I only just found out, and don’t really know anymore, but she’s why Eos breached the ELU.They needed Aubrey’s body to find out what the Key did to her so they can stop it from happening again.”
Click.
Elodie sucked in a breath.“That’s why no one would tell me where Aubrey was transferred, and why Holly said I didn’t have access to herfile.”
Aiden’s brow lifted with a nod.“Elodie, I’ll understand if you still feel like you have to turn me into the Council.”His soft tone was almost swallowed by the steady clank of the MAX as it lumbered down the street.
“I could never do that.”Shewould neverdo that, sentence someone to death.Not for what she’d seen.Eos hadn’t hurt anyone.And what Aiden said made too much sense.Aubrey’s was the one case that didn’t fit.That feltwrong.Elodie needed answers.
Aiden’s jacket wheezed as he shifted.“Then let me show you what you’re protecting.”
With a shake of her head, Elodie jerked back.“I’m not protecting anything.”
He shrugged.“By not telling, you’re protectingme.”
The air thickened around her.Doing nothing was never as simple as it seemed.The absence of an action, a decision, was a choice in itself.Rhett had taught herthat.
She wished she had her jacket to hide in.“I don’t want to do anything scary.”
Aiden chuckled, a glorious fizzy pop against the stiffness of the night air.“You’re braver than you think.”
It was the second time he’d said that, and it still pressed against Elodie with the weight ofa lie.
He brushed his hand through the air, motioning for her to follow.“It won’t be scary.Promise.”
Elodie hesitated.She wanted to follow.Desperately wanted...
But her mother’s sentiment burned withinher.
Aiden disappeared into the black curtain of shadows stretching between the trees, the light squish of his boots against the moist grass the only sign of him.
Elodie chewed the inside of her cheek, listening to him go.She was doing it again.Making alife-alteringchoice by simply doing nothing.
Aiden’s footsteps faded, swallowed whole by thedark.
She took a deep breath.
Life continued, dragging her around in its wake, shredding her like an unwanted doll.Elodie was tired of life happeningtoher.
“Aiden!”She charged forward, her eyes adjusting as she plunged into the darkness.
XXX
Elodie had followed.Aiden had been positive that she wouldn’t.That he’d feel the last bits of their relationship, however it was categorized and shelved within each of them, evaporate with the evening mist as the space between themgrew.
But shewasfollowing.
Aiden had thought he’d come to say goodbye to the river, the murky artery that pulsed through the city, bisecting east from west.He thought he’d sit on a cool fountain bench for one last time and toss a whisperedI’m sorryinto the water.For what?He wasn’t sure.But remorse seeped into the hollow of his bones.Maybe it was because he’d dragged Elodie into a world she didn’t want to or have to exist in.Aiden knew all too well that stepping into the light of Eos would bleach out the shadows from the rest of the world.Was Elodie ready to leave the darkness?
Had he given her a choice?
They’d been walking for nearly ten minutes when Elodie cleared the silence.“Where are we going?”
