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Just as tall as Damen, and the man looked just like him, save for the broader nose and darker skin. Just as handsome. Maybe even more so. His build was the same—broad shoulders set on a muscular frame that was hinted at under his tight jacket and button-down shirt. His body took up a good portion of the width of the aisle.
The whole of him serious and imposing and everything about him perfectly immaculate. Not exactly “Whisky in the Jar” type. Much less the type to actually verbalize the song out loud while wandering mazes.
Instinct almost had me spinning around and disappearing into the maze to get away from him, but I stifled the urge. Clearly this was one of Damen’s children.
I’d never met any of them save for Venetia.
We’d stayed in one of his sons’ villas on Sardinia, but there hadn’t been any photos or anything particularly intimate in the elaborate home—like lots of people used the place and never left a trace, much less any imprint of themselves.
His head tilted slightly to the side, his eyes narrowing just the tiniest bit as he took me in from head to boot toe. “Ada, I presume?”
I nodded, taking a step toward him. “You have me at the disadvantage. I didn’t know there were any other guests at the castle.”
“Not so much a guest, as a one-time resident.”
“You are one of Damen’s sons?”
His lips pulled back in a tight line, almost like he didn’t want to talk to me, but as we were trapped in the maze in the same corridor, there was no easy escape for either of us. No polite escape, that was. “I am. Leo. His eldest.”
“Leo?” I took another cautious step toward him. “I believe we stayed at your villa in Sardinia? Years ago?”
His stare turned into pinpricks on me, his voice cold. “You did. There was a lot of cleanup that needed to be done after your visit to the island.”
“Oh.” My fingers curled inward, my fingernails pressing into my palm. “I am sorry for the trouble we caused on the island. I assure you, it was not intentional.”
“Nothing my sister ever does is intentional. But before you appeared in my father’s life she was at least under control.”
Not wanted. Message received loud and clear.
I glanced over my shoulder to sort my escape. “My apologies, I didn’t mean to disturb you. I’ll go back out the way I came, if I can find my way out. The pattern is new and I was just exploring it, trying to find the middle. It used to be one of my favorite places here at Netherstone.”
I turned away from him, retreating. Hopefully I could make it out of the maze before awkwardly bumping into him again.
“Ada, wait.” A big sigh filled the air.
I stopped and looked over my shoulder at him.
“Don’t leave quite yet. This is my first time in the maze since it has been redone, and I have yet to find the center myself. I studied it from above in my father’s study, but once I was in here, I took one wrong turn and have been wandering for a while. We can walk it together.”
“You want to walk it together?” My brows lifted high.
He motioned to the pathway. “I am not sure what is more awkward, the two of us both walking about in here pretending the other doesn’t exist or if we walk it together.”
Probably the former.
I nodded. “We either find the exit or the center eventually, right?”
“That would be a theory.”
“Or they find our bones in here many years from now.”
His dark blue eyes took on a glint of steel. “My father would only allow you to be lost for a day at the most. Far too soon for you to turn to bones.”
My skin still tingling at his malefic presence, I stared at him as he walked toward me, his words said with such gravity I wasn’t sure if it was an observation or a threat of some sort.
I started walking and he fell into step beside me. My left shoulder brushed against the evergreen hedge and I stiffened. There was just barely room for the two of us on this path without bumping into each other. Though I’d rather the branches scratch at my clothes than our arms rubbing, for I could feel the animosity rolling off of him.
He cleared his throat, not looking at me. “Years ago, you left my father, left Netherstone in quite a state of disrepair.”
