I looked down at the infinity symbol, confused. One thing I did know was that I got the same nagging feeling of panic I’d seen on Darius and Lycus’s faces. That he shouldn’t be alone… that he was a danger to himself.
Moving toward the door, I was shocked to find it unlocked. Darius must not have checked the main entrance or forgotten about it in his hurry. I peeked out into the hall and saw no one. Darius said to remain in my room, yet I found my feet moving on their own as I wandered around. Coming to the stairs, I stopped when I heard Tobias’s frantic voice. Lycus and Darius were arguing over where Kalen would go.
“He is not in the usual places,” Lycus said.
“Can either of you feel him?” Tobias asked. I glimpsed over the banister. I was on the third floor, and they were on the ground floor.
“What happened? What did you do to set him off this time, Darius?” Tobias said, gripping Darius’s shirt.
“What do you think he did? He probably did something to Aleera. You know how he gets when it has anything to do with her,” Lycus snapped.
“Fighting with me is not helping to find him. I did nothing. I only asked if he took his medication because I could tell he hadn’t.”
“Shit!” Tobias cursed.
“What is it?” Darius demanded, and I looked over to see Tobias clutch his head.
“I told him if he took them, I would let him see her tonight.”
“You what?”
“She won’t hurt him, Darius. I think she even likes him.”
“If she liked him, she wouldn’t have run the first chance she got,” Lycus scoffed.
“I don’t know, but she is different around him…”
“How so? I swear if she has done something, I will fucking end her,” Darius snarled.
“No, not that. Like she can sense the shadows on him. I can’t explain it, but she is different when it comes to him,” Tobias argued back. “Maybe?”
“No!” Both Lycus and Darius bellowed at the same time. I turned away, having heard enough. I wasn’t sure what was going on with Kalen, but I needed to find him, the bond pulling me toward him and urging me to get to him.
I had no idea where I was going, but I seemed to have wandered into an almost empty part of the castle. This side was cold, and the draft told me it had been closed for a long time. Dust clung to the walls and the sparse furnishings. Pushing the door open, I slipped inside.
The cold draft washed over me and sent a chill up my spine. This place looked untouched, and I wondered how long I had wandered before coming to this blocked-off part of the castle. It was eerily silent over here, and it gave me the creeps. Walking down the large hall, I looked at the high ceilings and the chandeliers covered in cobwebs. This place looked like it was out of some medieval movie. Like I stepped back in time to a different world. I ran my fingertips over the hallstand before brushing the dust off.
Even without magic, I could tell this place had been abandoned and forgotten for a reason. Something terrible must have happened within this part of the castle. Moving further down the hall, I stopped in front of a massive portrait of a man. He had a startling resemblance to Darius before my eyes fell on the teenage boy at his side. Reaching up, I swiped the dust off his face, and it was indeed Darius. The man had his hand on his shoulder, and Darius appeared to be about thirteen or fourteen. Both were dressed in a suit, and he shared his father’s features, the same cold eyes and expressionless face.
Giving it one last look, I let the bond pull me to another corridor lined with doors, yet I never got the urge to enter any of them as I passed them. Instead, my feet took me to the end, to a large door with a silver knob.
Chapter 23
Itwisted it, having topush my weight against it as I shoved it open. I coughed and choked on the dust, and the draft here was so much colder. Ice cold, and it made me shiver. Stone steps led up. Climbing them, I stopped halfway up the spiraling stone steps in front of a stained glass window.
I peered out and saw the back of the castle lands, but that wasn’t all I noticed. It was a road. I was high enough to see over the forest, and I could just make out a road snaked between the forest as a car drove along the narrow-looking path.
That could be my escape, yet I wondered how it led into the castle grounds or if it did. Ascending further up the steps, I found myself in a round room. The pointed ceiling told me I had found my way to one of the castle towers. By the time I got to the top, I was covered in cobwebs and dust.
The wooden floorboards creaked as I stepped inside. Boxes covered nearly all of the floor when I noticed a figure that looked out of place among the boxes. Kalen lay on the floor, his cheek pressed against the floorboards. He was murmuring to himself in a language I hadn’t heard before, or maybe it didn’t exist because his words made no sense to me.
“Kalen?” I murmured, but he didn’t move, and the feeling I got from him was cold and numb, shadowed with darkness.
I called out his name a couple of times before giving up and lying on the ground beside him; I lay on my side facing him. His eyes were closed, and his lips moved as he spoke to himself in a barely audible whisper. I reached out and brushed his cheek gently with my hand. His eyes flew open, going to mine. I didn’t think he had heard me calling his name or felt my presence. He seemed to be in some trance-like state before I touched him, or maybe he still was; I was unsure.
He grabbed my hand on his cheek, kissing my palm, and he looked so vulnerable, desperate as he clutched my hand. My hand cracked in his tight grip, but I just gritted my teeth through it instead of jerking it away.
“You’re here. Are you really here?” he whispered, kissing my wrist and hugging my arm and hand to his chest. “You feel real. I can even smell your scent.”