Page 76 of Autumn Secrets
“How do you control people’s minds, if you don’t mind me asking?”
It surprised me how willing he was to provide me with answers, but as long as he kept talking, I had more time to think about how to get out of this mess.
“Well, like Evangeline, I need to have something that connects me to the person. I, however, don’t need physical contact; I just need a belonging of value.”
“What do you have that belongs to me?”
Luca chuckled. “Well, I’ll leave that to you to figure out. You might want to have a look through your room though, just to see if anything is missing.”
That’s when another piece of this crazy puzzle fell into place. “The night when Lexi and her family came over, ages ago. I thought I’d left the window open. You were in my room…”
“Not me personally, but yes, someone was definitely in your room. Only a quick visit though, since you and Lexi interrupted.”
“You let someone else do the dirty work, how nice of you.”
I hated the idea that someone had been in my room, going through my personal belongings.
“Well, I really didn’t have a choice,” he said more to himself than me.
That’s when I remembered Mum’s words:Aurora, this house is our safe haven. Darkness can’t come in here unless it is invited. The whole manor has a ward around it.
I stared at him. “You couldn’t get in, so you had to let someone else do it for you, and I’m going to take a wild guess and say that you had to manipulate some innocent’s mind to get it done.”
Luca gave me a quick look. “I’m done answering questions.”
I turned my gaze out the window again, just to get an idea of where we were going. I needed to stay focused on what direction we were heading, but most of all, I needed to get out of this car right now. Just as the thought crossed my mind, I heard Luca curse under his breath.
“Shit. Looks like we have company.”
I turned around and saw headlights closing in behind us. Had someone seen me get into Luca’s car? But why would they follow us? No one really knew who Luca was. He was simply a hot guy from school. If people had seen us leave, there was no way anyone would think I was in any danger. All of a sudden, Luca put his foot on the brake, and we came to an abrupt stop on the side of the road. Luckily, I was wearing my seatbelt, or I was pretty sure I would have flown out the front windshield. Suddenly the passenger door opened.
“Aurora, what’s going on?”
Adrian.I quickly pulled my seatbelt off, jumped out of the car and wrapped my arms around his neck. In that moment, I didn’t care what Luca had said about him and Evangeline. Considering what was happening right now, I didn’t exactly have much faith in Luca’s words.
“Adrian, thank you. We need to leave. I can’t explain everything to you right now, but we need to go. Now,” I whispered urgently in his ear.
He shut the passenger door behind me with his foot, then looked down at me.
“Are you all right?”
I shook my head. “There’s no—”
Luca’s car engine roared back to life. He took off, leaving a trail of fumes behind him as he drove further and further away. Adrian looked at me.
“Why were you with Luca?”
I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to gain some warmth. I had left my jacket behind at the party. “It’s not what you think. I’ll explain later. Can we please just go?”
He nodded and we walked in silence to his car. I jumped into the passenger seat and Adrian started the engine to take us back towards Angel Falls again. I pulled my phone out from my bag to call Mum, but my battery had gone flat during the evening.
“Sorry, could I borrow your phone? I really need to get in touch with my mum.”
“I didn’t bring my phone tonight. I left it at home. Do you want to go to my place? It’s closer, and you can call your mum from there?”
He was right: his house wasn’t far from here from what I could remember. “Okay, thanks.”
“Do you want to tell me what’s going on?”