Page 12 of Tear of Destiny
“I remember where I saw the name Two Trees. On her display wall.” Nothing can stop me now. I don’t want to waste any time. I turn to Kate. “Do you want to come with me?” I have no qualms about taking her to the room.
I briefly think of Ayden. I wanted to show him the room too. I didn’t want him to think I was keeping anything from him. It hurts to think about that, and I quickly try to push aside the memory. What’s important now is what I’ll find in the room.
Kate nods, and together we head to my room. There, I take out the crate of paintings from under my bed and line them up side by side. As soon as I’ve done that, the footprints begin to move across them. The hidden eyes glow, and as soon as the footprints reach the house in the last painting, it transforms. The front opens out, and the furniture shifts. I quickly grab Kate’s hand, and we’re sucked into the painting.
We land hard on the dusty wooden floor. Kate is still looking around disconcertedly as I hurry to the display wall and scan the articles and memos.
“Wow, this is amazing,” I hear Kate say as she slowly comes to join me.
“It must be here somewhere,” I mutter to myself. “I know I read the name here.”
Kate helps with the search, inspecting the pictures and associated texts, and finally my eyes stop on a newspaper article.
“Here,” I say, pointing at it. It’s the piece with two holes in it, as if it’s been removed from the wall and pinned back up. “Maybe Charles read it,” I suggest as Kate skim reads the article.
“A retirement home that received some funding.” She looks at me doubtfully. “What’s the significance of that?”
“I have no idea,” I reply, “but we’re going to find out.” We need to go there. Maybe we’ll find some answers in that place.
At lunch the next day, Kate and I agree that it’s pointless to visit the retirement home after school without a plan. It’s unlikely that they’d simply let two students wander around and check the place out. So Kate wants to call them first and make an appointment. We agree to meet again in the evening and discuss what to do next.
After training, I go back to my room. I keep an eye out for Ayden in the corridors. I can’t express in words how much it hurts being separated from him and not being able to talk to him. Even getting my head around the idea that we’re no longer together is really hard. I keep picturing the expression on his face when he showed up in that alley and found me with Noah. His disappointment, anger, hurt. I want to explain it all to him, and I desperately hope there’s still a chance for us. I’d do anything for that.
Ayden’s currently avoiding me. I’ve barely seen him in the last few days. Either he’s not in class, or he leaves so quickly that I can’t catch up to him. And I’ve waited for him in the corridor outside our rooms in the evenings, but I haven’t run into him there either. So I don’t hold out much hope this time as I traipse up and down the corridor.
I don’t even look up when I hear footsteps because I don’t want to be disappointed again. When they stop abruptly, I look up and see Ayden several yards away, looking at me. I can’t quite interpret his expression at this distance, but I suspect the old familiar coldness and anger. I swallow hard and slowly approach him.
“Ayden,” I say softly. I begin to reach out to him, then I let my hand drop.
He looks at me, and now I can see his eyes clearly. I almost wish I didn’t look, because the expression in them crushes my heart and makes it clear that everything between us is different now.
He tries to walk past me, reluctant to waste a single word on me, but I won’t give up that easily.
“We need to talk, please. Don’t you figure we at least owe ourselves that after everything we’ve been through?”
He stops abruptly, turns to face me, and says in a voice that sounds totally foreign to me, “I don’t know what else there is to say. Some actions speak louder than words.”
“Like when I saw Max in your room and jumped to the wrong conclusion?”
He sighs deeply, and I can see how reluctant he is to have this conversation with me. That hurts more than I could have imagined.
“Please, it’s not what you think,” I venture. What a clichéd thing to say, but it’s true.
“Oh yeah?” He finally turns to me, folds his arms, and glares at me. “So you didn’t just run off instead of trusting me and giving me a chance to explain? And you weren’t with that Noctu the whole time I was searching everywhere for you, going out of my mind with worry? And you kissing him? I really don’t see any point in talking about that.”
I feel the tears welling up. All I want is for everything to go back to how it was before. I yearn for him, his arms, his voice. But thelonger I stand here, the clearer it becomes that our relationship will likely never be the same as it was two weeks ago.
He looks at me and waits for an answer. But my mind is in total chaos. I know I have to say something, but I don’t want to make it worse, and I have to choose my words carefully. Ayden eventually nods and goes to his door. He already has his hand on the doorknob when it bursts out of me.
“It wasn’t like that! I know I should have trusted you, but at that moment, it was just all too much. I couldn’t think clearly, and then there was this voice, this feeling inside me. And I gave in to it.”
Very slowly, Ayden lets his hand drop and turns to look at me questioningly. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
I take a tentative step toward him. “I was about to transform. Yoru and I were surrounded by fire. The flames were pouring out of me; they completely enveloped me, and there was this dark smoke.”
I see Ayden’s eyes widen, and a look of horror spreads across his face – and something else: deep concern and fear for me. With a couple of quick strides, he comes to me and puts his arms around me without the slightest hesitation and pulls me in close. There it is again, this incredible feeling that I always have whenever I’m near him. I nestle against him and can’t believe that I’m back in his arms after everything that’s happened.
“Tess, I’m so sorry you had to go through that. If I’d known, I would have been scared out my mind. I’m so incredibly glad you’re okay.”