Chapter 38

Your Highness?

Aiden froze mid-step. Darren Howe was the Valrais heir? Sara's brother, the boy from that painful memory he wished he could forget.

"Howe?" Aiden said, his fingers coiling around Darren's forearm before he'd even realized he'd done it. "What is going on?"

The world closed in on him as he turned everything he'd learned over in his head. Then he frowned, because it clicked. Fell right into place if he considered that Darren Howe was the heir and not just a knight looking for him.

His initial suspicion had been correct; he should've examined it more no matter how tired he'd been.It made so much sense. It explained so many things, giving Aiden the entire picture now. The proceedings, Darren's arrangement in prison, the fact that Marcus had kept him mentally unscathed. Darren was the key to all of it. He didn't simply know how to locate Sara's hideout; Marcus needed him to get his hands on the Valrais Legacy, whatever it was.

Aiden had known Sir Barnaby Albus II was a codename, so why hadn't he pieced it together earlier? White Raven was a codename too, and while he'd assumed it referred to another person, it didn't have to. He'd had so much on his plate, true—he was barely functioning—but in retrospect, there really wasn't anyone else who could be the heir. Sara's roundabout explanations had just confused him, but that had been the point. A way to protect the heir's identity if the hideout was ever found. That was why she didn't know who Darren Howe was. That was why there were two aliases.

Still, Darren hadn't corrected Aiden when he'd brought it up. He could have cleared up the confusion but had chosen not to do it.

"When were you going to tell me?" Aiden demanded, a sense of disappointment washing over him. He wasn't really sure where it came from or why, yet it did, along with a feeling of being betrayed somehow, of being wronged even if it should've made no difference to him whether or not Darren Howe had been honest.

Darren's face closed up, his eyes straying from Aiden's. "I tried to when you came back from the hideout, but you wouldn't listen. We haven't exactly had much of an opportunity to sit down and talk since then," he shot back, shaking Aiden off. "With Marcus and everything else, it wasn't a priority, so I decided it could wait."

Sure. They'd had a lot bigger problems to worry about since Aiden's return from Mars, yet some of the bitterness he was feeling remained.

"Bea, where are we headed?" Darren asked when Aiden couldn't come up with anything to say.

"The Moon. We'll pick up some supplies, then head back to the belt. I've got a hiding spot in mind."

Darren rubbed the place on his arm that Aiden had been gripping. "Those supplies include a decent engineer?"

Bea grinned. "No. Only one of the best." She held up her tablet, the file of a dark-haired man loaded on it. "Kristen Tiverich. I recruited him half a year ago while your ass was enjoying prison."

"And you trust him?"

"Who do you think helped me get this baby up and running?" She knocked on the light gray wall. "ETA is twenty-eight hours since we'll be taking a less direct route. The GN's already got a shitton of checkpoints up."

Darren chuckled, though it sounded a little forced. "I'm sure there are plenty of hiding spots, even if we were to get boarded."

Bea rolled her eyes. "Yes, but it's a pain in the ass having to fake credentials and ship data every time that happens. And knowing your luck, they are going to stop us at everysingle checkpoint."

"Ah, I could probably help with that credentials issue," Nyle volunteered, raising a hand as he rocked back and forth on his heels.

"Who says I'll let you anywhere near the ship's systems?" Bea challenged, planting her hands on her hips.

"I'm already in." He waved his tablet at her, batting those long blond eyelashes. "Would be easier if you gave me access though, so I don't have to tiptoe around your security. Also, I could really use a shower and a bed."

Darren shoved his hands in his pockets. "Bea, show them both to the crew quarters. I'll meet you on the bridge."

"Roger," she mock-saluted as Darren marched off. "Alright, you two. Let's get you settled in."

Bea took Aiden and Nyle to the lower deck, showing them each to a room. There were five in total, with hers being nearest to the elevator and the other four lined two by two further down the hall. Nyle was given the first one on the left side and Aiden the last one on the right.

"What about Darren's room?" Nyle asked as he let the bioscanner at his door record his face. "Which one is his?"

"His quarters are separate." Bea cocked her head toward the bottom of the corridor. "They are on the other side of this wall, but that section can only be accessed via the cockpit elevator."

The bioscanner dinged and Nyle faced them again. "Good to know. And about that ship access…?"

"I'll talk to Darren about it first. Don't do anything funny in the meantime."

Nyle sighed, but it didn't sound like it was in defeat. "Fine, fine. Can I at least have the network ID? I was gonna catch up on some series."

With a snort, Bea keyed in the passcode on Nyle's tablet, then gave him a not-so-gentle push. When the door closed behind him, she turned to Aiden. "Kesley, you want it too?" she asked, holding her hand out expectantly.

"Yes, that wou—" He found his pocket empty, realizing he didn't have anything to connect to it. "No. I don't need it right now, thank you."

"Suit yourself." She shrugged and waved him off, disappearing up the stairs on the elevator's right.

Aiden remained in the corridor, staring after her for a while before he entered his quarters. They stood empty and barren… just like him. Because he didn't have anything, period. Not even the clothes he was wearing were his. He'd left his whole life behind and he held no illusions that he could ever get it back.

Did he even want to?If he could go back to when he hadn't known the truth, would he make different choices? Would he take Marcus' words to heart and let Claudia rest in peace?

He knew the answer deep in his bones. Even if he got a second chance, he would've gotten here one way or another, driven by that incessant need for answers and revenge.

Aiden slumped to the floor, leaning his back against the door and burying his face in his palms.

Darren Howewasthe Valrais heir. He was Sara's younger brother.

He'd been there when Sara was murdered. When his whole family was murdered. How old had Darren even been then? Seven? Eight? A mere child. To witness something like that, survive it and then spend the next twenty years on the run, hiding his true identity and always looking over his shoulder… Aiden couldn't imagine it, couldn't bear to think about the kind of life Darren Howe must've had. How different it must have been from his own, where his biggest worry had been impressing Claudia's parents.

Claudia. This was the other thing breaking Aiden's heart. Because she must've known how bloody her father's hands were if she'd been trying to locate Darren Howe. Yet she'd not told Aiden about it and now… he would never have the chance to confront her about it, to ask why. Aiden's chest felt too tight. Claudia being Claudia, he was sure she'd have gotten to Darren eventually on her own. Only the cornered animal had struck first, tired of being hunted.

Aiden let his arms droop to his sides and stared at the white ceiling above the empty bunk. The reasons were different, the timelines too, but both he and Claudia had been chasing the same man. A prince with no kingdom to rule, an orphan who'd survived a tragedy no child should be subjected to. A man who carried as much darkness as Aiden. It was soaked into his skin, into his being, deep and all-consuming and so obvious now, peering out of his disarming eyes graced with a color so unique Aiden could never mistake them.

Aiden let out a deep sigh, but it released none of the tension from his body. The pressure, the anxiety. The man he wanted to kill had saved his life from a man he'd thought of as a father. Aiden had picked Darren's side, the Valrais side, and there was no going back. His life as he knew it was over. Perhaps had been, despite his plan, since the moment he'd caught that unforgettable gaze following him around the classroom. The first moment he'd let it hijack his thoughts was when it had started, the gradual end to his life rather than the abruptness one might expect. And by the time he'd uncovered the truth, it had already been too late to turn back.

Head pounding, Aiden just sat on the floor for a while, his thoughts a jumble of what-ifs, regrets and self-blame. He should've never entertained Darren Howe's little treasure hunt request. He should never have approached the man to begin with. He should have done what Marcus had been telling him to do from the very start.

He should've let Claudia rest in peace.

But should have didn't mean he could have done things any differently, he'd been over this so many times in the last two days. His obsession controlled him and not the other way around, mapping the direction he would take. It was always a step ahead of him, always unreachable, and now that he'd arrived at his destination, it was just… there. Not gone, but also not guiding him forward anymore.

Aiden groaned and got to his feet. He found a towel in the walled-in wardrobe to the side of the small bed and a shower kit inside the narrow bathroom. Once he'd stayed under the water long enough so it turned unpleasantly lukewarm, he brushed his teeth, put on the clothes that didn't belong to him and lay on the bed. The sheets smelled like the soap he'd used—citrus—and it relaxed him, as did the softness around him. He even drifted off, almost fell asleep as his mind slowed down and gave into exhaustion for a moment.

But the reprieve didn't last. Now that his life wasn't in immediate danger anymore and his body wasn't pumped full of adrenaline, he could finally slow down. Uncoil. It was a natural reaction more so than a conscious choice, and he couldn't stop it. The fight-or-flight instinct that had kept him going for the past days was no longer in command of him, giving way to higher functions that invited in the things he'd been able to keep at bay, at least mostly.

Those intruding thoughts he'd just barely fought off earlier, the regrets and the betrayals and the truths, flooded Aiden with renewed ruthlessness, turning the quietness around him into a savage beast that roared in his ears and made it unbearable to stay even another minute in the confining space of his quarters.

The reality of Aiden's new life came crashing into him, merciless and overwhelming. He was in an unknown place, surrounded by people he didn't know. He was alone just like how he'd been so far, but this time he had no control over it. He had no mission, no purpose other than to stay alive, making this an unfamiliar kind of alone, another unknown which was all-encompassing and terrifying as it wrapped its long fingers around his neck and squeezed tight.

Aiden didn't know what to address first or where to start when his mind was whirling with anything and everything at once, trying to sort out how much of his past and present were lies and how much truth. Why was he here? Who was he? Why had he let Darren live? Why hadn't Claudia told him anything? Chaos lived in his head, driving him mad.

A sense of helplessness overtook Aiden as panic clutched his chest. He heaved, fisting the sheets. It was too much. This, everything. And he didn't even have his meds to help him through it, to knock him out and halt the impending breakdown. It was all Darren's fault. He'd ruined Aiden's life and now he dictated Aiden's future. Darren, who Aiden should've killed but instead couldn't stop thinking about. Darren who was a convicted murderer and yet could make Aiden crave with intensity he could barely stomach.

Anger gnawed at his chest, sending out pulses across his body. He couldn't force the burning need to explode down, and so he simply gave up trying, giving into that instinctual urge to find the source for the darkness in him and hurt it. To make it pay, to torture it. It spurred him into action, made him go straight after Darren so he could unleash that bloodthirsty beast and let it rampage until it had its fill.

In a haze, Aiden made it to the upper level, then followed the corridor in the direction Darren had gone. It circled around a glassed-off command room with an interactive 3D holomap in the middle, then converged into the bridge. Consoles and screens lined the broad aisle and at its end, Bea lounged sideways in the pilot's seat with her phone in hand.

Lifting her eyes from the noisy game she was playing, she regarded Aiden with a disinterested tip of her chin. "Need something, Kesley?"

"Is Howe in his room?"

"Yeah. Elevator's behind me, to the left. Next to the weapons' manual controls," she said, her attention back to her game.

Aiden walked by her and took the elevator to the floor below, where he found himself in a similar gray corridor like the one on the other side, though this one had only two rooms. One was glassed-off and looked like an office space or a private conference room, while the second one had to be Darren's quarters.

He approached that one and burst in without knocking.