Episode 25
At the Shadow Mercenaries’ workshop, Lindsay yawned wide. Aiden, who could see her throat up close, hated it.
“Cover your mouth when you yawn!”
“If you don’t want to see it, then let me go.”
If you’re staring that hard, of course, you’ll see stuff. Do I need to be polite to my captor?
Lindsay propped her chin on the armrest of the torture chair, totally chill. Her cloak had been taken off ages ago, and her black hair spilled over her tense shoulders.
Aiden looked at her tilted face and bit his teeth to calm his pounding heart.
His job had been simple: keep this woman tied up until Orca examined the medicine and confirmed Aria’s condition improved. Easy, he thought — but he was wrong.
The instant he pulled off her cloak and called her name, his trained heart started racing wildly. His plan to intimidate and keep watch couldn’t even get off the ground. He fought not to get swept up in this flood of feelings he’d never felt before.
He held his forehead and asked,
“Is that… your real face?”
“What kind of question is that? Didn’t you finish your investigation?”
The thing that surprised Lindsay most wasn’t the cuffs or being dragged into the workshop — it was when Aiden called her by name as he pulled her cloak off. She hadn’t expected to be recognized so quickly. Had Michael had her followed?
“Right… what am I saying… with the mana cuff on, your magic should be sealed…”
“What are you babbling about? More importantly, what time is it?”
“You think I’d tell you?”
Nope, not falling for that.
Lindsay watched Aiden’s serious face and licked her lips. It felt like she’d been detained for three hours, though she couldn’t be sure.
She’d come willingly for a productive talk about the future — and hadn’t even caught a glimpse of Michael. This place had become pointless. Time to go home.
“If anything happens, come to the shop—”
She was about to get up when voices came from outside the door. Familiar voices. Snatches of words.
“…is this…right…?”
“n…secret…for…Lord…”
Lindsay sat back down. Even without witchy instincts, the louder the voices grew, the clearer she realized: they were headed this way.
She wasn’t the only one reacting. Aiden’s face twisted, and he exploded with rage.
“That crazy bastard!”
He barreled toward the door like a bull. Before he grabbed the handle, he turned to warn Lindsay.
“Stay put. You won’t be escaping anyway.”
From the closed door, his face looked pale as ice. Voices were getting louder beyond the wall.
“…Are you out of your mind? Where are you coming from?!”
“Miss…you’re…you alone can…keep the secret.”
“Ei…Orca said I—”
“Get out of here!”
Lindsay listened closely, then ripped the mana cuff off with her other hand. The dull metal crumbled like a cookie under her power.
As soon as mana flowed through her, she cast protective magic first. Several layers of pale green shields flickered over her and vanished.
The argument outside faded like someone turning down a radio, then went completely quiet.
Lindsay rose from the chair and brushed off her skirt. The chair had a sticky residue from whoever used it before; when she wiped her hands on the brown skirt, the feeling of grossness didn’t go away. She grimaced and walked to the door.
As she reached for the handle, it swung open on its own. She’d heard voices recede, so they must’ve come back already?
Suspicious, Lindsay readied a spell to knock out whoever walked in. But when she saw a shock of red hair through the doorway, she let her gathered power fall.
It was Aria — pale cheeks, hollowed eyes, chapped white lips. The same Aria she’d seen hours earlier.
Lindsay couldn’t hide how stunned she was. What are you doing here?
“Miss, where do you think you’re going?”
“Huh? I came to rescue you. Orca’s handling Aiden, so come with me!”
“Rescue me…miss!”
Aria grabbed Lindsay’s wrist with a dry, thin hand. The sudden tug made Lindsay stumble. That twig-like grip somehow had real strength.
Lindsay couldn’t shake the frail Aria off. She was pulled along awkwardly and protested,
“I’ll walk out myself! I was planning to leave anyway.”
“I’ll get you out for sure. I always get chills when I come here.”
Look at you — chills are the best-case scenario.
Lindsay bit back her comment and twisted her wrist to loosen Aria’s grip. There was a soft crack, and the tightness eased.
They walked down the long underground corridor together. Lindsay asked,
“How’d you get here? I didn’t think that man would let you come.”
There was something else strange: Aria acted like she knew this place. Lindsay mentally flipped through the book she’d read before — when Michael revealed the family’s secrets, Aria comforted him… but there was no mention of Aria ever having been in the basement before.
Of course, a noble girl wouldn’t know the family’s dirty secrets — that was just a weird assumption. So how did Aria know the basement?
“Michael doesn’t know I’m here. I was meeting my father alone,” Aria said, all innocent. That answer felt off to Lindsay, who sensed something wrong.
“You seem…familiar with this place.”
“I heard things from Orca I hadn’t heard elsewhere. Oh! If it’s okay to ask, what is the mage’s name? I don’t even know the name of the person who helped me.”
“The person who helped you? What if the medicine I gave you was poison?” Lindsay said.
Even the idea that the cure might be poison made Aria smile faintly.
“I grew up being told I had a knack for knowing things about people.”
“A knack?”
“Yes. My father said weak people trigger…something like maternal instincts. So please tell me your name, so I’ll remember my benefactor.”
Sharp as a needle. Like a kitten winding around your ankle and rubbing up against you — Lindsay groaned a little.
“—Lindsay Monahan. Call me Lindsay, miss.”
“Lindsay…! We’ve only met a day and now you tell me your full name… I’m moved. Call me Aria, please.”
“If a commoner calls a noble by her first name, they get thrown in jail.”
“You didn’t even show Michael respect, so I think you’ll call me that.”
That’s because this is shady business on the surface, Lindsay thought.
“Ah! That room has an exit.” Aria piped up, changing the subject — and Lindsay let it slide.
They walked to the room Aria pointed to. It looked like any of the basement’s little rooms. Lindsay grabbed the rusty handle and carefully shoved the awkward Aria aside, then turned it. The rusty handle scraped, and the door opened.
This little room was cold; unlike the parlor or the torture space, it was only big enough for a grown man to lie down.
Aria felt the walls and found a slightly recessed stone. She pushed it. The block moved easily under her strength.
Click, click, click — a chain of mechanisms started. Bricks on the opposite wall shifted, and a stairway extended upward.
“If you go up those stairs, you’ll get to Nopen almshouse’s empty storage. Exit through there — go past the red tower on the other side, and you’ll find the way out. The almshouse is used by outsiders a lot, so nobody will look twice.”
“You’ll be the one in trouble if I run off,” Lindsay said, staring straight at Aria.
Lindsay knew Michael wouldn’t harm or hate Aria over this — but that’s because Lindsay had read the novel. Aria didn’t have that knowledge. Why would someone risk getting hated by a guy who’s pining for her?
“Even if I get in trouble, I don’t want Michael to commit crimes for my sake,” Aria said, folding her eyelids into a gentle smile. Her blue eyes were bright and deep, like sky and sea.
Just as Lindsay opened her mouth to say thanks, urgent footsteps approached outside the door.
