“Come out!” I call, the sound echoing all around us.

He’s not Eli. Not Eli.

He can’t drown when he’s such a good swimmer.

“After one more!” he calls back then takes a dive.

Ten seconds pass.

Twenty.

Thirty.

Oh. God.

He’s not resurfacing.

I jump on shaky feet, the jacket falling to the ground.

“A-Aiden?” I slowly approach the edge of the deck, my heart thundering against my ribcage.

“This isn’t funny, Aiden!”

No answer.

Oh, God. No.

Oh, please. Not Aiden, too.

Please. Please.

“Aiden!” I shriek. “Stop playing around!”

He’s not coming out. He’s drowning. Like Eli.

Just like Eli.

No.

I kick off my shoes. My movements are frantic at best, but I don’t stop.

I won’t let him die.

Not Aiden, too.

I don’t care if I die in my quest to find him. Lake water and my phobias be damned.

A hand grips my ankle.

I shriek.

Aiden’s wet face resurfaces as he uses the deck to jump beside me.

I watch him closely, my eyes filling with tears. “Y-You’re here.”

He comes closer, his chest glistening with water and his hair sticks to the side of his face. “What’s wrong —”

I wrap my arms around his waist and hide my face in his chest. “I lost my brother that way! Eli drowned that way!”

“I didn’t know that. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

A sob tears from my throat. “Don’t ever do that again! I thought you were dying. What am I supposed to do if you die?”

His wet fingers stroke my hair and he tugs me closer to him. “That means you’ll be free of me and I don’t like that idea, sweetheart.”

I snort in his chest, breathing him in. “You’re incurable.”

“For you?” He kisses the top of my head. “Always, sweetheart.”

I pull back to look at him.

He’s watching me with a strange gleam. It’s like affection mixed with obsession.

I knew Aiden has been obsessed with me for a while, but now I realise just how much I’m obsessed with him, too.

There’s no way in hell I’ll let him be free of me. Since the moment I saw him in the basement, I always had this feeling that he’s mine.

Only mine.

I reach a hand to stroke his hair back. “Are you going to hurt me, Aiden?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?” I choke.

Aiden takes my palm in his and flattens it against his heart. “I already made my choice, Elsa. I chose you. Now, it’s your turn.” He lifts my hand to his face and kisses my knuckles. “Be with me, not against me. Choose me.”

Oh, shit.

I think I’m going to faint.

“You chose me?”

He nods once.

“I meant it last night.” I take a deep breath, the words burning in my throat. “I love you.”

He places a finger in front of my mouth. “Don’t.”

My brows draw together in questioning as I remove his finger. “Don’t what?”

“Don’t say things you don’t mean.”

“I know my feelings well, thank you very much,” I snap.

The dickhead manages to piss me off even when I’m confessing my feelings to him.

“Maybe you don’t.”

“I didn’t ask you to say it in return, but you don’t get to tell me how I feel, arsehole.”

I shove my feet in the shoes, pick up my — his — jacket, and storm in the direction of the house.

I’m so fuming that it takes me some time to find my way through the trees.

Okay. Maybe I was lost. So what?

Aiden catches up to me, his trousers are barely done and his hair is a wet mess. The jacket is open and his shirt is barely buttoned.

He points in the opposite direction. “The house is that way.”

“I know that,” I snap.

He smirks in that infuriating way. “Sure thing, sweetheart.”

I start to push past him, but he grips me by the hips, his fingers teasing.

“Let me go. I’m pissed off at you right now.”

He nuzzles his nose in my cheek. “I told you, we can be mad at each other while I touch you.”

I melt in the way he drags his nose down my throat. My body ignites to life.

“Why do you not want me to love you?” I whisper.

“Loving me is a one-way road, sweetheart. You can never go back. You can never fall out of love or any of that shit. It’s permanent and it’s for life.”

For some reason, those words don’t scare me as they should. It’s almost as if I want all that with him.

“Promise you won’t go back,” he wraps his hand around my neck, stroking my pulse point.

“I promise.”

He presses his lips to mine.

His kiss tastes of sweet, bitter surrender, of pain, and of desperation.

I want all of that. As long as he offers it, I’ll take it.

Loving Aiden didn’t start now. It started at that moment I found him in the basement.

It was put on pause for eight years and resumed when I first saw him at RES. He gripped me from first sight.

Although I hated him during the past two years, I was always aware of him. Of his dark gaze.

Of his silent madness.

It was only at the beginning of this year that the awareness morphed into something more.

The first droplets of rain hit my nose.

I step back, giggling. “Let’s go back.”

“I’m good right here.” He starts to kiss me again.

I stop him with a hand to his chest. “I’ll let you do anything you want inside.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Anything?”

I nod.

“You shouldn’t give me the anything option. Now, you’re well and truly fucked, sweetheart.”

Maybe that’s exactly why I told him he can do anything.

A burst of excitement shoots through me at the thought of what he’ll do.

I take his hand in mine and we run to the house. We go through the back entrance, laughing.

In fact, I’m the only one laughing. Aiden watches me with that intensity.

That intensity used to suffocate me, but right now? Right now, it warms my heart and makes me all fuzzy inside.

Aiden lunges at me when a rustle comes from the lounge area.

Both our attentions turn towards the sound.

Aiden and I freeze at the sight of the two people sitting on the sofa.

Jonathan and Silver.

Jonathan smiles at us, but it’s downright cruel.

“Nice of you to join us. Sit down. We have news to share.”

40

Elsa

Jonathan and Silver are here.

I stand rooted in place, trying to wrap my head around that piece of information.

Jonathan takes the chair at the top of the room like a king in his court.

Silver sits diagonally from him, looking as if she’s about to throw up. Her skin is pale as she clutches her phone with stiff fingers.

The urge to turn around and get out of this place overwhelms me.