Chapter 16 16
Alpha Aeson.
The Shadow Alpha.
It was him. It was really, truly him. The confirmation wasn’t just in Mandy’s stories or the photo. It was in the sheer, immovable solidity of him, in the way the very air in the grand foyer seemed to bow under his presence. I was still off-balance, both physically and mentally, my back pressed against that wall of a chest, his hand a brand on my waist. Before I could even try to regain my footing or push away, the sound of frantic footsteps came from upstairs.
Mandy rushed out onto the landing. “What happened? I heard a cr—” She trailed off, freezing mid-sentence as she looked down at us from the middle of the staircase.
Her eyes dropped to the shattered glass glittering on the marble like a field of dangerous ice, then flew back to the sight of her terrifying uncle holding her good friend. Smart girl. She understood the disaster in an instant.
She walked down the rest of the steps slowly, her face a mask of concern. “Are you okay?” she asked, her voice smaller than usual.
That broke the spell. I made a sharp, twisting motion, and his hand fell away from my waist instantly, as if he’d never been touching me. I stumbled a step forward, putting space between us, and looked at Mandy.
“Be careful,” I told her, my voice thankfully steady as I stretched a hand out toward her. “There are shards of glass everywhere.”
“Oh.” She looked down and carefully picked her way around the sparkling mess, stopping a safe distance from both of us. It seemed to be only then, up close, that she fully processed who was standing there.
Her face was almost drained of color. “Uncle.”
He just glanced at her, a flicker of acknowledgment, then lifted his voice. It wasn’t loud. It didn’t need to be. It was a smooth, hard baritone, each word precisely cut and dropped into the silence. “Jia.”
The maid appeared from a side hallway so quickly she must have been waiting just out of sight. She bowed her head deeply toward him, not making eye contact.
“Clean this up,” he said, with the calm certainty of someone who has never had to ask for anything twice.
Jia bowed again and scurried off, returning a moment later with a broom and dustpan.
Then he looked at Mandy. His gaze wasn’t furious, but it held a weight that made her flinch as if he’d shouted. It was the kind of look that propelled you to confess your sins before a question was even asked.
She immediately avoided his eyes, turning to me instead, her question almost a whisper.
“Hey, how did this happen?”
I almost stuttered. My mind was a blank. “I was…” I looked at him—a mistake, because those hazel eyes were already on me, watching, waiting—and then back at Mandy. “I got scared. It was because of a flying creature at the window, and it just… I’m sorry about this.” I gestured lamely at the mess Jia was efficiently sweeping away.
Mandy just gave me a strained, understanding smile. I stole another glance at him. He wasn’t looking at the mess. He was staring right at me, his expression unreadable, as if he were memorizing the pattern of my panic.
“Um, uncle,” Mandy ventured, her voice timid. “You’re back now?” She sounded deeply skeptical, like his appearance was a breach of natural law.
“Why?” he asked, his head tilting a fraction. “Do I now have a set time to come back to my own house because you are here?”
“No! It’s just… Jace said you wouldn’t be back tonight, so…”
“So you thought it was an opportunity to have my doors open to random people.” His gaze never left me. The words weren’t a question. They were an indictment.
Mandy gulped audibly. “Um, no. She’s not a random person.” She looked at me, her eyes wide with a mix of apology and a desperate need to fix this. “Uncle, this is Arielle. She’s my friend. My best friend.”
He looked at me for a long, silent moment, his eyes doing that unsettling thing, like he was seeing layers of me I didn’t know existed. Then he muttered, so low it was almost to himself, “I know her well.”
But Mandy definitely heard him. “Huh?” She blinked, her confusion genuine.
“Your friend,” he clarified, his tone dry as dust. He glanced at Mandy. “I’m sure she might know me too.”