Dark Secrets (95 page)

“
Nice to meet you.”
Mike grinned.

“
So, you’re Ara’s
fiancé?” Spence looked at me for confirmation.

“
The one and only,” I
said; Mike grinned as I linked my arm in his. He liked that. I
could tell. And I liked that he liked it. “So, Spencer? You scrub
up nice,” I added.

“
Yeah, thanks. You’re
not so bad yourself, Ara.” He appraised my gown—not in a creepy
way, but I think he was just as shocked as I was that it was
actually me under all the sparkles.

“
Where’s Alana?” I
asked.

“
Haven’t seen her.”
Emily shrugged.

We looked over the
crowd of dancers for a moment. Each one was hidden beneath a mask
of feathers or sequins, their hair drawn up in dazzling ringlets or
left down to flow over their shoulders. It seemed futile to find a
friend among them. Then I spotted a girl at the centre of the dance
floor, with a tall, sandy-blonde-haired boy. Her cream and black
dress with pink accents of lace took my breath away, fitting
Alana’s description of her hand-me-down perfectly.

Mike looked over my
shoulder, following my gaze. “Wow. That’s quite a
dress.”

“
Oh, wow.” Emily
sighed, leaning against the railing beside me.

“
And Ryan looks
so…vintage,” I added.

“
They make a good
couple,” Mike noted.

“
Yeah. I’m a good
matchmaker.” Emily grinned, hiding her piercing, Mike-directed gaze
of abhorrence under her mask.

I got the sense then
that maybe she really did hate him.

“
Well, Miss Ara.”
Spencer bowed to me. “I believe you owe me a dance.”

Emily gave me a smile
of approval.

“
Very well, Mr
Griffin. It would be my pleasure,” I said in a formal English
accent, then wrapped my arm over Spencer’s.

Mike walked behind us
with Emily on his arm. I felt a little sorry for him, knowing Emily
would probably step on his toes deliberately.

We danced, and the
flow and magic of the masquerade concealed my pain and emptiness
for just a while. Passed from arm to arm, I danced with nearly
every guy attending the ball, and when I finally fell back into
Mike’s embrace as the first stroke of midnight chimed through the
air, my head swirled like a room full of butterflies.

The enchanting tone of
the evening burst into a spectrum of colour above us when blue and
pink electrified the skies—dissipating into yellows and whites as
they dissolved among the stars. Everyone stood still, tilting their
faces upward while the clock chimed each agonising toll of
realisation.

Midnight.

The music played on,
saddening my heart with its desultory notes. All the beauties
around us smiled in awe at the colours of the end, while my heart
fought to ignore the sombre melody of loss and
separation.

He wasn’t coming.
David really wasn’t coming.

Mike pulled me close,
pressing his fingers firmly between my shoulder blades. “I love
you, Ara-Rose. You know that, don’t you?” he whispered.

Wiping the tears from
my lips and cheeks, I looked up at his face, feeling the last chime
of midnight pass, taking all my hopes and dreams with it.
“Mm-hm.”

The fireworks cracked,
echoing off the horizon, but the noise, along with the gasps and
giggles of girls, faded into the background when his lips touched
mine. The room twirled again, the dancers moving around us, taking
step to the rhythm of a sound I could no longer hear because, while
I was safe in his arms, there was nothing but Mike and I—no one
else in the world. It had always been that way, and I knew then
that it always would.

His lips broke away
from the kiss with a cool wash of air, the room flooding with noise
again as he looked over his shoulder.

“
May I?” a gentle
voice asked, and a boy stepped into view; tall, yet not as tall as
Mike, with soft brown hair—his face hidden behind a black mask, but
instantly recognisable.

David?

Chapter
Thirty-Two

Mike kissed my cheek
and took a step backward, giving away the last dance of the evening
to this stranger he’d never met. My heart raced, my breath
quickening as the boy stepped into me and took my hand, but it all
stopped—all the hope, all the excitement, just trickled away when
his cold touch met mine with no familiarity.

It wasn’t
him.

The stranger pulled me
close with one sweeping touch, my hips against his, my body arching
back slightly, his green eyes locked to mine.

“
Moonlight Sonata,”
he said in a smooth, gentle voice, gesturing toward the piano.
“Your favourite piece.”

“
Yes.” I squinted
against the dark, trying to see him better beneath the mask. “Do I
know you?”

He shook his head once
and said nothing more.

The song’s harmonies
set the pace to his gracefulness, while the elegance in his stance
seemed adopted from another era; one hand gently under my shoulder
blade, the other extending our arms out widely. He’d danced before.
Perhaps on a night such as this. I dreamed of it for a moment; he
and I, in another time, another place, dancing this way until
sunrise. But the very idea, the very thought of having been in his
arms before, came from a place—a dream-like state—somewhere deeper
inside. It was as if I didn’t own the thought at all.

I looked up at the
boy, his smile showing only by the dimple beside the curve of his
lip, and a strange sensation saturated the air around me, a feeling
like energy—closing me in, making this dance a secret from the rest
of the world.

From the sideline,
Mike stood watching, arms folded, leaning in, whispering to Alana
and Ryan every few seconds. I wondered if he could see us; if he
could see the way this boy held me—if he found it odd that he
pulled me close, like he’d held me there a thousand times before.
All the laws of nature said he could, but I
felt
invisible.

“
Can you feel that?”
I asked.

He turned his head an
inch and looked down at me; his mysterious eyes held a depth of
darkness to them that made me feel suddenly very uneasy. “I’m the
one doing it.”

I looked at Mike
again—having a thumb war with Spencer—and my heart hurried a
little. I wanted him to come, to tap this boy on the shoulder and
ask for me back, hold me safe in his arms, but the boy squeezed my
hand gently, tightening his hold on my back.

“
Our dance is not yet
complete, my lady,” his wet lips whispered onto my brow. “It would
be incredibly bad manners to leave a man in the middle of the dance
floor. You wouldn’t want to be rude, would you?”

“
I’m sorry. I didn’t
mean to be rude,” I said softly, and something inside me screamed,
wriggling about, warning me to move away. But I stayed in his arms,
smiling his smile as we passed each dancer, softly nodding my head
in greeting. It felt unnatural.

When the music ended,
the boy stopped and clapped gently. “Thank you, my
lady.”

“
You’re welcome,” I
said, but made no haste to move away from him. I stood, staring up
at him, like a stuffed animal. “Please tell me who you
are.”

Another song began; he
bowed low, holding his arm across his body. “Care to dance the
encore first?”

“
I—” I swallowed,
shaking my head as a name came to mind. “Jason?”

“
Très bien, madame.”
He stood taller, his lip creasing in one corner, leaving the smile
to come only from behind his eyes—the way David smiled when he read
my mind.

“
You look so much
like him.”

Jason exhaled and
offered his arm; “Walk with me?”

“
Where
to?”

“
Just to the
balcony,” he said, cupping my hand into the crook of his
elbow.

We passed right by
Mike and my friends, who didn’t even look up as this stranger led
me away from the dance floor.

“
It’s a beautiful
night, wouldn’t you agree?”

“
A perfect night.” I
leaned on the marble railing, watching the other dancers in the
final act.

“
Perfect for one’s
last,” he said softly.

“
Pardon?”

“
I shall not repeat
myself, girl. It’s rude not to listen.”

“
I heard you. I just
wondered what you meant.”

Jason smiled,
seemingly to himself. “I meant that if this were your last night,
it would be a grand way to spend it.”

“
Yes.” I looked down
at the dance floor again. “I suppose so.”

“
Do you know why I’ve
come?”

I shook my head. “Are
you here because of David?”

“
In ways.” His eyes
focused on something distant, while the same malignant smile as
before settled onto his dark-pink lips, sending shivers down my
spine. Bad shivers.

“
Where is he?” I
asked.

“
In pain, I
suspect?”

“
What do you mean by
that?” I stood up straight.

Jason turned and
leaned his back on the ledge. “I mean—you hurt him. Badly. I
suspect he’s grieving at this time.”

“
What would
you
know about it?”

“
I know you gave him
your heart, then denied him your life.”

“
That’s none of your
business,” I said, turning to walk away.

But his hand lashed
out and caught my arm, spinning me into his chest with a
breathtaking jolt. “On the contrary, my dear, it is.”

“
What are you doing?”
I wedged the ball of my palm into his chest. “Let go of
me.”

When a few curious
glances flicked our way, Jason placed his hand firmly on my lower
back and forced my arms into position. “Dance with me.”

“
What if I don’t want
to?”

“
I’ll make you.” He
held me firmly, spinning around to the soft piano, like we were
just two masked teens in love.

“
What do you want,
Jason?”

“
I think you already
know what I want.”

“
I’ve never been one
for guessing games.”

“
Let’s just say—” his
eyes, under the cover of the black mask, became small with a smile,
“—I’m not here for pleasure.”

The pulse between my
collarbones seemed to shoot out backward, filling me with a sudden
urge to run. I cast my eyes to the dance floor, but Mike was gone.
The space he stood before—vacant. “Well,” I said, sounding
amazingly calm, “if it’s not pleasure, it must be business. What
business do you have here?”

“
The concluding of an
age-old quarrel among brothers—one you, so unfortunately, have
found yourself recompense of.”

“
What?”

Jason’s head moved at
a fraction of an inch, the green in his eyes occupying the corners.
“Someone is looking for you.”

I followed his
sideways gaze to see Mike running through the crowd—panicked,
touching the shoulders of various individuals—obviously desperate
to find me.

Look up, Mike, look
up.

“
I’ll kill him, Ara.
If he comes for you—he will die.”

“
Why?” I gasped.
“What do you want with me?”

“
It’s nothing
personal, really.” He tilted his head. “Then again, perhaps it
is.”

“
Huh?”

He sighed. “I’m going
to hurt you to hurt my brother.”

My mouth fell open
with a huff. “Don’t you dare touch me.”

“
Oh, I’m going to do worse than
touch
you.”

“
No!” I sunk my knees
down, slipping free from his hold, but he grabbed my arm, hoisting
me to my feet and started walking toward the dark chamber gardens.
“Let me go, Jason,” I ordered, “I’ll scream.”

He just smiled
wickedly, keeping his eyes on our destination. “You won’t scream.
Because I’ll kill them—all of them, Ara. I will take every last
life that resides in this miserable gathering, and I will
save
you
until
the end, so you may watch as I tear apart each one of your friends
and eviscerate your replacement lover.”

“
No. You have no
right to do that.” I tugged hard against him. “I won’t let you hurt
them.”

“
Then come
quietly.”

“
No.” I scratched at
his hand, trying to unwind his fingers from my arm, but they
tightened—his nails digging in to my flesh. “Let me go!”

He laughed. “Um,
no.”

As we neared the step,
my darting gaze of desperation flicked around the room, passing
over the smiles of distracted couples. But each face was
unfamiliar. No one knew me. No one knew I was being kidnapped. And
not one of the faces was David. He was supposed to be here. He was
supposed to come. The last dance on the hour of midnight. That was
the deal.