Chapter 12
Arax
The time went by a lot faster than I’d imagined, thanks in large part to Drake’s enjoyable company.
We were becoming fast friends, and it wasn’t only because I was in solitary.
He was fun, laid-back, and easygoing, not to mention easy on the eyes.
He seemed to like hanging out with me too, and our nightly card games soon progressed beyond blackjack to poker—where he beat me so brutally, it was embarrassing.
Eventually we started talking about life and everything else.
I taught him the game I played with my family.
We didn’t know the official name for it, so we called it Three Up.
The first player picked a topic, like an actor or a book, counted to three, and everyone shouted out their favorite.
Drake and I found out we had the same taste in movies and food but different tastes in music and sports.
I told him about my family, leaving out some of the more personal details about their deaths and disappearances, and he told me about his.
He was twenty-eight, with an older sister, Demetria, who had a serious boyfriend and had moved away with him.
He was interested in hearing about my music school and very candidly told me the guitar had recently become his favorite instrument.
I also came to find out he and Konstantine had been best friends since childhood, and as part of Konstantine’s core group, he also lived in the castle, as did Cyrus.
“Are Cyrus and Fabio related?” I asked him one night.
“Fabio? Who would that be?” Drake asked, trying to figure it out.
Fuck…
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I had unconsciously let slip my less-than-flattering nickname for Konstantine.
“Hold on, Fabio…” Drake slowly put it together. “Wait, the guy from the romance novels? Is that what you call Stan?” he asked, excited.
Ugh. I dove into a pillow as Drake cracked up.
“Oh, man,” he said, wheezing. “You know what, though? I see it.”
“It’s the hair!” I shouted, pounding the pillow hysterically, my voice muffled.
“It is the hair! Shit, Rox, now I can’t unsee it!” Drake said and rolled on to his back with laughter.
“It’s so long and lush!” I rose onto my knees and flipped mine dramatically over my shoulder.
I went to stand but almost instantly doubled over at the thought of Konstantine, scowling and serious, posing with handmaidens polishing his muscles with fragrant essential oils.
His shirt half-unbuttoned… wind blowing through his hair as he seduced some poor wench with his lack of a winning personality.
“I can’t wait to tell him,” he said, still laughing then got a little more quiet. “Do you have a nickname for me?”
“Blue Eyes,” I answered sheepishly.
“How original, but I’ll take that over Fabio,” Drake said, shaking his head.
“So are they? Related?” I asked, going back to my previous question.
“Cyrus is sort of Herc’s brother-in-law,” he explained. “He’s been with Stan’s younger sister, Penelope, for a while now.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Penelope is off visiting their…relatives with their mom and a couple of friends, which is why you haven’t met her,” he said further.
I couldn’t help but ask, “how did Konstantine react when someone like Cyrus hooked up with his sister?”
Drake grinned, knowing what I meant. “I know you and Cy didn’t get along at first, but he’s a cool dude, a great dad too. Just a bit of a meathead.”
“Just a bit,” I said jokingly. “At least his daughter is adorable.”
“Leni? Yeah, she is, clever too.”
“Tell me something, how come you aren’t second-in-command? With you and Konstantine being besties and all.”
Drake shrugged. “He asked, but I didn’t want the job. Leaves no time for the ladies.” He winked at me.
“Ladies, huh? Plural?” I raised my eyebrows and smirked at him.
“Well, not at the moment,” he said, blushing a little. “And what about you? Going to run back home and into the arms of some lucky guy?”
“Nope, it’s just me,” I said.
“How is that even possible?”
I stopped to take in the question and decided I could let him in a bit more. “To be honest, I don’t do the serious relationship thing very well. I’ve had some stuff happen.”
Drake gave me his full attention. “Like what?” he asked quietly.
I sighed. It was never easy talking about my family, especially since I had no one left.
After this near-death experience, I had a painful realization that the only person left that would miss me if I were gone was Danny.
Telling Drake, however, didn’t make me feel like I was divulging too much.
Maybe it was because my time here was temporary, and I could let it out.
Or maybe, just maybe, it was because I had started to trust Drake.
I felt comfortable with him, and I didn’t get that feeling too often.
“I lost my dad at fifteen, which was hard—cancer—then my brother disappeared a few years ago and was never found. I was taking care of my mom until she passed about three months ago from a stroke.”
“Fuck, Rox.” He came and sat next to me on the bed. “I had no idea.”
“It’s okay. How could you have?”
“All of that plus your accident has taken its toll, I bet.” He looked at me sympathetically.
I sniffled. “A little.”
We sat quietly for a minute until I turned toward him. “But hey, I wanted to thank you again for all the time you’ve spent with me. I know you didn’t have to, and I’m grateful for it.”
He grinned. “It was my pleasure. You are a breath of fresh air around here, even if you do suck at poker.”
I laughed hard. “Speaking of which. Can you tell me more about this place?”
“What do you want to know?” Drake asked, leaning back on the bed.
“Like what the heck is all this?” I waved my hands around.
“See, here, we have a room,” he said. “And this is a bed… and those are lamps.”
“Oh, shut up. You know what I mean,” I said, hitting him playfully.
“It’s kind of hard to explain.”
I looked at him expectantly, encouraging him to continue.
“Konstantine’s family has owned this land for generations, like generations.
It started with his great-great… you know, whomever, and a handful of people who wanted somewhere remote where they could set up shop and live in peace.
Over time, it just grew, like any community does.
” He arched a wary eyebrow at me. “Was that satisfactory?”
“And everyone has been living here, like this, ever since?”
“Pretty much.” Drake nodded.
“Why? I mean, why be so secluded?” It was such a secretive life. “Why not live with the rest of society?”
“You sound like you’re judging us, Roxie,” Drake replied, clicking his tongue at me.
I let out a laugh. “Okay just answer this: Everyone’s not weirdly related to one another, are they?” I was sort of kidding but sort of serious.
Drake chuckled. “It’s not like that. Like I said, it’s hard to explain. But no, it’s not a love-the-one-you’re-with type of setup.”
It was a decent enough explanation, but I had been hoping Drake would give me more. His answers were adequate but evasive in their simplicity. I’d gotten sidetracked, however, until I remembered what I’d been meaning to ask him.
“By the way, do you know what the deal is with my camera? The one in my backpack isn’t mine. It’s new.”
“Yours was smashed when we found it, Rox. I think Stan felt bad, so he replaced it.”
Konstantine bought me a new camera because he felt bad?
That was so… sweet. Sweet was not a word I thought could be used to describe him.
Then again, the flowers. Every day, a new bouquet had been brought to my room.
I glanced at them, sitting there on the coffee table, each arrangement more beautiful than the last. That man was a walking contradiction.
And I was slowly beginning to think that that first interaction of indifference had been a carefully rehearsed act.
“He didn’t need to do that,” I said softly.
“That’s Stan for you,” Drake replied.
“I hope I’ll get a chance to thank him, though it sucks about my camera. Most of the pictures on it were already uploaded to my laptop back home, but I had a few recent shots on my reel I would’ve loved to keep.”
“Shots of what?” Drake asked.
“The view,” I answered, thinking back to the pictures I’d taken minutes before the wolves had shown up.
“The mountains looked so cool from where I was, all covered in fog. It was pretty drab at first glance, but when I looked more closely, there was this patch of bright green. It really stood out against the grey.”
When he didn’t say anything, I looked up and saw Drake with a frown lining his face. His brows were drawn in. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
I opened my mouth to ask what was wrong, but he cut me off before I could say anything.
“Hey, Rox. It’s getting late. You better sleep.” He was slowly getting up and moving toward the door.
“Um, okay, I guess.” I was somewhat defeated. I didn’t know what had happened, but Drake seemed to be in a hurry to leave. “Forgive me if I asked too many questions.”
He stopped and regarded me pointedly. “He’s very protective of his family and his legacy, okay? Sorry I can’t say much else.”
I knew the ‘he’ to which Drake was referring, and I obliged him by dropping the subject. My own curiosity aside, I didn’t want to cause issues between him and Konstantine. I nodded in understanding.
“Tomorrow could be your last full day here,” he said gently, moving on to a new subject.
“Yeah, probably, depending on Dr. Distefano.” I had forgotten that my time here was almost up, or had I chosen not to think about it?
“We’ll have to celebrate your potential release.”
I smiled. “Let’s do that. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“Yup, tomorrow,” he answered with a small nod, then stepped out and closed the door.