ELEVEN #2
“It’s…so cold and devoid of colour,” Amelia murmured, Silas straining to hear from his position in the doorway. “It’s also strangely beautiful.”
A smile ghosted across his face, her whispered words echoing his own thoughts. The smile faded before Amelia turned to face him.
“I’ll let you settle in,” Silas said, pushing away from the doorframe. “If you need anything, there’s an intercom by the door where you can request staff.” He tapped on the device that connected almost every room within the estate.
Amelia’s mouth opened, but she closed it quickly. His lips twitched, certain she was holding herself back from saying something snarky about having staff at his beck and call.
“Thanks,” was all she said.
Impressed with her unusual self-control, he nodded and backed away, pulling the doors closed until they clicked softly, and he could release the long breath of discomfort that he had been holding in.
When Silas knocked a few hours later and entered, he found Amelia curled up on the couch beneath a fur blanket, the fire crackling in the hearth and a pot of tea sitting on the table before her.
A book propped on her lap, she looked decidedly cosy.
Silas paused and had to swallow the sense that she belonged there, in his old home. A ridiculous notion given her general dislike of him.
Amelia glanced up when he moved closer. There was warmth colouring her cheeks from the fire, her skin glowing in the soft light. Her dark curls were loose and falling around her shoulders. Her expression, usually cold and calculating, was warm and open as she met his gaze.
It punched him in the chest, shedding the air from his lungs.
She was entirely too beautiful; it was almost unfair.
Amelia closed the book, her finger holding her place, smiling softly. “I could never say that I enjoy the cold, but there is something satisfying about being warm while it’s cold.”
He returned her smile. “You look…very comfortable.”
Amelia sat up straighter, legs shifting beneath the blanket, as though realising just how comfortable she was in his home. She set the book aside and flicked some of her hair over her shoulder.
“Uh…have you confirmed your mother will join us for supper?”
With a fortifying breath, he rounded the couch and perched on the single wingback chair near the fire, facing her. “Look, there’s something I need to tell you about my mother before we see her.”
She shifted, her expression returning to its usual seriousness. He already missed the open, warm smile from when he had entered. “Alright.”
He considered his words carefully.
“Last year, we lost my father.” His eyes fell to his hands draped across his knees, unwilling to meet her gaze. “It was unexpected and left behind a darkness. My mother struggled considerably. To the point where she became an entirely different person.”
When he had the courage to raise his head, Amelia was looking away, brow furrowed as she stared into the fire.
“Being the eldest male, I took over the estate,” Silas explained, watching Amelia swallow and pick at her nails. “My mother didn’t take kindly to her son suddenly owning everything, though I believe it was more about her grief than it was about me.”
Her dark eyes lifted, and she looked at him with something he had never seen on her face before. Openness.
Silas didn’t know what to make of it. He was used to her looks of disdain or frustration, but not this. This was entirely new, and the urge to move closer struck, to reach for her…
The desire to touch her was not new, though the wild thought that she might let him, was. Indescribably so.
With a ragged exhale, he looked to the flames dancing in the fireplace.
“What I’m trying to say is…I don’t come home often because of the way our relationship was forever damaged since my father,” he said, “so while she is our best bet with learning about pair bonding, she may not be entirely forthcoming.”
They fell into silence, listening to the crackling fire.
After a moment, Amelia broke it. “What if she won’t tell us anything?”
He sighed. “She spent years studying the history of pair bonds. While I always considered it a myth and uninteresting, mother was convinced that it was a phenomenon worth understanding because it was linked to…” He broke off.
His family history was complicated, in a myriad of ways.
Some of the things they had endorsed were considered ridiculous, fearmongering and nothing but tall tales and legends.
“Linked to?” Amelia prompted.
“The Midnight Realm,” he finally said, braving a glance at her, only to see her mouth falling open.
Depending on who you asked, the Midnight Realm was either a whispered legend, a scientific curiosity, or a forbidden truth.
Some rare scholars, like his parents, had sought to understand it, or access it, believing it to be a place of great power, while others simply feared it or thought of it as nothing but myth.
Over time, the Midnight Realm had become obscured, misinterpreted, and fiercely debated with so little fact to bring the truth to the forefront.
“I didn’t realise you believed in the Midnight Realm,” Amelia said. He was grateful that her tone implied curiosity rather than scorn. He knew, from listening to her present a paper on the Monoliths, that she believed it to be mere legend.
Silas shrugged. “I can’t say that I do or don’t,” he said honestly.
It was a fascinating topic, mostly because his parents had spent so many years researching and speaking on it, but as he grew older, he found the lack of scientific fact lessening his ability to believe.
“But my mother does. And she surmised that pair bonded individuals have a unique access to the Midnight Realm.”
Amelia narrowed her eyes. “Why would that be?”
A plethora of lectures returned to him. “The theory is that the Midnight Realm is the original home of the Monoliths, and that through a source of great power, they broke through the veil and entered our world, granting us magic.”
Amelia listened quietly.
“By some, they are believed to be the first pair bond. They are twin pillars, representing both light and dark, yin and yang, bonded for eternity. So, as it was described to me, is that becoming pair bonded, allows you to step across the veil, into the birthplace of the first bonded—the Monoliths.”
She glanced down, unfurling her fingers and stared at the cut there.
“And the blades are modelled after the Monoliths. It does have some sense to it.” When Amelia looked up, there was fear behind her eyes that he hadn’t expected.
“I…had a dream,” she admitted quietly, “last night, before midnight. I was in a strange dark land, shadows everywhere, whispering at me.” Amelia paused, eyes closing for a moment.
“I don’t know if it was the Midnight Realm, I’ve never put much stock into the notion, but it was…
not normal. The dream, or the place I was dreaming of. ”
Silas blinked at her in surprise. “That would have been good to know after it happened.”
She rolled her eyes. “I didn’t know what to make of it at the time.”
He looked at his watch and stood. “Well hopefully we can get some more answers from my mother, who will be expecting us in the dining room in five minutes.” Silas had a vain hope that she would be more welcoming than the last time he had visited, being met with an icy silence that had frozen his heart with sadness.
He strode to the doors but was stopped by Amelia’s voice.
“Finley?” she asked softly.
He turned back. She watched him over the back of the couch, fingers gripping the top firmly.
“Yeah?”
“Do you think we’re in a lot of trouble?”
His lips thinned, hearing the fear in her voice, his heart turning over.
He tried for a smirk but knew it would come across false.
“You’re always in trouble, Winslow,” Silas joked, and was grateful for the slight twitch of her lips, “but this? We’re both smart.
Well, at least I am…we can figure it out. ”
Amelia pursed her lips, but he could see the hidden smile before she shook her head and turned away.
“See you in five,” Silas said, leaving her in the room.