30. Caden
Caden
I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
Across the room filled with excited children and bright balloons, Aeris looked … different. Her shoulders were no longer rigid with tension once she’d realised I wasn’t going to do anything. Her laugh came easy and light, genuine in a way I’d never heard before.
For the past hour I’d watched her help a little girl fix a crooked party hat, play hide and seek, and pretend she didn’t know she had a smear of green icing on her cheek.
Teasing the kids with wiping the wrong area.
She’d even attempted to blow up balloons and then let them go for the squealing kids to chase.
She looked soft.
Happy.
Real.
Aeris always pushed the need for her freedom, but I think this was what she was truly protecting. I still didn’t trust her, but I understood.
Some time passed, though how much I didn’t know, before she finally came over to me. Before she could run away, I hooked my hand around her waist and pulled her tight to my chest. I placed my hands on her hips, pinning her in place.
She stiffened.
“Where’s your father?” I asked casually. From the outside we looked like a couple, her back to my chest and my head dipped down to have a private conversation. But this was the perfect opportunity to interrogate her, unless she was willing to make a scene.
She turned a little to look up at me, a storm building in those eyes of the raging sea. “Probably work. That’s his one true love.”
“Your sister said you were emancipated at sixteen and went no contact. Changed your name.”
Her lips pursed, but she finally began to relax under my touch. As if she knew my hands weren’t there to cause harm. She never stiffened when I grabbed her roughly or pinned her down, only when I brushed my thumb gently over her skin. Like softness was more dangerous to her than violence.
“My sister has a big mouth.”
What the fuck had happened to her? to make her believe that pain was safer than tenderness?
“Why?” I asked, keeping my tone civil.
“Careful—almost sounds like you care.”
I let out a deep chuckle, welcoming the flush across her breasts at the sound.
“He did something I can’t forgive,” she finally said, voice flat. “Even now, I can’t stand being in the same room as him.”
“Your sister wants you to forgive him.”
“Brooke doesn’t understand.” Aeris’s tone hardened. “She’s not from our world.”
Our world.
The words settled hot in my chest.
“Is this about Mira?” I asked.
She stilled once more at the name, so I pulled her tighter against me and basked in her warmth.
“There are some things you just can’t forgive,” she whispered, that mask she wore so convincingly slipping back on.
Except I’d already seen beneath, and I wanted more.
“You could ask me anything right now,” she said, voice laced with disbelief as she twisted in my arms so she could look up at me directly, “and you’re asking about my family?”
My right hand stroked up her waist, a delicate touch that had her breath hitching and her body going rigid. “I have other ways to make you talk, Tempest. You’ll tell me all your secrets eventually, one way or another.”
“My family isn’t a secret.”
Which confirmed Selene knew of their existence, and she was likely using them to keep Aeris on a leash.
“No, but you are.” My lips brushed her ear, intimate even as anger hardened my words. “Do they know about Atlantis?”
“They know about the club, just not what I do on the side.”
“Hmm.” I tried to ignore the dog that was currently coming over to sniff my shoes. “Poisoning unsuspected men with their cocks out … Your mum would be so proud.”
“Wouldn’t know, she died in childbirth with me,” she said, a sad smile curving her lips. “It was just Tristan, Mira, and me most days. And whatever Nanny he’d hired, of course.” She reached for the dog, but I kept my arm locked around her waist, unwilling to let her slip away even an inch.
“What about your other sisters?”
“They lived with their own mums, only visiting at weekends and holidays.” She gave another small shrug, but her fingers managed to scratch behind the dog’s ears. “Hey, Dino. Who’s a good boy?”
Dino wiggled his bum excitedly at the attention, and I don’t think I’d ever glared at a dog before. He didn’t seem to catch my mental fuck off, because he immediately started jumping up at me, wanting my attention too.
Fuck’s sake.
“Wow,” Aeris said, smirking. “He likes you.”
“You sound surprised,” I replied, reluctantly loosening my hold on her so I could give the damn dog a few strokes. “Thought he’d bite me?”
“Of course,” she teased, grin widening. “Dino bites all the bad guys, don’t you, boy?”
Dino leaped up at her, and she planted a kiss on his nose. I’d never felt jealousy over a dog before. What the actual fuck.
“I can picture it now,” she laughed, gently pushing Dino down so she could turn her full attention back to me. “You, running around some vast estate with a puppy chasing after your heels.”
“I never had a dog,” I said quietly, the words coming out flatter than I intended.
“Never?” She raised a single brow, eyes dancing with amusement. “Maybe I should’ve killed Alexander after all.”
Hooking my arm around her waist once more I pulled her flush against me. This time she didn’t stiffen, her laughter vibrating through my chest, light, unguarded, and so fucking addictive I wanted to drown in it.
“My mum said she was going to get me one,” I continued, unsure why I was offering pieces of myself to the woman who sold secrets to the highest bidder. “She even took me to a breeder and promised me this golden puppy with the fluffiest tail.”
Aeris wiggled, turning entirely so she could see my face.
“Then she left us a few days later.”
“Come on baby, just a little more,” Mama said, her nails digging into my hand. “Then I’ll take you for ice cream. Chocolate, your favourite.”
“You’re hurting me,” I cried, trying to twist my fingers free.
But Mama only squeezed tighter, dragging me faster down the dark street.
The pavement was freezing against my bare feet, and I was still in my pyjamas.
No coat. No shoes. My eyes kept wanting to close, but Mum wouldn’t let me stop.
She kept walking so fast I had to run to keep up.
“Mummy needed a walk, okay?” she said, the words rushing out so quickly they almost tripped over each other. “I’m not supposed to leave you home alone, so you have to come with me. You want to help Mummy, right? You’re my good boy. My best boy.”
“I want Dad,” I whimpered, my voice cracking. “I’m scared …”
Mama gave my hand another painful squeeze and suddenly spun around, crouching down so her face was right in front of mine. Her eyes were too wide, too bright, and her smile stretched so big it looked strange, almost scary.
“There’s no need to be scared, my baby,” she said, her words tumbling out in a bright, frantic rush. “Mummy’s here. Mummy’s always here. We’re going on an adventure! Just you and me.”
She laughed, loud and sharp, making me flinch.
I wanted to run back home, but she wouldn’t let me.
“Mama, please.” I cried now, my face crumpling.
Her expression changed, eyes widening as her warm hand cupped my cheek to brush away my tears. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Pulling me into a hug, I wrapped my arms around her and refused to let go. “I love you, my baby. Always.”
“Caden?” I blinked, looking down to find Aeris searching my eyes, her expression soft.
“She had these manic episodes sometimes, which was a symptom of her bipolar,” I said. “She’d regularly go from one extreme to the next, to the point I never knew which side of her I’d see each morning.”
“Mama?” I whispered. The tray was heavy in my arms, so heavy they shook, the orange juice spilling onto the toast. I’d burnt it, so I added so much butter I knew she’d laugh.
I waited, knocking the edge of the tray against the door, expecting her to call for me. But there was nothing, and my stomach dropped.
I’d wanted to do something nice, to bring her a smile when all she’d had were frowns. I hadn’t been able to get her out of bed in days … but today felt good. The sun was out, and she loved the sun.
I put the tray down, unable to hold it any longer, and curled my fingers around the handle to open the bedroom door.
The room was so dark when it opened with a squeak, and I had to remember that the dark wasn’t so scary.
I remembered what Bas had told me, that there were no monsters in the dark. Not real ones, anyway.
“Mama?” I called, my voice wobbling. “Are you okay?”
Dad had left early for work, and Grandfather wasn’t here like he was supposed to be.
Stepping inside, I found the sheets where Dad had slept on the floor, trying to give Mama space while also being close if she needed him. Mama was curled up facing the wall, the blanket pulled all the way up to cover most of her face.
“I made your favourite,” I said softly, placing the tray on the bed behind her before going to the window. I pulled the heavy curtains open, letting the bright sunlight spill across the room. “Look, the sun’s out. Maybe after you eat, I can brush your hair the way you like.”
She didn’t move. Her eyes were open, staring blankly at the wall, but she didn’t see me. She never did when she was like this. It was like I’d turned invisible.
Climbing carefully onto the bed beside her, I reached out and touched her shoulder. “Mama?” I whispered.
She finally turned her head, but there was no warmth when she looked at me. There was just … nothing. Those stars I usually saw gone.
“Mama?” I tried again, my voice smaller this time. “I put extra butter on the toast. Just how you like it, but don’t tell Dad because you know he says it’s too much.”
She blinked slowly, like it took all her strength just to do that. Then she turned her face back to the wall without saying a word.
The ache in my chest grew bigger. I hated this Mama. I missed the loud Mama who danced in the kitchen and promised me the world. Even if she scared me sometimes, at least she saw me.
Laying down carefully beside her, I curled up small so I wouldn’t take up too much space. “It’s okay if you don’t want to eat right now,” I whispered. “I can just stay with you.”
She didn’t answer.
I stayed there anyway, listening to her breathe, hoping that if I stayed long enough, my Mama would come back.
“She had a condition many people live with,” I continued, my voice almost mechanical, detached. “But she refused help. Refused to take the pills. Refused to speak to professionals. She was convinced she could handle it on her own.”
My childhood was a cyclone of having a loving mother one day, the next a stranger who’d look at me with empty eyes.
It was like I went from being her son to her carer overnight.
Six years old and I was checking if she was still alive every morning before school, because in her spirals she always threatened to hurt herself.
Dad poured everything into keeping her breathing, whether that was medication, specialised doctors, or therapists, all while I learned how to help her—how to cook her meals and how she liked to wash her hair—just to try and keep her happy.
To keep her home instead of disappearing for days, even weeks at a time.
“I tried to stop her from leaving. Begged her even, saying I’d change.
That I’d be good,” I said, a dark chuckle escaping.
“But she’d decided a life with Dad and me wasn’t what she wanted.
So, she left.” She abandoned us when I was ten and never came back—not for a visit, a single phone call, or even a card.
Last I’d tracked her, she’d moved to Scotland with a new husband and the dog she’d promised me.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, the genuine sorrow surprising.
“Don’t be,” I said, looking down at her. “I’m not.”
I didn’t want to break this fragile, dangerous truce between us. But even lost in the moment, I could sense the party winding down around us, the laughter fading as the parents gathered coats and goodie bags.
Still, I wasn’t ready to let her go.
Sliding my hand lower on her back, I pressed my fingers possessively into the curve of her spine. Aeris swallowed hard, but she didn’t pull away.
That tiny surrender sent a dark, vicious thrill straight through my veins.
The last few kids were being herded towards the door, and Brooke called Aeris’s name from across the room, but I didn’t loosen my grip. Not yet.
“Tonight,” I said quietly, “after you’ve tucked your nephew in and played the perfect aunt … you’re going to tell me everything. Every secret you hold. Every lie you’ve told.”
Her eyes flashed with defiance, a fight that I seemed to crave. “I can’t give you everything.”
“Oh, but you will.” I smiled, slow and dark. “Because you don’t have a choice.”
Finally releasing her I stepped back. Aeris smoothed her hands down her dress, cheeks flushed, and shot me one last warning look before she turned to join her family.
I watched her walk away, already counting down the hours until she was back where she belonged.
In my hands.
In our world.
Completely fucking mine.