Mark of Betrayal (Dark Secrets #3)(141)
Author: A.M. Hudson

I reached across and ran my fingers over his hair, feeling it slide through them like soft ribbons. “I’m okay.”

“Hm,” he said, and started up the stairs again.

“What’s hm?” I asked, pushing past him to stay in front, as if it’d help me keep the mind-blanket in place.

“Nothing,” he said, but I could hear the suspicion in his tone. “You know, that dress probably wasn’t really the right thing to wear up here tonight, Ara.”

I looked behind me. “Don’t look up then.”

“Where am I supposed to look?” He showed his palms defensively. “If you put a cute little butt in front of a guy and show him you’re wearing red lace over it, he’s going to look.”

“Hey!” I pinned my dress to my legs. “Pervert.”

His hand shot out and he pinched me.

“Ow!”

“Don’t pretend you don’t like it.”

I huffed and started walking faster. Jason’s steps picked up behind mine, the clang of metal louder as our feet thumped at full human speed—the narrow walls echoing our laughter into the night.

“Racing me, huh?” He pushed past. “I’ll beat you there.”

“Not on your life.” I grabbed the handrail to pull myself up faster.

He started taking two steps at a time, leaning deep into his thighs, and reached the top before me. “Told ya I’d beat ya.”

“Hmpf!”

“Come on.” He laughed and offered his hand as I stepped up onto the wet, wooden platform of the room at the top. The wind washed a cool, salty spray across my face—leaving tiny dots of moisture over my cheeks, and the gigantic globe at the centre of the room spun around, shooting light out to sea. I half expected there to be glass covering the windows, like other lighthouses I’d been to when I was younger, but there wasn’t.

“You okay, Ara?” Jase spoke slightly louder over the clatter of the wind, as if I was human and couldn’t hear him.

“Yeah,” I breathed, trying not to fold over. “Just a bit puffed-out.”

He frowned, his eyes nearly black in the dim light. “You shouldn’t be puffed-out.”

“I know.” I nodded, making myself stand straight. “So, how do we get on the roof?”

“We climb.”

“Climb?” I gasped.

“Yeah—come on.” He took my hand and we stepped through the window frame onto a thin platform, wrapping the lighthouse like a balcony with no railing. “Stay here—I’ll go up first then reach back down for you.”

I nodded, resting my hands and butt flat against the wall, trying not to look at the crashing waves I could hear abusing the rocks below. “Jase?” I called.

“Yeah.”

“What’s taking so long?”

After a few choice words in another language, Jason popped his head over the ledge above and smiled. “Give me your hand?”

My hand didn’t want to move; it stayed stuck to the wall, safe there.

“Come on.”

“Uh-uh.” I shook my head. The width of a wide world stood before me, open and wild, eager to challenge this girl and her need for gravity. If I reached up—if I moved my hand off the wall, I would feel that space. I would feel the absence of ground, and I could fall.

“I’ll jump down after you if you fall, Ara. Not that I’d let that happen.” He hung right over the edge, using one hand to support himself, and grabbed the strap of my dress. “Come on. Give me your hand.”

Shaking, I moved my hand, and as soon as my fingertips were in reach, he grabbed them and hoisted me out over the ledge, swinging my body by the wrist so I came up into his arms. I screamed, hiding in his chest for a second, while the violent wind rushed up my legs, revealing my underwear. Jason swept his hands over the back of my thighs and held my dress down for me.

“Are you okay, Ara?”

“No.”

“Do you want to get down?”

I shook my head. “I’m okay. Just gimme a sec.”

He drew a really deep breath against the top of my head and let it out slowly, warming my hair, wrapping his arms just a little tighter around me. “No problems. You take all the time you need.”

And I did. I stood there, in his arms, warm and wrapped up like a child, until the wind softened and died down to a breeze. “My legs are numb,” I said.

Jase laughed and took my hand, guiding me down to the curve of the white metal roof, helping me and my shaking legs to sit.

With the dark of night surrounding me, and the wind soft enough not to knock me off the edge, I took a moment to appreciate the sheer height of the lighthouse and the magnificence of everything below it. “Holy cow.”

“It’s great, isn’t it?” Jason noted.

I nodded and rested back on my hands, tilting my chin upward to the stars. “I’ve been meaning to get up here for so long now.”

“I know,” he said. “And you would have made it here that last time, too, but Mike got wind of your plan.”

“What last time?”

“The bonfire night.”

I frowned at him. “What do you mean?”

“You were planning to come out here then, right?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “But how did you know that?”

He linked his hands together under his bent knees. “I read Mike’s mind. He found out what you were planning and, since he was too busy to watch over you that day, and the Private Guard were still human, he had Eileen extend her speech until nightfall.”

“That’s why it was so long?”

Jason nodded.

“Bastard!” I slammed my hands into the cold, hard surface under me. “He’s so damn controlling.”

Jason nodded, amused.

“Er!” I let my frustration out in a loud gust. “I’m really mad at him. That whole afternoon was a nightmare.”

“I’m sure you’ve suffered worse,” he said quietly, looking away.

I studied him as he stared with wide, glassy eyes, at the sky. “You okay, Jase?”

“They’re magnificent, aren’t they?”

“The stars?” I sat up and rested my hands in my lap. “Yeah, they’re amazing.”

“I’ve spent my life studying them, you know, and still, even though I know each one, I can’t help but to feel like there must be something bigger out there than us.”

“There is.”

He placed his arm around me and squeezed my shoulders. “Is there?”