Ayvah's POV:
Cohen was the first to notice me while Cressida remained glued to the television, drinking in every word uttered by the news reporter.
Apparently the 'solar eclipse' was not natural, scientists all across the world were scrambling to find the cause for the sudden solar eclipse, ensuing panic amongst the general public.
Pathetic
Five minutes into the talk- show came the news that it was a slip up from the space research organisation and that they had failed to calculate the exact time of the eclipse. Of course they did.
I exchanged a look with Cohen, smirking slightly as I did so. Cressida finally came out of the television's enthrall, sorely disappointed that it didn't turn into a larger mystery.
"Here you are! There was such interesting news being read over the television, but they couldn't even form proper headlines for it. Did you see how boring it was. Even the news turned out to be fake, I mean of course it should have been fake but I was so wishing for something fun. But it seems I have to make do by sco-," the abrupt ringing of my phone, thankfully put a stop to her rambling. Though if looks could kill, I wouldn't be standing here.
Cohen looked stressed as he handed my phone to me. Although twins, Cressida and Cohen's attitudes were poles apart. While Cressida was chirpy and wouldn't keep shut, Cohen was a man of very few words and even fewer emotions. His smiles were always reserved for Cressida, she was after all the centre of his entire world. And he was the only one who could control her temperament, the only one whom she would listen to. It was all so similar yet it couldn't have been more different.
I took the phone from his hands, not bothering to check the caller ID, it would be fake as it was.
"He knows"
Two words, yet their meaning could doom us all. But that was the only extent I would allow it to grow, it would forever stay a potential.
My silence was instruction enough as she scrambled to follow it. I handed my phone to Cohen before turning to Cressida.
"Let's go to the book store tomorrow." And that was enough to melt her anger as her glare gave way to that dreamy look in her eyes. I couldn't help but notice the nearly invisible yet soft smile which graced Cohen's face, his normally stiff posture relaxing for a moment.
Lost in that little bubble of hers, she failed to notice the gentle flick of my wrist, not before she wondered back into her room.
The moment she disappeared from sight, I beckoned him to follow me. Heading towards my study, Cohen followed close behind, eyes scanning our surroundings, looking for some non-existent threat. The smile all but lost behind the tense expression, curiosity just barely contained, though he knew better than to ask me.
Entering into my study, I clicked the door shut, turning to face him. "He knows." The smirk on my face doing little more than striking terror into the lurking eyes, before I completely sealed the room.
"Ayvah, about what happened earlier, she doesn't remember. Please keep that in mind before making any decisions." Although his face was stoic, his voice wavered near the end. The words almost caused my mask to falter, the sheer vulnerability in his voice caused my heart to clench, the only people who I allowed to affect me in such a way.
Yet I couldn't allow anyone to know about it, not even him. So I allowed my face to smooth out into the emotionless mask. And so the act began.
Emotions have no place in the game of minds. The thing about having power is that you can never trust someone blindly, because then they truly go on to prove your blindness. It's a shadow yet it is more real than this entire world.
The voice repeated it's command over and over again, until it was all I could hear, until it was the only truth, the only reality.
And so I said," What I am to do will be done. It's none of your concern, for now we have other matters at hand."
"As you will it kraliçe." His voice had taken on the same sharp edge it did when he struggled to keep his emotions at bay, yet I didn't comment on it, not did I comment on the use of my official title, but my generosity extended only to a certain extent. To give him time to recover would be an open declaration of my indulgence, a statement which I wasn't ready to make just yet.
"We go there, Now." A sentence and an order, it left no room for further discussion.
It took half an hour to reach there and another minute for him to open the door.
"Ayvah, you... How did you manage to find out ab-" A scathing glare sent his way did the job here as well as it did in the office, enough so as he moved out of my way allowing us to enter his house.
His last mistake.
The door clicked shut gently as if a phantom breeze coaxed it to close on its own accord. It was apparent that he was planning to escape tonight. The clothes strewn haphazardly on the couch was sign enough, though the metallic tang of fear in the air did little to hide the fact. I could smell his lies even before he began speaking. " I w-was pre-preparing for the vacation I took. I will be back soon." Though his voice became smoother as he proceeded, the hesitance in his eyes was a dead giveaway, he was afraid of his life and rightly so.
"You know as well as I do that your little games won't work on me." I gave him a saccharine smile, while his face bleached of colour. Yet his attention was on Cohen, wrong move. With his muscular build and the scar running down his right bicep, he would've been the obvious threat in the room, the predator ready to pounce. Yet he was a mere distraction from the real threat, a distraction which often caused people there lives, not that he was harmless. He was anything but harmless.
"Aaron, darling, calm down. Or rather don't. It's quite amusing to see you trying to stay away from me for once. I warned you, didn't I? Well now your time's up. My turn." With each word I uttered, his face bleached of colour, and yet I had only just begun. The windows snapped shut and the curtains were drawn, the room plunging in utter darkness before a light illuminated his face, white with terror.
"Wh-what a-are yo-you? Whe-where is the li-ligh-light coming fr-from? L-let m-me be." It was a wonder that he hadn't fainted yet.
"Wrong questions darling. But since I am in a benevolent mood, I will answer them. But first the book." Each word of mine was punctuated by the shattering of glass all across the room.
I didn't need him to hand me the book, I already knew where it was, yet the game of cat and mouse amused me, so I let it continue for a while. That was until he tried to escape. How annoying.
A flick of my finger was all it took for him to come across an invisible barrier. Another flick and he was but a mindless robot, ripe to do my bidding, though the struggle in his mind was apparent.
A nod from Cohen alerted me to the fact that he had procured the book. Our work here was done. I turned to Aaron and leaned into his face, whispering my answer in his ear, all the while pointing my gun at him, though I didn't need it to kill him. And he knew it. His face bleached even more, though it couldn't be made out if it was at the gun pointing at his face or my words.
I pulled the trigger and turned only to find Cohen's terrified face, the book no longer in his hands.
"The book of kamatayan anino, how interesting!" It was Cressida who held the book in her hands.
Also there is an edit which I would love to share but it's only available on Wattpad (and it's free)
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My URL is LucyQueenOriginal21
And the book is named Shadows
Also there is another book I'm working on called Manacled and it's exclusively available on Wattpad (for free!!) Please check it out...