To ruin an Omega Nov Chapter 341: Drive

Chapter 341: Drive

ALDRIC

I stepped into the passage.

The air hit

first. Cold and stale like the inside of a tomb. I pulled out my phone and turned the flashlight back on. The beam cut through the darkness and showed

stone walls on either side. They were rough just as I rembered. Though the jaggedness that scread unfinished was more prominent to

now. The useless fuck who had built the place hadn’t cared about making it pretty to look at. They seemingly only cared about making it functional.

I moved forward. The floor sloped downward. Each step took

deeper into the passage and I could feel the temperature dropping with every foot I descended. My footsteps echoed off the stone and ca back to

in strange distorted waves.

The beam of light swept across the floor and that was when I saw them again.

Footprints.

Clear as day in the layer of dust that coated everything down here. They were fresh. Recent. The edges were still sharp and hadn’t been worn down by ti or air currents.

I followed them.

The passage curved to the left and I followed it. The walls closed in tighter here and I had to turn my shoulders slightly to fit through. The footprints kept going. Stead and purposeful. Whoever had made them knew exactly where they were going.

Then sothing else caught the light.

I stopped and pointed the beam at the object on the floor. It was small. Dark. Partially hidden against the base of the wall where it t the floor.

A shoe.

I crouched down and picked it up. The leather was soft and it looked semi expensive. The heel was high and thin. I turned it over in my hand and looked at the sole. It was clean, barely worn. This wasn’t so old forgotten thing that had been down here for years. This was new.

And it looked like it would belong to my missing girl.

Interesting indeed.

I looked back at the footprints behind . Then I looked at the ones ahead. I held the shoe up to the beam of light and studied the sole again.

The shoe in my hand had a smooth sole with just a small maker’s mark near the arch. But the prints in the dust ahead of

had that geotric pattern. Those sharp edges and clean lines I had seen upstairs.

If I was even to give grace, given that the pattern was different and the shoe’s sole was clean. There was the issue of size.

My hand tightened around the shoe.

The size of the prints that had led

here were a man’s shoe. Those were a man’s prints.

I stood up slowly. My eyes moved from the shoe in my hand to the tracks stretching out in front of . My brain was working. Turning over the pieces. Trying to fit them together into sothing that made sense.

Soone had wanted

to think Madeline left of her own volition. Soone who had been careless enough to let one of her shoes drop here.

I turned around.

My feet carried

back up the passage faster than I had co down. The beam of light bounced off the walls as I moved. I didn’t care about being quiet anymore. I didn’t care about being careful. I just needed to get out.

The panel was still open when I reached it. I shoved it wider and stepped back into the wardrobe. The light from the bedroom was almost blinding after the darkness of the passage. I pushed the panel closed behind

and heard it click back into place. Then I walked out of the wardrobe and crossed the room. My hands pulled the wardrobe doors shut and I stepped back.

The room looked exactly the sa as it had before. Clean, as well as empty. But now, all of it just seed perfectly staged.

Now I knew better.

There was only one explanation. Only one reason soone would go through this much trouble.

I had been compromised.

Soone knew. Soone suspected. Soone was testing .

Cian’s face flashed through my mind. The way he had looked at the table earlier. The way his eyes had tracked my every movent. The way he had watched

like he was waiting for

to slip up.

And then there was the sentinel that Ronan had ntioned. Garrett. The one who claid to have seen Madeline leave. The only one who had seen it. It was not lost on

now that he was the one Ronan had said was deadly loyal to Cian.

My jaw clenched.

It was the only rational answer. The only explanation that fit. Cian had figured

out. Or he suspected enough to set this trap. And I had maybe walked right into it.

Fuck.

I turned and walked out of the room. I didn’t look back. I didn’t close the door gently or try to make it look like I had never been there. I just walked off fast. Down the hallway and toward my own room.

My hands were shaking by the ti I got there. I shut the door behind

and locked it. Then I crossed to the dresser and pulled open the bottom drawer. My fingers found the hidden catch on the back panel and pressed. The false bottom popped up with a soft click.

The blood ring sat there. The red stone gleaming even in the dim light of my room. I picked it up and slipped it onto my finger. The tal was cold and heavy. It settled into place like it belonged there.

My eyes moved to the other object in the compartnt. The thin silver chain necklace with the key hanging from it. It was small and unassuming. Most people wouldn’t look twice at it. But I knew what it opened.

My hand hovered over the necklace. I could take it right now. I could leave. Get in my car and drive back to my own estate and lock myself behind walls that I controlled. Walls where I knew every secret and every passage and every person who walked through them.

But why was I terrified? Why was I so terrified?

Gabriel was my insurance. My get out of jail free card. The only reason no matter what happened, I would still breathing and not rotting in so shallow hell.

If things went bad here, if Cian decided to move against , I could use Gabriel. I would have a second chance and I could use that to threaten, bargain and fucking survive.

My fingers touched the chain.

Then I stopped.

I pulled my hand back and stared at the key. My chest was tight. My breathing was too fast again. I could feel my thoughts spiraling. Spinning out into a hundred different scenarios and possibilities. Each one worse than the last.

But wait.

I forced myself to take a breath. Then another. I made myself think.

Did Cian actually know? Or was I just paranoid? What evidence did he really have?

Yes.

Why would Cian distrust

in the first place? I had given him no reason. I had been careful. I had been smart. I had played my role perfectly.

So why was I so terrified?

I looked down at the ring on my finger. The red stone caught the light and threw it back at

in sharp fragnts. And then a mory ca. Unbidden and unwanted.

I was twelve years old. Maybe thirteen. It was hard to rember exactly. The details blurred together after so many years. Mostly because it was a mory I wanted to forget completely.

I was in father’s study. now Cian’s study and I distinctively rember the dark wood, the leather chairs and the sll of old books and even older whiskey.

I was standing in front of his desk. He was sitting behind it. My mother was in the chair to his left.

They had called

in to talk. About my future. About my prospects. About what I was going to do with my life now that it was becoming clear I wasn’t like my brothers.

Cian’s father and my eldest brother had just been nad heir.m at seventeen. It was claid that he showed the most promise. But that was low from the pit of hell. He wasn’t already proving himself worthy of the title. He was just born first. Gabriel on the other hand was a sword that could be used and I could understand. He was fifteen and making his own mark. Building alliances and winning favor mostly.

And then there was . The third son. The spare of the spare.

My father had looked at

with sothing like disappointnt. It stung. Because it felt like I didn’t even deserve his anger. All he had was this resigned acceptance that I was never going to be what he wanted.

But my mother. Her face was different. She had that look. That soft pitying expression that made my skin crawl.

She leaned forward in her chair and put her hand on the edge of the desk. Her voice was gentle when she spoke. It was infuriating even being babied.

"Aldric, sweetheart, you have to understand. Not everyone is ant to leave their mark on the world. And that is okay. Really. It is."

I had just stared at her. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how to respond.

She smiled. It was supposed to be reassuring. It made

want to punch sothing. Her face mostly.

"You don’t have the drive that your brothers have. You never did. And I think that is fine. I think you can live a perfectly good life without all that pressure. Without all those expectations."

My father had nodded. Like he agreed. Like they had discussed this beforehand and decided together that I was a lost cause.

"You are the third child," my mother continued. "You don’t have the burden of being heir. You don’t have to prove anything. You can just live. Simply. Quietly. And I am glad for that. I am glad you won’t have to carry what your brothers carry."

She had ant it kindly. With her bird brain, I knew that. She thought she was giving

permission to be diocre. She thought she was freeing

from obligation.

But all I heard was that she didn’t believe in . That she had looked at

and seen nothing. No potential. No future. Just a third son who would fade into the background and be forgotten.

I had never had drive until that day. Until those words.

The mory cut off.

I blinked and I was back in my room. Standing in front of my open drawer with the blood ring on my finger and the key hanging from its chain in the secret compartnt.

Why was I even thinking about that woman? Why was I letting her voice into my head after all this ti? She was pathetic and weak. A glorified baby maker who had died She had died years ago and honestly, good riddance.

A knock sounded at the door.

I turned toward it. My hand moved automatically to close the secret compartnt. The false bottom clicked back into place. I shut the drawer and straightened up.

"Who is it?"

The voice that ca through the door was calm.

"Sentinel Garrett."

My heart stopped. Then it started again. Faster than before.

I walked to the door. My hand went to the lock first and I clicked it several tis and then the handle. I pulled it open.

"Co in."