Chapter 50
Imagined Shadows
I slept surprisingly well that night, considering the immense weight of the scalding furnace wrapped around me.
No bad dreams. No dreams at all.
And when I woke up the next morning, a faint frown tugged at my mouth when I noticed that I was the only one in the room.
That heavy warmth had disappeared.
The memory of what Soren had done to me the night before and the things he’d said tangled into a jumbled mess that sent my head reeling and my heart fluttering.
And then there were the words I’d said.
But even worse were the words I’d felt but not uttered.
I didn’t want to be alone anymore.
I wanted to belong.
That want only sharpened the loneliness I felt at not knowing how to belong.
But then the smell of butter, oil, and grease in perfect proportions slipped in under the crack of the door and dragged a hungry groan out of me. My stomach growled in agreement.
Unthinkingly, I tiptoed across the room in my PJs, almost forgetting that I was in Rui Xi Chen’s house. Almost.
I did remember to stop as soon as I exited the bedroom and scan for any sightings of the man least likely to win a father-of-the-year award. Getting trapped in a one-on-one conversation with my dad sounded like the worst plot of a horror movie.
From the balcony, I could see Soren with Rui Xi, already poring over a smattering of books and papers spread across the oversized glass dining table. Marve joined them by the time I got halfway down the spiral staircase.
When I reached the bottom and saw that Winifred was making breakfast in the kitchen, I turned left instead of right, heading for the room I probably had the least business being in. My presence in the kitchen was more hazard than help.
“Good morning, sweetheart,” Winifred chirped as she flung some eggs around in a large pan. “Are you hungry?”
“Starving!” I sighed. The sound came out almost desperate. My stomach grumbled again, and I realized I hadn’t eaten since The Red Room. That must have been days ago.
“Seems the side effects are finally wearing off.”
I whirled around to see Adriel on the other side of the kitchen island. His tangled, wiry hair matched his scar quite well.
“What side effects?” I asked. I shouldn’t have taken the bait.
“Of what Soren did to you.”
“Adriel,” Winifred warned, narrowing her eyes at him. He shrugged but stayed silent, so she went back to her pan of sautéed mushrooms and bell peppers. “You just ignore him, sweetheart. He’s a miserable grump sometimes.”
I snorted at that, and Adriel stomped off toward the dining table, mocking Winifred’s words under his breath.
I came to stand beside the older woman as she scraped the vegetables into the pan of eggs. The sizzle of the oil came with a pop before I quietly asked, “How did Soren save me?”
“That’s not for me to tell you,” Winifred hummed, sliding the omelette onto a plate with five or six others of the same size. “Help me carry this to the table, please. Maybe you can ask Soren yourself if you want to know.”
She handed me the plate along with a platter of fluffy biscuits smothered in butter. She grabbed two plates of assorted meats and cheeses, and we both headed for the dining table.
“Now, boys, you need to put your toys away and make room for some food.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Rui Xi chimed, quickly gathering papers and books.
Soren came to take the plates from me and asked low for only me to hear, “Why were you so disappointed this morning when you woke up?”
My ears burned.
“I can feel every emotion you have.”
His back turned to me with a slight shake, as if he were chuckling to himself about my reaction. A reaction he couldn’t even see anymore.
My eyes widened with realization.
Soren had some way of feeling my emotions.
He wasn’t being romantic or possessive when he said that. It was the literal truth!
My heart hammered as I walked to sit at the other end of the table from Soren, where Salah had now taken a seat. Astrid joined a bit later, and soon we were all chatting and eating as if we weren’t hiding from the most dangerous army in the world while trying to save all of humanity.
With Salah and Astrid to keep me distracted, I almost forgot whose table we were sitting at, even as the man himself chatted quietly with Winifred and Soren.
After a while, Astrid finally asked the question I’d been wondering (but knew better than to ask anywhere near Soren).
“Where’s Zade?”
“Yeah,” Salah added. “And Marigold?”
Soren stared at me from the other end of the table.
Is he trying to read me right now?
At first, it was only curiosity.
Why would Zade and Marigold go somewhere together?
But the longer Soren examined me, the more it shifted toward anger. He didn’t need any special ability to read that, because I glared at him with my nostrils flaring.
I tried to exude as much disgust as I could so he would know it was not okay to intrude on my private feelings like that. It only cracked a smile in the corner of his mouth.
“They’ve gone to get the Jonathon bow,” Adriel bellowed.
“What?!” I sputtered, the whiplash of emotions cutting my concentration as my attention flung in his direction.
Soren continued watching me.
And my face told everyone else I was a little confused but mostly excited. No one needed special powers to read that.
Adriel laughed even louder.
But Soren was the one who answered. “I’ve told them where it is,” he said with a shadow of a smile. “So, they are going to fetch it.”
“No plotting at breakfast,” Winifred chided. “It’s important for us to take a breather from all of that, even for a little bit.”
Soren nodded at her and suddenly refused to look in my direction. I tried to catch Adriel’s attention as the others went on chatting, but he was obviously no help. I couldn’t be expected to drop the topic, could I?
Apparently, that was precisely what was expected.
With no luck of discreetly getting any more information on Zade and Marigold’s field trip, I ended up pulled into another conversation with Salah about her father’s history with the guild.
That then morphed into the fact that he had been friends with both Astrid’s dad and Rui Xi when they were young.
Something I probably would have known if the latter hadn’t abandoned me as a child.
The rest of the meal was plot-free and turned to lighter topics, fortunately. I didn’t feel left out this time, as old jokes and stories were rehashed among the guild members. Now, Astrid and I could be outcasts together.
After the final anecdote was shared and we carried the last plate back to the kitchen, Rui Xi stood and cleared his throat.
“Now that we have all been rested and fed—thanks to Winifred’s talented hands—we can begin the important work we are gathered together for.
” Everyone remained silent as he looked around the room, his pause an obvious reach for dramatic effect.
“Our first and most prominent task is deciding how we will take down Abadon together and save my daughter.”
My whole face burned. My eyes flitted to Soren, and his little nod told me that he knew I was angry. Then he mouthed the word ‘wait’ with a shake of his head.
But seriously, how dare this asshole call me his daughter!?
My fist tightened around my fork, and I ground my teeth.
He hadn’t changed at all and was in no way above using me now that I had some significance in his political world.
But what really irked me was how he expected anyone to believe he would be willing to help us go up against the Administration, given his reputation as a die-hard loyalist.
“As the Final Daughter of the Scepter,” Rui Xi continued, “I know Abadon will stop at nothing to get to her and prevent the Resurrection. I have heard wonderful things about you from my dear friend here,” he pointed with his glass toward Marve, “And I know you all care very much for Kai Xin. Though she probably does not believe me, considering our history, I will stop at nothing to keep her safe and protect her.”
I scoffed, drawing everyone’s attention. But I couldn’t care less about that. I wasn’t purposefully making a scene, but how could I silently go along with this charade?
After all these years!
Fortunately, Winifred spoke before the silence could stretch, or before I could open my mouth and start screaming profanities at the bastard.
“You are correct,” she said, looking around the table. “We love Eliana very much and want to protect her. We believe she will fulfill the prophecy of bringing down The Tower and ushering in the Anointed’s Resurrection.”
“And kill Azazel,” I grumbled, mostly to myself.
Astrid laughed beside me and patted my shoulder.
Soren was watching me again. Eyes narrowed.
“Don’t worry,” Salah said with the first genuine smile I’d seen on her face since The Last City. “No one has forgotten that part.”
“Alright, then,” Adriel slapped his hands on the table. “Let’s get to work on that plan then.”
We sat around the table for the rest of the day, plotting.
Well, not really sat. We stood, paced, and shouted at each other.
At one point, Astrid nearly climbed over the table to claw Soren’s eyes out when he suggested she stay behind because he didn’t trust her.
Adriel managed to coax her back down in a hurry to avoid the same treatment he himself often got from his millennia-long friendship.
Lots more arguments ensued, and I kept as far away from Rui Xi as I could.
I had no problem working alongside the others—even Adriel—but the moment my father opened his mouth, I dissociated.
Just completely shut down and iced my way out of whatever conversation I’d been in.
If I even tried to speak to him, I was sure I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from telling him what a complete piece of shit he was, and we’d get thrown out.
Or, I might just kill him and then get us all arrested by his creepy Mystery Mod, who kept hanging around in the background.