15. Isabella
The following morning, I am faced with a very irate Emma over breakfast.
“What’s the deal?!” She angry-whispers. “I thought we were leaving!”
“Change of plans,” I say as I load up my plate with fresh eggs.
“Yeah, I heard,” she shoots back. “Even from the other side of the freaking palace.”
“Someone’s jealous,” I tease.
“Isa, I’m serious. I tell you I don’t trust this beast, and you decide to bang him all over the place? Excuse my language, but what the fuck?”
“There’s a reasonable explanation, Emma.”
“What? For all the skeletons?!”
“Yeah. Just hear me out, okay?”
The drones bring us fresh coffee as I relay the tragic story Asterion told me. The betrayal, the war, the thousands of years spent sleeping. She listens attentively, and while she’s not one hundred percent convinced at the end of it, she at least sees my point.
“So you trust this guy?” Emma asks. “Like, for real?”
“Yes,” I say firmly. “I do.”
“He could be lying.”
“I don’t think so.”
Emma sighs and takes a sip of her coffee. We stand up and walk towards the window, and gaze out over the beautiful city. In the morning, as the sun rises and coats the white building with its orange glow, it looks especially captivating.
“This place is too pretty to hand over to Darius Blackthorn,” I say. “He doesn’t deserve it.”
“Now that is something we both 100% agree on,” Emma says.
As we watch the birds flying around and the drones going about their daily drones, tidying up the place, something catches my eye.
A dot. A little speck in the far-away distance, barely noticeably, but I see it anyway.
And then, it gets bigger. And bigger.
My stomach sinks, and a wave of nausea runs through my body.
It’s a ship.
It’s the Guild.
They’re here already.
A sudden alarm sounds. Birds scatter. Emma spills her coffee.
It’s happening.