Chapter Seventy-One
Tristan’s Point of View:
That was close. That was so close it got my heart threatening to burst out of its place.
I had been expecting a sit-down discussion or, at the worst, a stand in front of the house, with a healthy dose of arguments from Fiona, before we were finally able to convince her to work with us. How wrong I was.
The first sign I had that things wouldn’t go our way was the purple-haired chick at the door.
She walked up to the door, took a deep breath, and the wrong time, kicking alternately with her feet at the door until Fiona opened up, looking tired and way thinner than the last time I had seen her. Was she locking herself in? What happened again?
The other girl looks around as Kira locks the door. I have to give her more credit than I thought, she’s pretty security conscious.
Though I guess most of the consciousness just comes from paranoia. In a split second between her sighting us and calling out my name, a big black iron drops from the sky and aims straight for the two friends.
The loud ugly screech wakes me from my casual walking style, and I break into a sprint. I got there in time to slide myself between the irons, which were frozen on the spot.
The force of my body shoves it away, and it lands on the floor with a bang. As if running on a premonition, I had taken some stimulants with me. I threw this over and everyone here was not keen to go the long and ugly route in front of Fiona.
I pulled her up from the hard cold floor and instructed her to not move from behind me. I get no response, but she stays put in my shadow till the creature is gone.
I sigh when it finally leaves without hurting anyone. I looked at Fiona, there was no question we should tell her now.
That’s the only way I’ll be able to rest easily concerning her welfare. I’ve found myself worrying constantly about her now.
Veronica, who had also ducked out of sight upon seeing the iron pop out, snapped us all out of our fixed staring at the point at which the iron melts on the floor.
She looks more like the woman in the picture when she addresses Fiona. If Fiona finds any of this weird, it’s not obvious in her reaction. Her friend offers to come with us when we ask Fiona to come talk with us, but Fiona turns her down, thankfully.
Things were breaking down pretty much but not to the point of letting random humans hear confidential information on our land and people, which is probably what this conversation is going to be about, anyway.
I offer Fiona my hand because she still looks a little shaken from the incident, but she turns it down. Oh well.
Veronica leads the way and we both trudge after her to her apartment.
Fiona’s Point of View:
Things are escalating faster than I can keep up with, which is probably why I’m following a total stranger and a semi-stranger to God knows where without any questions.
That seemed like an attack targeted against me since it was in front of my own house. How serious was all this, anyway?
Veronica pushes the door open and gestures at us. Tristan’s disposition suggests he has been here before and that’s my first puzzle.
What’s the correlation? How on earth do they know each other? “Where’s Thomas?” I asked, a little cautiously. We all took seats around the little table in the living room.
Veronica must know what direction my thoughts are in because she looks down. Tristan seemed to be looking at her, waiting for her to say something. However, when she just sits there, hands clasped, head bowed, Tristan starts to talk.
“Thomas is one of the reasons we’ve called you here, he’s gone missing.”
It takes a while for this to register in my head. Missing? But how and why? At this point, Veronica speaks up, telling me all about their argument and all her efforts at finding him.
To be frank, this coincidence is a big problem for me, so I open up, telling them all about Alex and how I haven’t heard from him since he traveled.
I’m not sure what to do, because he left a note. However, for one, I didn’t even see him leave; we went to bed together and when I woke up, he was gone, just leaving a note next to the board.
Two disappearances and not one clue, this was starting to feel weirdly like one of those shows I had come across in my movie-binging session, only that this wasn’t fiction, and it wasn’t fun or exciting. Veronica looks up at me after we spend a few minutes in silence.
“You might be the key to finding them both if you want.”
“Me? How?”
“As a rival…” then she stops and facepalms. Tristan chuckles at this.
It’s the first time I’ve seen any form of humor in him, and it’s cute, I must admit.
Veronica started to say again: “Brace yourself and pay attention, this is going to be a long one.”
Okay, I am intrigued now.
Veronica’s Point of View:
I’m not sure if I’m doing the right thing, teaming up with these kids without even alerting the inner council about the change in circumstances, but I do know I want my Tom back, as soon as possible and in good condition.
God knows what he was going through wherever he is. I remember one time when he was four, and I took him to a theme park for his birthday.
We had lost each other that day in the holiday rush and I had panicked, yelling and raving at the security agents until they had finally found him by the side of a sandbox, exhausted from crying and looking around for me.
Right now, I am feeling the same helplessness I felt that day. No, it was much worse now because then I had at least known where to look.
Fiona is my next possible hope right now and after that would be Harrington, the last place I want to go right now.
I couldn’t bear to tell Tristan the whole truth about why I was sent over here, just like I was skipping it out while telling Fiona the important things about why she was here and why we needed her help.
Thankfully, Fiona was silent all through my whole tirade, not even a question or comment.
For minutes after I was done, she was quiet and thoughtful. Today seems to be the day for poignant silences. Just when I’m starting to get impatient, she speaks up. So, what’s next?