Chapter 10

Chapter

Ten

The second we walked in the door, Elaine was there with wide eyes and pursed lips. Her eyes were red-rimmed like she'd been crying.

I smiled when I saw her, and she rushed over to me. "You stupid child! You took twenty years off my life." She pulled me into a quick hug and then all but shoved me away, looking angry.

I laughed. "I didn't mean to."

"Aisling!" three voices said in unison.

"They don't know," Elaine mouthed to me, and I spun to see the triplets descend on me.

My sisters all had identical black bob haircuts with bangs, and wore matching purple overalls with white tops. They were in a phase where they wanted to dress the same and try to trick people into knowing which was which.

"Oh my stars, her hair looks so cool," Victory said.

"We need to dye half of ours immediately," Virtue agreed.

"Yessss," Valor echoed.

"No one is dyeing their hair," my father said. "I'm going to get some work done. Celebration dinner is at eighteen hundred hours," he said, and then left the room.

Celebration dinner? That was unexpected and nice.

"Is it true you bonded with a Talanagi and almost died?" Valor asked.

"Yeah, Father said you were in the hospital hooked up to machines and weren't going to make it," Virtue said.

Victory simply walked over and fell into my arms. She was the sweet, affectionate one. The others had let the puberty hormones take control and had gone feral.

I met Elaine's gaze and she nodded as if saying to go along with the story.

"Yep. All better now though!" Which was weird. My entire body had been burned, my back clawed up, and now I looked like I didn't even have a scratch on me.

There was a knock at the door.

"That will be Tetra," Elaine told me. "I called her and told her you were… feeling better. Come on, girls. Let's finish your studies for the day."

They groaned but trailed after Elaine.

I answered the door timidly, unsure what to expect.

Tetra flew into me, pulling me in for a bone-crushing hug. "Holy stars, Ash," she sobbed into my ear as her wolf creature walked a circle around us, rubbing up affectionately against my leg. "I saw you… dead," she whimpered.

I squeezed her back, so damn glad she was alive, and then she pulled away from me, wiping at her eyes.

"I… was reborn?" I felt weird using the word, but I couldn't think of another one.

She peered behind me, as if looking for my father. They didn't like each other very much. "Let's walk the garden?" she said.

I nodded and followed her out. She leaned on her cane as her creature, Ariyel, trotted beside her.

"You bonded a wolf, Tetra! Is your mom proud?"

She grinned. "Very. But mostly just glad I'm alive."

We walked through the rose garden and to the bench we usually hung out at. My best friend sat down and faced me.

"Tell me everything. Because the last thing I saw, Kohen had you limp in his arms, half covered in burns, and he was screaming for a medic, with a dragon flying above him. Aisling, what in the hell happened out there?"

I took a deep breath and told her everything, holding nothing back. I told her how Kohen had snuck out to hunt for Talanagi and how I'd followed and then gotten into a fight with one myself. I told her about the bond, dying, and then floating in the blackness. Then how I had to fight the fire beast and woke up in a body bag.

"Holy crap, you're immortal," she whisper-screamed, looking over her shoulder as if one of our gardeners would kill her for saying such a thing.

I swallowed hard. "I don't know about that."

She peered at the sky. "Where is your creature?"

I followed her gaze, sighing. "I don't know." I felt her, barely, just sort of an awareness in my mind with no clear picture.

The first week after bonding, you never left your creature's side. It was the most important time to cement that bond.

"You're sure you bonded?" she asked.

"Yes!" I said defensively. "Maybe she's being reborn too. I don't know." I tapped my chest. "But I… feel her. We're definitely bonded."

I had half a mind to go back to The Wilds right now and look for her. Was she stuck in Luska? If Kohen's creature made it out, why not her?

Tetra nodded. "She'll show up. I heard that Talanagi are standoffish. Even Kohen's dragon isn't with him right now."

I raised an eyebrow. "You've been hanging out with Kohen?"

She snort-laughed. "Not like that. We got our itinerary today. Boot camp starts tomorrow. I saw him."

My head reeled back. "Boot camp? We bond with our creatures and they give us a few days before—" my face fell. "How long was I gone?"

Tetra shifted in her seat. "Three days."

I stood, unable to sit with news like that. "Three days!" Holy crap. What if the coroner had incinerated me!

"Boot camp starts tomorrow?" I asked, feeling completely blindsided.

She nodded. "And tonight is a huge party at Sleuth. Everyone will be so happy to see you're okay."

I swallowed hard. "I dunno. I need to ask my dad. I mean, how many people know…?" That I died, was what I wasn't able to say.

"Just me, Anika, Kohen, and three imperial soldiers who your dad paid off and then threatened with death if we told. Aisling, you can't hide in your house forever. You need to start your training." She smiled.

Holy crap. Anika saw me dead? Kohen too. How would I explain this? Should I explain this? Maybe they would have mistakenly thought I was dead but I could say my father's medical team brought me back to life.

"Are Roc, Alek and Dev okay? I left them sleeping by the fire."

She nodded. "Roc bonded a lynx, Alek a hawk, and Dev a vulture."

A vulture? Yikes, I didn't even want to know what kind of magic that creature had, but going on day three Dev was lucky to bond anything at all I guess.

"Club Sleuth?" I asked. My dad hated the dance club but would often let me go if it were in a group and I promised to be home by midnight.

She nodded. "Eight-thirty."

"Alright. I'll pick you up at yours before?"

She smiled, squeezing my shoulders. "A firebird. Aisling, you're my hero."

I grinned the entire walk back to my house.

The family celebration was okay. We ate dinner in relative silence, and then when the chocolate cake came out, the triplets started fighting over whose piece was bigger and the kitchen turned into a warzone.

"I'm going to my office," said Father. "Congratulations, Aisling. I'll have Admiral Caruso send me your itinerary for tomorrow. I believe you are to report at oh seven hundred. You cannot begin boot camp without a creature, so hopefully she shows up, yes?"

That was a veiled insult. My father was a master at them.

I nodded. "Yes. I hope so too. Hey, Father? Can I go with Tetra to Club Sleuth and be home by midnight? Everyone is celebrating bonding with their creatures and I don't want to start the year off seeming like I'm not one of them."

My father's gaze narrowed. "You're not one of them. You're the future empress of this entire country," he said sternly.

"Yes, Father. I meant… it would help me to bond with them so that they would one day follow my commands when I am in a leadership role." My father needed things to be laid out for him practically.

"Okay, take the car and be home by curfew," he said curtly, and left.

I looked at Elaine, who had just reached out and smacked Valor's hand. "If you don't all shut your mouths and stop fighting, I'm eating all three of those slices and you get nothing."

The girls straightened, ceasing the argument immediately, and began shoveling their slices down before Elaine could take them.

Elaine never made a threat she didn't intend to back up. She'd eaten many of my desserts, and even though I hated it at the time, I respected her for it. She was a woman of her word. So when she said she had your back and would always look out for you, you could trust that too.

I met her gaze and we both smiled. Then she shook her head. "A Talanagi, Aisling?"

I grinned. "Too cocky?"

She pursed her lips and rolled her eyes, but then her gaze fell to the entryway of the kitchen where my father had returned to his study. "Just… lay low, follow the rules, and be good, okay?"

I nodded, reading her loud and clear. I wasn't going to press my luck.

"I want to meet your creature!" Victory whined.

"Yeah what's her name?" Valor begged.

"Liana," I told them.

"Will she let us pet her?" Virtue said.

I shrugged. "You can ask."

Where was she? Did she die and not get reborn like me? I knew spending the first week after bonding together was crucial, but I didn't know how crucial. What happened if she didn't show up by oh seven hundred tomorrow morning?

"Why don't you go get ready? And then these three need to bathe." Elaine gave Victory the stink eye.

Victory rolled her eyes. "Elaine, we are not children. You don't need to tell us when to bathe."

Elaine's hand snaked out lightning-quick and grabbed the last chunk of chocolate cake off of Victory's plate and shoved it into her mouth.

"What was that you were saying?" Elaine asked through the mouthful with a twinkle in her eye.

Victory crossed her arms and groaned. "Yes, ma'am."

I couldn't help but smile. It was nice to see the girls getting the same treatment I had growing up.

Elaine did not tolerate eye rolling or any level of sass, and there was a comfort in that.

Verik picked up Tetra and then dropped us both off at Sleuth.

"I will be back at eleven forty-five to pick you up. Be outside and ready to go," Verik said.

I nodded.

I would normally have driven my motorbike, but the fact that my father told me to take the car meant he wasn't comfortable with that right now, and I was trying to do everything he said so that I didn't piss him off before I went to boot camp for a month.

The entrance to Sleuth had a line wrapped around the block, creatures standing by their humans waiting to get in. We walked right up to the front, bypassing the line. The bouncer took one look at me and his mouth opened in surprise.

"Miss Everhart, what a pleasure." He unhooked the red velvet rope that blocked the door and allowed Tetra, her creature, and me, to step inside.

I felt a little bit like a douchebag just cutting the line, but if you couldn't use your family status to get to the front line into clubs then what was the point?

The second we stepped inside, we were assaulted with loud music. Some live band was strumming away at their guitars and screaming into the mic. Not exactly my favorite type of tunes. I was into the more melodious lyrical stuff.

The thing that made Sleuth so cool was that the building was converted from an old warehouse. There was room for humans and creatures, which wasn't always the case. A few imperial soldiers stood at the edge of the room, eyes tracking me as I passed.

Great, my dad sent babysitters.

Tetra watched my gaze. "They could just be here to protect all of us, because of the war."

I shrugged. After the Blackout, we went to war with Imbria, and now that we'd merged with them, we stood united against our common enemy.

Luska.

The Luskins hated us and were constantly trying to inch into our borders and redraw maps, taking more and more of our land. They'd poisoned our reservoirs, set traps for our creatures, all because we had the most ember and they wanted it.

"Then why are they staring at me?" I asked Tetra.

She shrugged. "Because you are their boss' daughter. If anything happens to you, it's their head."

She was right, but I still didn't like it.

We finally met up with a group of people we recognized and I let my gaze scan over them to rest on Jace.

His arm was in a sling; he had a cut on his face which was sutured up, and standing beside him was a black puma, nearly identical to Zuri. Wow, I hadn't known how much like my father he was until now.

I swallowed hard as his gaze ran the length of my body, brows bunching together in confusion. I still hadn't processed the fact that he cheated on me, the ultimate betrayal. Our carefully-laid-out future was gone before I could see it realized. Maybe it was better that way.

"We heard you were clinging to life in the hospital?" Jace said.

And there wasn't a scratch on me now.

"I'm all better now," I stated.

One of his friends peered behind me. "Where is your creature? We heard it was a Talanagi, but no one knows what kind."

I understood their curiosity but it still made me uncomfortable to speak about. Before I had to answer, Anika's voice came from behind me.

"None of your business," she snapped to the boys. "You'll find out tomorrow with everyone else."

I spun with a smile and gave her lioness a nod. Anika had small scratches all up and down her arms that were healing, and she shook her head as she peered at me. Pulling me in for a hug, which surprised me, she pressed her lips to my ear. "Go to the bathroom alone. Kohen needs to talk to you."

She then pulled away from me. "Glad to see you're feeling better, princess," she said for all to hear.

My blood ran cold at the mention of Kohen needing to talk to me, but I gave her a fake smile.

"Thanks." Then I looked at Tetra. "Hey, I gotta pee. Be right back."

Tetra moved to follow me but Anika snaked out and stopped her. "No, hang with me. I want to talk more about what you missed in The Wilds."

I gave Tetra a thumbs-up and a smile and made my way to the women's restroom at the back wall. Zig-zagging between hundreds of candidates and creatures was a challenge, but I finally made it. As I headed for the women's bathroom, the door to the left opened and then I was yanked inside.