When Margaret and Tate entered through the gates, they saw Stella on the far left in a squatting position as she tried to get the best angle to take a picture of the bed of orange flowers swarming with ladybugs. The teenager zoomed in on one of the insects, muttering, “Don’t move. Don’t move. Just one second, and…”
In the microsecond before she tapped on the button, the ladybird she set her sights on flew away, and the teenager groaned before falling on her bum and sulking while she silently cursed the uncooperative insect. That was the moment when the same ladybird landed on her knee. Stella tried not to get too excited, and very carefully positioned her phone at the best angle she could get before taking a perfect snap. Her lips curled up into a successful grin as she squealed to herself.
Tate c
Tate sat by the fountain and gently pulled Margaret to sit next to him as he began, “Mom was a math teacher, and she’d throw a fit if I scored anything less than the highest mark in my class. When I was nine, the first time I was the second-highest in math, I erased my answer and wrote the correct one before going up to the teacher to ask for a review. That was the beginning of a very horrifying experience.”Margaret’s eyes sparkled with interest as Tate continued, “It turned out that my math teacher and my mom were friends, so when I got home, I was given an hour’s lecture, grounded on the night of a concert my friends and I bought tickets to six months prior, and, to my dismay, more math homework. There was so much that I started seeing numbers and math questions in my dreams.”Margaret chu
Tate’s heart stopped everytime Stella called him ‘dad’ around Margaret. The pessimistic part of him thought that Margaret would be angered and tell her daughter to stop acknowledging him like that. But when Margaret said nothing the first time, he felt relieved; the second time, he felt hopeful; the third time, which was now, he felt like the most blessed creature in the world. He matched Stella’s smirk when he said, “Says the one who’s trying to converge every conversation with me to only one topic.” “Which topic is that?” Stella questioned. “You’re doing it again.” “I know,” Stella chuckled, and as embarrassed as Margaret was, she couldn’t help but smile at her daughter’s happy face. There was no worry or
At around 8 p.m. in Polje, a hundred decipios led by a very excited Rafael join the werewolf and lycan monarch, ministers, warriors and rogues.Toby muttered in Lucianne’s way, “You got to admit, if they weren’t on our side, what we're seeing now is shit scary.”Lucianne murmured, “Not if you think about what’s at stake, how many creatures we have to protect.”Those words shifted Toby’s perspective, and the cold night suddenly became less cold.After exchanging bows and acknowledgments, Rafael and Toby got their species to partner-up, one decipio for every two lycans or werewolves. Rafael then threw out a stern reminder, “As I’ve mentioned before, we’
When they were far away enough, Rafael said, “May I just say that was a game well-played back there, Your High—”“It’s just ‘Lucy’, Rafael, really. And I wasn’t playing anything. Those two cousins hate each other more than anything or anyone. If they don’t improve when everyone else does, I WILL be practicing with my husband despite the risks.”Rafael took a peek at his best friend now manipulating the king and duke before he said, “I doubt the king and duke would let that happen, Lucy.”When they reached the tree, Lucianne asked, “So, who am I fighting, Rafael?”With a warm smile, Rafael said, “Me.”
As Xandar took steps towards his wife with a proud smile, Toby’s voice of mock discontentment cut through the silence, “You got to admit, that wasn’t really fair. Lucy had a rock nearby. I didn’t.”His vampire partner, Joseph, turned to him and said, “You did, Tobias. You tripped over it.”When laughter ensued from wolves, lycans and vampires, Toby accused, “That was only because you manipulated me into thinking that there wasn’t anything there, Joe.”“No, I didn’t. I was only trying to manipulate you to see your friend, Lovelace, as your enemy. The absence of a rock was the result of your self-manipulation, minister.”When Toby ran out of
Xandar and Greg shared their thoughts with Pellethia, who was more than ready to see it in action. Practice began. When they felt the mental walls beginning to build up, both cousins closed their darkening eyes, letting the manipulation guide them towards the illusion they were being made to see. Pellethia moved from her original spot, walking around them but being careful to manipulate the cousins’ hearing so that they couldn’t hear her footsteps.Without sight, Xandar and his animal could only rely on their sense of smell, sound and touch. Their ears picked up growls from at least ten creatures, but their nose only detected two creatures within his vicinity. One was moving. One wasn’t.Greg only heard one snarling creature, but it didn’t sound like a wolf or lycan, more like a vampire. Scents guided him to a
“Greg,” Xandar uttered in disapproval of the duke’s manner of speaking to Pellethia.Pellethia’s brows raised, waiting for him to rephrase. Greg took this as a start to practice lowering his ego and swallowing his pride when he heaved a sigh and muttered, “May I know what that means?”Pellethia began explaining, “It means that we see the number of figures and objects around you, but we don’t see who or what these are.”“Really?” Xandar asked in absolute surprise.Pellethia nodded in confirmation and elaborated, “Take our recent practice, for example. I knew the number of creatures I’ve set around you both but I don’t know who they we
The mental practice with the decipios drained the lycans and wolves, who were all obviously unfamiliar with their power, and most of them slept in the next day. Lucianne and Xandar only woke up when Reida demanded diaper changes and feeding, and the parents were utterly (and guiltily) relieved that Mrs Parker was coming at noon to babysit. They’d have a few more hours of rest while Reida was in the caretaker’s safe hands.After a short nap, Lucianne went to her reading wonderland and started reading one of Iridessa’s two theses on prisoner reentry, which Ivory handed to her before they parted ways the previous night. She only left the bedroom for ten minutes before her husband came looking for her.It took Xandar zero brain power to figure out where she had gone. He groaned at the emptiness of the bed and drag