Wings of Fire: Rise of the RainWing Queen

CHAPTER 4 - Sunny

"Jambu!" Glory shrieked. "Get me your phone!"

He stared at her blankly. "My what?"

Glory gaped at him for a second. "Your phone!"

"Oh, that." Jambu waved a hand dismissively. "I threw that in the river ages ago."

Her mouth dropped open. "What the - WHY?!"

"It went flat," he said, looking surprised. "It didn't even work for very long either. Just about five hours since I charged it. Anyway, it didn't work anymore, even when I plugged it into the portable charger, so I threw it away."

Glory slapped a hand to her face. Of course her ridiculous brother would do this. "Did you ever consider your portable charger was flat too?"

"Um. No? Was I supposed to consider that?"

"Yes!"

"Oh. Okay. Glory? I've just considered it."

Glory groaned. This was the most absurd thing ever, at the worst of times. "And?"

"I don't know. Am I supposed to say something deep and dramatically influencing?"

"I cannot deal with you anymore," Glory growled. "Get me Liana. Or Pineapple. Now."

Jambu brightened up. "I'll get Pineapple!" he chirped, standing up and scrambling off. Of course you would.

Glory tried to think about what to think about what Sunny had told her. But what could she think? The boyfriend she thought had murdered her grandmother for months hadn't killed her after all and his sister had instead and Glory had just found this out from her best friend who found it out from her little sister who mustn't have cared to tell her all this time.

It was . . . a lot to take in.

Jambu returned with Pineapple in tow, grinning madly. Pineapple, who was more serious, handed Glory his phone. She quickly typed in Sunny's number, thankful she knew it off heart, and started to call her.

Call pending . . . please hold . . .

Glory dialled again in frustration, then finally Sunny answered.

"Hi?"

"Sunny!" Glory said in relief. "My phone died."

"Oh? Whose phone is this?" Sunny sounded wary.

"Pineapple's."

Silence. And then -

"What did Fatespeaker, Tsunami and Kinkajou do to you when you and Deathbringer went on that date?"

"What the hell? Sunny, you may think I want to be reminded of this, but I don't," Glory snapped. "I need to know about Deathbringer and Grandeur! And Greatness? Her?! I trusted her! Somewhat, at least. She betrayed me?! Why?"

"What did Fatespeaker, Tsunami and Kinkajou do to you when you and Deathbringer went on that date?" Sunny repeated, her voice as hard and cold as ice.

Glory blinked. Sunny's tone was meant to be obeyed. "You filmed me and made Deathbringer do a bunch of stupid stuff and Tsunami posted the video to be an evil female dog."

"Thank the moons," Sunny breathed. Her voice floated back, guilty this time. "Sorry. I had to make sure it was you and not someone faking. We are in the middle of a war."

Since when was Sunny so distrustful? Glory wondered. "All good," she answered shortly. "Now explain."

Sunny sighed. "Long story short: Deathbringer was assigned to kill Grandeur. He refused. Greatness got mad because the NightWings would definitely kill him for failing, so she killed Grandeur instead to save Deathbringer. He got locked up for murdering those NightWings and everything, and Greatness made Kinkajou promise not to tell anyone she did it, or the NightWings would end up hearing of it and murder him, and she couldn't afford to take that risk. Kinkajou finally ended up telling me, by Deathbringer's request. And for the past two days that I've had this information, I've been notified of Deathbringer's escape from the volcano, and have been getting threatening texts from Greatness for the past few days as well, threatening my life and Kinkajou's life and a whole lot more. Okay. Done."