Life Lines

30: There's A Fine Line Between Love and Hate

Chapter Thirty

When Sally said it was a mixture of princess and eighteenth century, she wasn't kidding. The walls were sky blue with white borders to give it that "painting goes here" affect. Where Cecil had the chessboard type cabinets, I had a huge floor to ceiling wardrobe that surrounded what I assumed was the door to the bathroom. That was to my right. The princess part was directly in front of me, looming at me like a nightmare. The bed I liked. It had beautiful lavender patchwork comforter, giving the room just a touch of familiarity. But what was around the bed...well that was the problem.

There was sheer fabric mixed with white satin draping down from the ceiling making a canopy around the full sized comfy-ness that was calling my name.

The canopy was definitely too girly for me.

"Um..."

"You don't like it," Kells said a little crestfallen.

"It's not that I don't like it...there are aspects I love like the color and the bedspread but..."

"It's the princess parts," Cecil said staying in the doorway along with Jesse. "I told Sally she's not a princess person."

"Well, it's a good thing we can change it," Kells said happily. "I'm just glad you don't hate it entirely."

"Just get rid of the sheers and satin and we'll be good." I walked further in going over to look at the desk that sat against the wall to my left. Next to Cecil's room, this one was bare and spacious. There was no lived in feeling, like no one had entered the room since they finished designing it. There wasn't a personal touch anywhere in sight and I imagined if I looked in the drawers or in any of the wardrobe space, they would all be full of clothes but none of them mine. "It's nice."

"Nice is good enough." He sighed like he was expecting me to do something besides look around. "Sweetie, are you going to invite them in?"

I whirled around on my heel and looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"Hermai have to be invited into personal spaces," Kells said. "They can't come in unless you allow them to. Just like you can't enter their rooms without permission."

"So it's like a vampire thing?" I cocked my head to the side. "Then what are you doing in here?"

"I don't need an invitation. None of the...higher ups do."

"Uh-huh."

I drummed my fingers on my arm, thinking for a moment. "Do they have to be here?"

Cecil's face fell but Jesse didn't look surprised. "Normally you have someone you know sit in. You know, for comfort."

"Then can someone go find Schylar?"

"That's not allowed," Kells said, trying to draw attention away from the flinch and hurt look on Cecil's face. I was just dealing him blows left right and center. Maybe it was the Elite way of thinking that everything can be fixed once the truth comes out but it wasn't going to work that way. Not with me. "He's human. He can't come here and you're not allowed to tell him about any of this."

"Why?" I asked suspiciously.

"Well, unless you are planning on marrying him, he can't find out about any of this. If it's going to be too hard on you then..."

It dawned on me, my eyes growing wide. "Is that why...?" I pointed at nothing in particular. "You kept him from talking to me because you were afraid..."

"No," Kells shook his head, "there was more to your case than just lifelong best friends. All that needed to be done was issue Cyrus a command stating he couldn't tell you anything about the Elite. Which he did receive just like you will before you leave Agora. And yes, when we say all humans, we mean all humans."