Douce Dépendouce

Chapter 3

Meet at mine in half an hour we need to talk about something. Where are you?

"Shit," I said, looking at the time.

Quickly, I flung myself out of bed, shoving my phone in my pocket. I then excited my room, pulling on a pair of riding boots. Once I did so, I had one final look at myself in the mirror. I then checked for anything that could be related to last night, soon seeing nothing. I then grabbed my riding gloves and dashed back out into the rain, running back to the bus stop. Anxiously, I checked my phone, soon a bus coming up. I waved to it, showing my ticket on my phone and soon stepping on, heading my way over, my heart pounding.

Not too long after the bus dropped me off at Jaralehim, I was already panicking. I had no idea what this meeting could be, I was concerned even facing them. I sighed, soon seeing Lindas place. Reluctantly, I headed up the door stoops, soon turning the handle. I pushed forward, seeing the outline of her rug that laid on the ground. Once it was fully open, I stepped in, seeing everyone already here. I gave Linda a small smile when she looked up, her eyes flickering over me. Immediately, I felt everyone's gaze on me, making me start to sweat. Was there something I had missed? Had I missed something in the mirror?

I rubbed my hand on the back of my neck, trying to discreetly look in the small mirror that was placed near Lindas bed.

"You're here at last," Linda said, my eyes going to hers.

I smiled a bit, blowing out a breath as I sat down, waiting for her to speak. No one said a word, only staring at either me, or somewhere in the room.

"So-" I started, seeing Anne hold up a hand. I shut my mouth, swallowing.

I then looked at Linda again, soon seeing her look us all over. "So, the battle between us and Pandora has gone quiet recently, which is never a good sign. We need to start taking this in our hands, no one else can really."

Confused, I sat up a bit. "Did I miss something?"

"Not really," Lisa started. "We called last night and decided that we are going to start keeping a watchful eye on Pandora. The other Druids are too busy with their own situations to supervise the only one who we may get information off of."

"Who would that be?" I asked.

"Ydris," Linda said, my eyes whipping back to hers. "After the Time Clock incident a few months back, we haven't been back there for a bit. He could be up to anything really."

Building a battle with us and Pandora? Not even close.

Nervous, I swallowed, simply nodding. "I mean uh, maybe he's busy with his shows. Maybe that's more important to him than fighting a bunch of us."

Alex smirked. "That's what he wants you to think. He's strongly connected to Pandora."

I swallowed back the slight anger that filled my throat. "Do you really think a gentleman of his kind would want to try and kill teenagers?"

"It's not about that," Linda cut in. "Facts are straight; he's a Pandorain, knows information about the Dark Riders and possible Pandora's secrets more than we do, and has strong magic capabilities. After what he did and how he held Concorde you would seem to think straight about him."

Lindas words stung a bit as her eyes held onto mind hardly. I held a straight face, not bothering to say anything.

"Charming manor, easy to fall for," Anne added.

"Good God, enough about the French-man already." Alex grounded. "People may find him appetizing but he's powerful."

My eyes went to hers, followed along by Annes. Alex gave us a small smirk and soon looked at my expression. I then looked back at the ground, looking at Linda. "What's the plan?"

Linda sighed, giving Alex the brief death stare. "Well, since there's not much we can do, we'll watch him."

My eyes narrowed and my heart pumped.

"Spying?" Anne asked.

"No, because we are going to talk to him," Linda answered. "I don't want to risk getting frightened by that gester he has."

"So, are we going to actually talk to him?" I intervened. "And...ask him questions about Pandora?"

"Fishing for information in a way where we are not coming across as too obvious," Lisa added.

I simply nodded a bit, digesting the words as they rammed down my throat. I wasn't aware of my expression until I saw Alex eyeing me, her eyes settling on me.

"Who's gonna interact with him?" I said, now sitting on my knees as I avoided Alex's gaze.

"Well, I was thinking maybe you and Alex could?" Linda asked.

I felt myself freeze. I opened my mouth, trying to stop from blurting out my answer. "I-"

"Based on our last visit, he's mostly pissed at me, not much you to be honest," Linda said. "He'd be willing to talk to you out of the five of us, probably prefer it too."

I didn't have a chance to ask what Linda ment about that until Alex cut in, "He's been like that before, always never peeved off with you and pissed at us. Maybe he thinks of you."

I tried to laugh it off and roll my eyes at Alex's comment, but I felt my face go hot and my hands felt like they were swimming in sweat. The air that always felt welcoming and soothing from our past meets felt dense and dry as I tried to control my breathing. I knew that she may have meant that as a joke, but something about it nagged at me that she suspected something.

"I'm sure he's just friendly," I mumbled after a minute.

"Friendly my ass," Anne said.

"You and Alex will meet at the bottom of Nilmers tomorrow morning. You can both decide what to do and how to approach him, just be as careful as you can," Linda said.

I gave her a nod, my eyes still on my hands. I played with the rim of my boots, soon pulling out my phone, saved by the time.

"Looks like I'm on my way out," I said, looking back up at them. "Stable shift," I said, lying.

Linda rubbed her hands together, looking at her watch. "That settles it. You and Alex early tomorrow morning."

All I did was nod, quickly standing up and reaching for the door, stepping out and shutting the door behind me, stepping down the steps and sitting on the last one, letting out a deep breath. Why was I stressed? How would this affect us?

I was mainly worried about what Ydris was going to do. It would have only been one day since we had made a move and if he saw me back so quickly, I had no idea what he would say. Thankfully, Alex would be there. I didn't know if that would make it worse or better. Before I could think again, I stood up, soon heading back towards the bus stop, my brain swirling with emotions. 

  A/N: Just wanted to say thank you all for the views; I know it's not a lot, but I really appreciate you all taking the time to read this <3