The stakes are higher than ever.
It's been months since the four managed to temporarily defeat and escape Laurel, Amber, Kali and the others but the four's problems are far from over. Forced to live with their guilt and still plagued by nightmares o...
ओह! यह छवि हमारे सामग्री दिशानिर्देशों का पालन नहीं करती है। प्रकाशन जारी रखने के लिए, कृपया इसे हटा दें या कोई भिन्न छवि अपलोड करें।
Huntalia-Rosalia's POV:
After explaining what happened when Leila and I had followed our bad feeling before we all lapsed into silence. An odd, strained silence that was at odds for us since we were normally so close to each other. Especially after the years, we'd spent together since we'd met. But it couldn't be helped, each of us was lost in our thoughts about how to figure out a solution to the issue that had arisen.
"I say we speak to their friends before we do anything else," Mara says out of the blue after a long hour's silence between those of us still gathered in the room. Opposite her Chalice regards her friend steadily over a glass of amber liquid that seems to shine in tune with the shifting tones locked in the flames behind her. "They may know something that we wouldn't since we weren't there before," Mara shrugs and raises her hands in defeat the longer our blonde friend keeps looking at her that way. But I think she may be right.
"That's a good idea, they may have been the last people to see Kalli, Kessal, Braeden or Dana other than Amber and the others," My half-sister's name tastes foul in my mouth, like rot and decay, but I can't ignore her in the hopes that she'd go away. She was staying and causing issues. We all knew that. "I'm not saying they'll be able to fix this - or offer us the solution - but we have to try. We're out of time to do much else."
Silence follows my words and it makes me sick to my stomach. I hate that Amber can come between us and threaten our kids. That she can hurt us like that continually as she knows how important the kids are both to us and the prophecy to stop her. I know how much the others hate what I'm saying and I hate it too. I hate having to involve more and more people in this already precarious situation just to avoid having to face the fact that I may have lost Kalli long before I had to. But I also know from my gut feeling that what I'm saying is true. We are running out of time to do much else and if we don't act now we may lose the other four forever since I know Amber's threats aren't to be taken lightly. Or ignored.
Leila catches my eye across the room and arches a brow, her sky blue eyes troubled with what to do. Are you sure that's the best solution Rose? I know you mean well but is involving other people any more a sensible solution than ignoring Amber entirely? Her mental tone is sceptical and I don't blame her, given other circumstances - and her being the one to suggest it - I would be too. But we don't have time to second guess either ourselves or each other. Too much is at stake.
Not really but they're already involved so what harm is there in asking them a few simple questions? I fire back when I realise what my words mean. They were already involved. All Dana and Kalli's friends were linked to those of us in our generation still playing, making them involved by both default and association. Something that makes me feel a little better about involving a group of kids in a battle that even as adults we couldn't win. But I think we have to come clean to them when we find the other four. About what's going on here and what all this means.
The words are hard to say, tasting heavy with regret and anxiousness in my mouth. Sticky and lingering. But I know we have to. Amber's threats and blatant kidnapping of the four mean that we're already running out of time, and faster than we can grip hold of it. A fact that terrifies me since I'm already afraid of losing Kalli and Dana just as I know the others are. But that doesn't mean we can keep them in the dark until we want to. Until we originally agreed to. Amber won't let us and I get the feeling that the time we have left with the two is slowly slipping away faster than we'd want it to.
