A. Emeritus

Chapter 29

"Those two are actually adorable when they're asleep."

I move my head and notice I'm laying across Ember, as his face seems to be buried in the pillow.

"Valentino said the best way to wake Aster is to take her blanket, but he didn't say anything about if she's not using a blanket." Quintessence says, as I feel someone walking around the bed toward the window.

I begin to stretch and ready myself to move. Suddenly the curtain is pulled open and Ember shoots up as the sun hits the exposed side of his face. I'm pushed up into a sitting position that my spine was not ready to support and quickly fall over onto my pillow and groan.

"Special is busy today, he asked us to keep track of you two." Fire says, while Quintessence hands us each a bagel with cream cheese.

"I put the cheese on them while you were asleep. We figured we'd take you to the mall and let you act like teenagers while you still can." Fire adds, before looking at Ember as he drags his tongue along the open face of the bagel, slowly stripping the cheese off the round bread. "Is he..." Fire trails off, seeing me nod.

I stare in awe as Fire and Quintessence lead us through the city toward the mall.

"This is so different from home!" I exclaim, as Quintessence tugs my wrist, jerking me back into the moment. The short walk to the mall was likely much longer with the amount of times Ember and I stopped to look around.

As we approach the doors, Fire stops us.

"You guys need to stay by us, don't wander off. I really don't want to explain to Valentino that I lost either of you." He warns, "Aster, you have money, no?" I nod and motion to my bag. "Do you want to pull money out or just use the card?"

"I'll use my card, I can also cover stuff for Ember." I offer, and get ready to enter the mall.

"One last thing." Quintessence starts and I roll my eyes before facing him. "Try to remember to use our actual names," I pop an eyebrow. "You know what I mean, the ones on our passports. Do you know them?" I shake my head before speaking.

"I only know he's Emilio." I gesture toward Ember as he kicks the tip of his toe against the ground.

"I'm Omero, and Fire is Allessandro." I nod in understanding and once again ready myself to head in. I feel a hand on my shoulder and recognize Quintessence's rings.

We finally enter, and the first place to catch my eye is a book store, which I make a beeline for. A deep sigh comes from behind me, which I know is from Ember. I look around hoping to find anything interesting I could pick up here, and spot an employee shelving new books.

"Excuse me, do you have any books for teens in Italian?" I ask, receiving a confused look from the boy who is clearly not much older than Ember.

"Aster, you need to use English." Quintessence reminds, placing his hand on my shoulder. My eyes widen for a moment, and I repeat my question in English.

"Do you have any teen books in Italian?" He sucks his teeth, thinks for a moment, and stands.

"We don't have anything in Italian, that's not really a common request. But I can lead you to the juvenile section. And if you'd like I can put in an order for any books you find to be ordered for you in Italian." I look back to Quintessence, who purses his lips and lightly shakes his head.

"It would be great if you could show me where the juvenile fiction section is. I'll have to pass on ordering books in Italian, though."

As we're led to the juvenile fiction novels we quickly lose Ember in tall shelves. I quickly scan the shelves for something that would catch my eye, before deciding to move on and find Ember. The three of us wondered until we found Ember in the graphic novel section looking at books. Upon noticing my approach he hands me that book he was looking at, before holding up his hand and sliding a few shelves along and grabbing another book.