Midnight Shades

Chapter 9

"You owe me ten bucks, Wren." Esme smirks as she says and my eyes widen.

"You guys bet on that?!" I question in disbelief.

"Her idea, not mine!" Wren raises her hands up in surrender as a chuckle escapes her mouth.

"Which was a very good idea, seeing as I already earned myself ten bucks." Esme continues smirking.

"Fuck you." Wren laughs as she says.

"You guys are so fucking weird." I shake my head, a small smile creeping its way to my face.

"That's why we're best friends." Esme shrugs as she hands me the Cheetos for Cronan. "Here."

"I forgot about it. Thank you!" I thank her and take it.

After a few moments of silence and us nearing the village, Esme speaks up again as she says, "You guys ready for the training next week?"

"I'm scared as shit." Wren admits, shuddering.

"I'm just nervous, I guess." I admit, too.

"Why are you scared, butt-head? You'll have Harry training you. What's better?" Esme scoffs.

Coming to think about, I really think that having Niall and Harry will make things a bit less nerves wrecking, though I have no idea if they will the ones who are going to train us or not, or how do they act when they are training. I just hope it is not too bad.

"True," Wren replies back to Esme. "But I haven't seen the training side of him. So, I can't judge." She finishes and shrugs.

"I can't argue. But," Esme's smirk returns and I have to suppress a grin because I know that she's going to make a sarcastic remark. "You're his oh-so-sweetie-pie precious baby girl. So, I'm sure he won't be hard on you."

"I hate it when he calls me sweetie pie." Wren cringes and scrunches her nose in disgust.

"It's not like he loves it, too, he's only bothering you." I laugh as I say.

"Don't talk, so soon you'll have someone to bother you, too." Wren says to me and winks, making me give her my middle finger.

"And I'll just rot single. Wow." Esme sighs and I laugh.

"And you'll die one, too." Wren states, sticking her tongue out for Esme.

"It's too early to think about that." Esme winks and we both chuckle.

The rest of the walk back to village is filled with conversations about our training next week, and what will happen then.

Basically, training is like a university that you sign up to, though the only difference between them, is that you have no idea what are you signing up for. Esme and Wren were supposed to sign up earlier, but they waited for me, and I'm beyond grateful for that, I would be a mess without them, especially in something like that.

I have no idea what will we be trained to do, and I think that what actually scares me the most and sends me over the edge. I hate not knowing what is about to happen, exactly like everything with Louis. Never, ever, have I thought that he might have noticed me before. I would have never thought that he might kiss me, and I absolutely hate that. I hate not knowing what is about to come.

We finally reach the village; The Midnight Gate, and just like every time, we climb over it, and land carefully and silently, knowing that we will be in deep shit if we ever get caught.

It is kind of ironic how we have never been caught before. We have been doing that for over two years now, and we have never been caught, and it scares me. It absolutely frightens me, because what if one time we got caught? And worse, what if we got punished?

I rip these thoughts out of my head as we sneak behind the cottages.

Wren stops immediately as our cottages come to our view. We immediately turn to her to question about her stop but we are silenced when she raises a finger to her lips, hushing us.

"What?" Esme whispers.

"I think someone's around." Wren answers and looks around her.

Did you really have to think about getting caught today, Tallulah?

I suck in a deep breath and look around me, too; searching for any sign that someone is around but find none. Just as I'm about to turn around to assure them that we are clear, a deep, raspy voice stops me.

"Ladies." My blood turns cold inside my veins as my lips open slightly.

My heart – for the millionth time in the past twenty four hours – beats so fast against my chest, but this time, it's not out of nervousness, or love, it's out of complete and utter fear.

Slowly, the three of us turn around to face him; Esme's father.

Our chieftain.

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