The Second (The Immortal Prophecies: Book I)

XXVI. Lincoln

"You and your mammoth mouth. One of these days, you're gonna wear my patience to the point where my torture methods will reside to dragging Phyllis here to do it for me." Normally, Alex's way of lending a hand wouldn't even tickle my anger, but yapping his mouth to Emma pushed that. Especially when I was on thin ice.

Watching him cower in fear of his mom did the trick to get the message through, though. But even I was too coy to face the wrath of her smite 'advice'. "You can't be serious, dude. Come on, wait up, don't do this to me--I've been chain-free for two years. I'm sober! You have no clue what it's like to be under the same roof with her. I haven't lived yet!" I rolled my eyes at his pleads, mentally telling myself that I'd been there and done that. I may not have lived under the same roof for long, but the difference between us was that Alex was her son.

And I was my father's. Nothing said family like banishing a kid to watch the family name stay pure.

"Alex, shut up. The orphanage is filled with kids who are awake--they don't need you to scare them for that. Besides, you don't have permission to go to Gwen's room, so get lost." I wasn't angry, for the most part, but having him squirm under me was entertaining. It was my revenge for all those times he caught me off guard as kids to pull his stupid pranks on me. He was an only child, and having my attention on him like I was the younger one did the works on his esteem over the years.

"Art thou pissed? If aye, thou servant will grovel at thou's stinketh feeteth. I promiseth." Idiot.

He stuck to me like gum on a shoe all the way through, poking his head from behind a shoulder to check my temper, me swatting the air for the pesky fly. Stopping, I let him hit my back before going inside Gwen's room. "You stay here. I got in enough trouble last time, so I don't need your help to get in any more, got it?" He saluted me like a soldier before I went in, letting myself get amused for the first time that morning. And now that I was in the process of waking her Highness up, my thoughts flew into regretting not making Alex my shield. My hands fit together for a small prayer before I began to shake the figure under the sheets, which looked a little too...lumpy-bumpy.

Her shoulder was smaller than I remember, and her outline was more disfiguring than the last time I did this. Carefully, I peeled back the sheets just to find a blonde head moving to face me, showing big saucer eyes of curiosity. And it wasn't just one, the other end of the bed came to life, springing a similar yellow head looking at me like I was the boogeyman. "Uh...you're not...Gwen?" Frazzled, I contemplated if I had the wrong room, which wasn't possible. Right?

Having two little girls stare at me wasn't helping me think, either. Not when the situation could've been interpreted completely wrong--a sick haze of deja vú hit me.

"Er, Lincoln?" Gwen stepped in to help her roommates (I assume) get off the bed, raising a brow at me.

"Who's Lincoln?" The taller of the two asked. We glanced at each other, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation that was age appropriate.

"He--er, we work together at one of my jobs, Phoebe. You remember me telling you that. It's a reason I'll be gone most of the mornings." I nodded, adding to the story. The girl thought about it before looking at me, agreeing with us, bringing me relief. A while later, they were taken by one of the staff to go to school, leaving Gwen and me in the room. "It's a bit early," she quipped.

And yet, we were both up. "Yeah, but I figured you'd be awake by now," I paused. "Before you went to school, which you're not. My head isn't in a good place, alright? Sorry. It is early, but I thought you might take the opportunity of extra time when you train today." She froze.