Chaos (Sequel to Agony)

Chapter 40

||"I didn't want to care, but somehow, like always, I did."||

They had to take two cars now that Nik was joining them to the school, and Wanda was thankful that Pietro decided to take the second car with Crystal, because she wasn't sure Nik was ready to ride alone with him, at least not while Pietro was still apprehensive about Nik being here.

So she rode with Nik and Emma, her fingers fidgeting slightly as she thought of training with Jean and Charles.

She wasn't sure what they were going to have her do, but knowing Nik was going to be there with her made her feel ten times better.

He always found a way to calm her down.

Emma looked better than she did the night before, and seeing her walk out with her training attire on stripped some of the tension in Wanda's shoulders. The White Queen was back.

"Is Mr. Xavier a telepath as well?" Nik asked from the backseat, his head popping up in between Emma and Wanda up front.

"One of the most powerful telepaths I have ever met," Emma answered, smiling to herself. "Charles' knowledge of genetics really helped him understand our people better. Though he hasn't been able to uncover the great old mystery."

Nik leaned forward, intrigued. "The mystery of what?" he asked, his eyes glued to Emma.

"Of me," she answered, and Nik's cheeks went red and he sat back in his seat and stared out the window. Wanda turned in her seat to look at him, and realized that his eyes were now closed, his head tilted to the side, leaning against the open window. He was listening, to the wind, to the trees, to the animals.

Do you want to know what happens when people forget to listen? They forget to live, Wanda

She never quite understood what he meant about that.

Without disrupting him, she sat back in her seat and looked over at Emma.

The White Queen was focused on the road ahead, but Wanda could tell her thoughts were on something else.

"Are you okay?" Wanda asked her, the question hushed.

Emma's hands gripped the steering wheel a little tighter, and Wanda was sure she saw Emma's skin glisten, on the verge of changing form. But the White Queen loosed a breath and put a smile on her face. "Of course, Wanda."

"You don't have to pretend with me, Emma," Wanda said, shifting in her seat so that she was now facing her. Nik was still sitting with his eyes closed, humming quietly to himself. "I know what Pietro told you has been eating away at you since he said it, and I'm sorry—"

"Pietro already apologized, Wanda."

"But have you forgiven him?"

Emma glanced at Wanda, those glacier eyes showing no sign of emotion. "'Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this. Men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget.'"

She didn't add anything after that, so Wanda spent the remainder of the car ride turning over her words, trying to understand them. But by the time they pulled into the mansion, she had only figured out that Emma may have forgiven Pietro, might even have told him it was okay, that she understood, but the words he spoke to her would forever be tattooed on her heart like a terrible memory.

"An actual mansion?" Nik asked, jumping out of the car. "This is incredible."

Wanda stood by the trunk of the car, watching as Crystal pulled in right behind them, the sound of Pietro's voice arguing with her growing louder as they neared. She shook her head and walked over to Nik, who was already moving quickly up and down the driveway, admiring the architecture of the school.