Secret Wings

Chapter 28

Apparently, Bree did have a sense of humor. It was just a dark sense of humor that she pulled out at the worst times, but considering her personality you couldn't hold it against her. At least she had one, which was surprising enough in itself.

Being Aiden's best friend, Chase must have heard his fair share of weird humor, yet he did not seem amused at all by Bree's 'jokes', if they could even be called that.

Bree scoffed. "Don't look at me like that. Stupid questions get stupid answers, Chase. We need to go up to the closest town and wait for reinforcements. I sent a message as soon as I heard the scout's report."

Chase did his best not to scowl. "You know I am your second in command, right? That means you have to share these kinds of decisions with me."

Bree raised an eyebrow. "Exactly, second in command, so -"

"That's enough," I interrupted. I could see both of their tempers rising -at least Chase's, Bree still didn't show much emotion - and this really wasn't the best moment for them to have a fight. Before I could stay so though, Bree brushed me off.

"Look, Princess," She said, spitting the word out, "We're having an actual grown-up conversation here. Go be a useless burden somewhere else."

It was funny how the word 'princess' could be said in such different ways: sometimes almost reverently, like with the guards, and sometimes like it referred to a piece of trash, as when Bree said it. For a second, I wondered which way Chase said it, but found I couldn't recall him ever calling me princess; it was always just 'Hailey'.

"Do not talk to Hailey like that," Chase gritted his teeth. He looked angry, now.

"No, it's fine, I get it." I was getting fed up with her behavior and realized I couldn't try to keep the peace with Bree anymore. I much as I hated it, I was going to have to start fighting fire with fire. "I get it, Bree needs to boss people around to make herself feel important. Well, Bree, why don't you go yell at some innocent little kid, or something? You see, this city is about to be under attack, and I actually want to make sure none of my people get harmed."

She opened her mouth, and I knew I had to stop her before she could make a mean remark that would blow off my newly-found confidence. "No, Bree. As you were so pointedly reminding Chase, you rank above him. Well, guess what? As the princess, I also outrank you. Get out of my sight and do something useful for once. Now. That's an order."

Bree gaped at me as I whipped around as elegantly as I could -thankfully without tripping: a true ice-queen- and walked briskly away from her.

"Wow," Chase caught up to me.

"Yeah..." I trailed off. I felt kind of bad about what I said to her, and I was sure I had came off as a spoiled brat, but then again I felt my actions were also necessary.

Chase seemed to understand my mixed feelings about what I had just done as he didn't say anything else about it. He waved over a boy, the same yellow-winged messenger as before, and asked for a report on the current situation.

"Roughly three forth of the village has been evacuated. Only warriors remaining, mostly. The elite archers are ready and in formation at the tree tops, as ordered."

"Good," Chase said. "Ask Bree for a definite location we should all head to. Tell her she better know. Also tell her I'd be delighted to hear the back-up plan her genius mind should have came up with -at least I hope she has one. I would be very disappointed otherwise."

The messenger's eyes widened a bit. He must have guessed from Chase's irritated tone that they had a disagreement, and I did my best to send him a reassuring smile. The last thing we needed was people worrying about the the behavior of the ones supposed to be in control.

Chase looked down at his watch as the boy flew off.

"Thirty seven minutes left."

I started. "What? But we had two hours just a second ago!"

"Time flies by when you're having fun," Chase said grimly. Then he must have caught sight of my increasingly alarmed expression as he added, "Sorry."

I sent him a meek smile. I still couldn't believe we had so little time left. In half an hour, people will be here, probably laying waste to the whole place, killing any remaining people, and-

"Hailey, stop worrying," Chase said softly.

I didn't say anything.

"Come on," he put a comforting hand on my shoulder, "we need to get you safely into the woods, now."

"What? No, I still need to help here!" I protested.

"I think we got it under control. On the other hand, the people standing in the woods right now are probably freaking out. I'm sure they'll appreciate you reassuring them."

I wavered. "You're sure you're not doing that just to get me out of the way of any possible fighting?" I narrowed my eyes.

The side of his lips tilted up almost imperceptibly.

"Well, I'm not going to deny that... But you know what I'm saying is true, too."

"Alright, I'll go to your stupid forest," I grumbled half-heartedly.

A small smile appeared on his face. "Good."

Chase opened his large brown wings.

"According to Aiden you can take off from the ground now, right?"

I smiled proudly and opened my own wings, "Yep! Wait, Aiden has been talking about me? Everything bad he said is a lie!" I quickly defended myself, knowing that even if Aiden would never say anything harmful to or about me, I still wasn't safe from a bit of teasing.

Chase chuckled, "Don't worry, I can tell when he's lying, and he wouldn't dare."

Then he reached for my hand, probably out of habit -he most likely remembered what an awkward flier I had been at first- and we both took off together.

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