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chapter 10

Elianna bit her lower lip and shook her head. '' Stop joking around. Abel- ''

'' Do you really think that it's fair that you have to act as your people's tool of war, when the wolf can live his life as he wishes? '' Baekhyun snapped, suddenly starting to get angry. '' Besides, it's not like these diplomatic meetings really matter. Both sides will stop at nothing to accomplish what they desire. What they can't do by court, they will do by other means. Disaster is inevitable and we might as well try to enjoy the time that we have until we all go up in flames. ''

It was a bad idea for Elianna to let herself get swayed by Baekhyun's words, but she couldn't help it. He was saying the same thing as she was, before years of training with Cyrille and Abel and constant scolding from Sunmi, finally managed to harden her soul. She thought that she came a little closer to becoming the strong warrior that everyone wanted her to be, but she was wrong. With just one look and smile from an angel, the ice around her heart already began to crack.

Something shifted in Baekhyun's eyes when he watched Elianna clasp her hands together and concentrate before eagle wings grew out of her back. The brown and white feathers always made her feel a little embarrassed in comparison to the ones of an angel, even if she knew that she wasn't supposed to feel that way, but when she looked at him, she saw nothing but admiration in his gaze.

You know what you're doing and you know that it's wrong, Elianna.

And yet she followed him all the way to the other part of the Capital City. The buildings there were still white, but they were a lot simpler and you could tell that the angels who lived there didn't really have a lot of money. Not only that, she was shocked because the wings that she saw, weren't just black anymore. Her eyes were darting left and right and admiring the different shades of grey feathers, before they landed on Baekhyun again. He showed her a smile, she blushed bright red and turned her head away again.

He brought her to the other side of the city because he wanted to show her a street theater performance. A small crowd of angels was already gathering in front of a makeshift wooden stage and a little after they got there, some of them stepped on it and started acting. Baekhyun grinned at their poor display of talent and glanced at the girl that was standing by his side. His smile slightly lowered at the sight of her stunned expression and for a moment he got worried that she won't like theatre as much as he did. Then, she suddenly covered her mouth to hold back her laughter, looked at him with eyes shining brighter than the sun and asked: '' This is how your people entertain themselves? ''

His tensed shoulders slowly relaxed again, he scratched the back of his head and said: '' Not all of them. Only those who know how to have fan. ''

She gasped and clapped in excitement. '' Theater is magic! ''

He chuckled, amused by how amazed the monster girl was at everything. '' That it is. ''

✶

Russian curse words were echoing in my head and I kept glancing over my shoulder, still feeling bad about the tourist who dropped her ice cream on the ground after I accidentally bumped in to her. If I wasn't in a rush, I would probably go back and try to find her in the crowds that were already gathering in front of the Pantheon, stepping on and off their double-decker buses and lining up at the entrance of the famous attraction. It was a sunny morning in Paris and birds were resting on the still empty tables of the cafes that were hidden in the more narrow alleyways, while others were getting chased by children that found them on the crowded roads, where their parents stopped for a quick espresso before walking them the rest of the way to school.

I wasn't used to being out so early and I still had a good hour before I was planning to head to University, but I left my apartment as soon as I got a call from Kyungsoo. I didn't even know that he had a phone and he had to ring me five different times before I finally decided to see what that unknown number wanted. It ended up being something a lot more urgent than I thought it was going to be. Hearing the sound of his voice made me hope that he had news about Abel, but instead, he had others a lot more surprising news.