The Titan Queen - Levi X Reader

Chapter 21 - The Extermination

Then that moment ended, and you began to get angry.

"You're more worried about Jean," you stated. "I forgot you only liked me when you needed something."

"Don't be so shallow," Isabel snapped right back. "You know how I feel about you because I'd wager that it's the exact same way that you feel about me. But that means that you know well enough that I'm acting so stubborn because I cannot stand the fact that you might leave Jean here whilst we all leave tomorrow."

"I said," you repeated, beginning to walk back away, "that we are all leaving tomorrow."

"Can we trust what you say?"

That pulled you up short. "I've only lied very few times – all of them to protect myself, none of them to hurt others." You shot her a jaded glance, pleased to find that she was at least nodding at your words. She saw that you were still walking slowly away and nodded – to you or herself, you didn't know. "Jean is mine just as much as he is yours," you said. "And I've already said – we're all leaving tomorrow."

With that, both of you turned to go into separate rooms – Isabel to go back to the team awaiting her, and you to go and see which children were the fastest runners.

***

You threw a few more clothes into the bag, coughing at the scent of smoke wafting out of your window. All the pages of writing had been burnt – now only a pile of ashes in the fireplace, the only mark to all of your plots. You were throwing in the same things that you'd brought here in the first place. So many things you'd bought whilst you'd been down here – and none of it truly for you.

They'd do their jobs working for you, those items that you'd bought. In the long term, it would all be worth it.

You got dressed, as well. Gone were the ratty, wrecked clothes of black. Instead, you pulled on the brown leathers that were fine enough to hint at wealth, but practical. The only thing that you allowed yourself to take that was truly decadence was the ring – the seal ring that told everything who you were.

Ruler of the Underground.

Collecting titles was rather a nice hobby, you decided. Princess of Titans, Ruler of the Underground, Pride.

There was a light, hesitant knock on the door as you finally finished your packing, placed the last knife into a sheath inside your jacket and took a breath. You swaggered over to it, not quite ready to open it – because opening it meant that all of your plans would be put into place.

Olyver didn't wait for you to open the door, though. He came through, his hair slightly greasy and skin waxy, as if he'd forgone a night of good sleep in favour of stressing throughout the dark hours. "Good morning," you dryly greeted him, leaning back against your desk. Olyver took a few beats to scan you and the way that you were dressed, the bag that was on the desk behind you, the tidy and clean room.

"You're really leaving, then?"

"That's what I said I'd do," you replied, trying to ignore the way that your throat tightened. The tawny-haired male swallowed and shut the door behind him. "Do you know what I'm going to ask you to do?"

"You're going to ask me to stay here," he said. You didn't expect to feel the guilt that you did as he said those words. Leaving him here meant that he still would not see the sun or the sky; leaving him here meant that he was still trapped within the Underground, without passes or hope of freedom.

But leaving him here meant you had someone to oversee the changes that you'd made in just two weeks. It meant that you actually had someone here to trust with information coming in and going out, that you could rely on him making the right decisions when it came to the children and the house and the rules.