Out of the Darkness~ The Guild Leader Chronicles Book Five

Chapter Twelve

She did that a lot before her and Aunt Aquila left for their meeting with the President, and I can't understand why she keeps looking at me that way. The only thing I can come up with to explain her behavior is that she's trying to gage my reaction to her flat out telling me she wants to go to college before having kids.

I stand tall, attempting to show no emotion. Lexie and I look at each other, but neither of us can say anything. Even as Aunt Aquila comes to stand next to her, the foyer remains silent. I look over to Aunt Aquila, who also gives me a look similar to Lexie. What did Lexie tell her on their trip to make her look at me like that too?

Clearing my throat, I tell Aunt Aquila, "You handled meeting the President gracefully."

She forces a smile at me. "Thank you, Valerio."

I look to Lexie again, and say, "You shouldn't have pressured him so hard to meet with me."

Her mouth falls open as she tries to explain. "It should be you meeting with him, Valerio. Why can't you see that?"

I try to reign in my anger towards her, but I can't. "You overstepped, Lexie!" I yell at her. "You were supposed to sit there and not say anything."

"Excuse me?" She challenges as she steps up to me. "You forget who you're talking to. I'm not someone who just sits in the corner of the room and-"

"And you forget who you're talking to!" I continue to yell, putting some of my Guild Leader powers into my words. Lexie bows to me, and for once I don't feel bad about using my status on her. "Leave us," I order Aunt Aquila, who quickly scurries from the room.

I take a deep breath, and tell Lexie, "You had no right to try and force the President into a meeting. You don't even know if a meeting between the two of us would be beneficial!" I sigh as I rub the bridge of my nose. "From now on," I order her, "you do not speak for me. You're only job is to take care of things around the house and figuring out when and where you want to attend college. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir."

The next day, I wake up alone in bed. I had thought that Lexie would be coming to bed later than me last night, and I had fallen asleep while I waited. But, by the looks of her pillow and the bedding on her side, I can tell she didn't sleep her last night at all. After I ordered her in the foyer, we had spent the day apart. I don't know where she was, and the fact that she didn't sleep in our own bed makes me not care.

The two of us are spinning so out of control that I can't seem to get a handle on what it is that's really going on. I know I'm upset with her because of her choice, and now her overstepping with the President too, but is that really it? Lexie and I have had disagreements before, but none of them have ever lead to us sleeping apart. Even though a part of me feels like I should go apologize for being so harsh with her yesterday, another part of me is telling me to stand my guard. It's as though my mind is telling me to do two different things at once and I'm getting caught in the crossfire.

I can't make sense of anything when Lexie and I are like this. I want to fix what's happening with us, but I can't make myself do it. I just want us to go back to how we were before The Warlock; to the time when I had just claimed her and married her. We had been so happy then and I want that back, but each day we drift further from who we were.

Before I'm even out of bed, I can already tell my day is going to be a shit-show. I've yet to hear anything of a meeting between the President and I actually taking place, but I know it's only a matter of time. With the humans beginning to panic even more, the President's advisors will recommend he learn as much about magic as possible.