Revolution (Book 3 of POE Chronicles)

Chapter 1 Grandmother(s)

Staring out at the rising sun, I tucked my knees against my chest and exhaled slowly. I shuffled into a more comfortable position so I wouldn’t end up imprinting the brick pattern of the castle fence on my butt; wouldn’t that be hilarious? I took in the serenity of the forest in front of me and wondered what it would be like to live here in the Old Ages? As the heiress to a castle or some maid who works for the royalty. Smiling, I shook the silly fantasy out of my head and signed again.

The past couple of months had been weird. I had never been staying at the same place for more than a month since the test and here I was, stuck inside a castle in the middle of nowhere, tasked with the responsibility to save the world. I mean, that’s a little too much to ask for a girl who just turned eighteen.

Closing my eyes, images of my friends’ faces flashed through my mind. Elise, Diego and everyone in the qualification test; I had no idea where they were and how to find them. Then there were Natalie, Nate, Holly, Owen, Evanna, Fred, Oscar, Elise and Tom. My body stiffened as I remembered what Nirmal and I discovered. Which prompted me to look at my watch; it’s seven, and I still had to finalise the meeting details with Nirmal. Lynette was arriving in the afternoon as well, and I tried not to groan at the thought of her name. At least I would be able to hound her about where Tom was, she had been avoiding telling me out of spite.

“Hey, there you are.” Viktor said as I slide back in through the sliding doors, his hair still a mess and his shirt half tucked in, his eyes still cloudy from sleep. “Caleb said he needed to talk to you about something, but you weren’t in your room.”

Stifling another groan climbing up my throat I managed to nod in acknowledgment. I forgot about that; Caleb had sent me a message yesterday, something about the School of Medicine and Science. I could only hope it was good news.

“Thanks.” I finally coaxed out as we headed towards the dining room, where everyone else had probably congregated. Except for Casey, she liked to sleep in.

“Morning Miss Gail.” Katerina’s butler, Benson greeted me as we entered the double doors. I smiled in return as he greeted Viktor as well. “What would you like to drink?”

“Hot chocolate please, if you have it.” I responded politely. It took me a while to get use to the luxury Katerina lived in. I found out that her entire estate was run by her descendants, who had no part in the POE world. Katerina’s expense are taken care of by the UGE because of the pact the Originals made; and it’s safe to say that they spared no expense to make sure the seer was comfortable.

“Morning.” I greeted the people at the table and received some nods and smiles. Gerald, as usual had his head buried in a newspaper and didn’t seemed eager to look up; there was already a small pile of newspapers next to him. Liam was waving whilst stuffing an entire croissant into his mouth, and Tristan was talking quietly to Gina. Spotting Caleb I hurried across the long hall to the end of the mahogany table where he was sitting.

“Just the girl I need.” Caleb said as Benson pull out my chair for me like a gentleman. I muttered thanks to the staff as Rachel, the head maid set down my hot chocolate. “The SMS had emailed me back and they want us to fly to Pax.”

A frown immediately made its way to my face and I considered the proposal. It would be good to get out of here, and we might be able to gather more information about what the UGE knew about the Apocalypse as well. However that would risk exposing us to eyes. Million sets of eyes that might alert people looking out for us.

“We will talk about this after the meeting.” I said, nearly burning my tongue on the scorching liquid as I attempted to take a sip. Out of the corner of my eyes I could see Liam stifling a snigger and Gina giggling. Some friends they were.