The Secret Sister (Book 2 in The Secret Series)

Chapter 6: Stark's Party

Chapter 6: Stark’s Party

“Miss Eldrid? Mr Stark would like me to tell you that you have exactly three minutes to get to the top floor where the party is taking place before he, ahem, ‘blasts your bedroom door off’ and ‘takes you up there’ himself,” JARVIS told me, sounding unimpressed, and I scowled.

“Tell him he can try.”

I didn’t want to attend a party filled with people I had never met before. Nick was going to be there, but that wasn’t much comfort to me – I still didn’t fully trust the agent yet, and was still pretty miffed about him practically grounding me on Asgard. Peter would probably be there, which was some comfort.

But I had to go, if not because of Stark’s idiotic rules, but because I would see the team again. I’d heard that Bruce was coming here all the way from a research centre on Gamma Rays in Australia. Steve – aka Captain America – had been generally helping out at S.H.I.E.L.D on different missions while I’d been gone, whether it was to take down some bad guys, or just fill in some paper work for someone. Natasha and Clint had been training up new S.H.I.E.L.D agents – apparently including Diana - so that the new generation of agents would be prepared for any threat – be it from this world, or another.

I don’t think that S.H.I.E.L.D appreciated Asgard’s interest in Earth.

So the whole team had to be assembled once more in Stark Tower because of me, and the threat of my evil sister.

Was it really such a strange notion that Nick probably hated me?

Sighing, I changed into the first thing that I picked out of my wardrobe.

I ended up in black skinny jeans with a long, flowing black and gold tiered top, finishing off with black wedges. With my limited knowledge of ‘trendy’ human fashion, I thought I looked fairly decent.

As I left my room, Hela popped into my head. I wondered when she was going to make her first move against me. If I knew her as well as I thought I did, she was going to do something big. She’d always loved being the centre of attention back when we were growing up, leaving me as the younger sister to watch from the shadows. It was kind of ironic how it was Hela who’d ended up in the shadows when she’d finally come of age and became the Goddess of Death, while I became the opposite – the Goddess of Fire.

When the lift doors opened, I was pleasantly surprised.

“Johnny?” I asked incredulously, and Johnny Storm grinned back at me, his blue eyes sparkling mysteriously.

He was dressed in a casual black shirt and smart pants, and he suddenly bowed as I entered the lift.

“Greetings, your highness,” He said playfully, straightening as the doors closed and the lift began to move up.

I frowned in confusion, “How did you know?”

“The wonders of Google are many.”

I shook my head and laughed.

“Unbelievable,” I exclaimed, and he shrugged nonchalantly.

“What?”

“I can’t believe you Googled me!”

I may not be a human, but I did know what Google was … I wasn’t that much of a technophobe.

“What else did you expect me to do after meeting a literally flaming-hot girl?” He asked, grinning impishly.

The lift stopped, and I walked out of it shaking my head in disbelief. Maybe Peter’s view of Johnny wasn’t as wrong as I had thought.

“I’ll catch up with you later, Eldrid!” I heard him call after me laughingly as I entered the crowded room.