Chapter 10: My Plan

It's been three days since I saw that crucial part of a memory I had long forgotten.

Three days which I had gone through in agony.

Had it not been for Rosemary, had it not been for the promise I made her, I would have completely broken down.

But I promised her that I would be myself, and not let this revelation eat me up.

A promise I had to make, for her to help me find the truth.

But a promise I had to honor nonetheless.

Which in turn had led me to become actually good friends with Celine Toroheim, as I had learned her name to be.

Unfortunately, that friendship only seemed to make her more adamant about protecting me.

As she had followed me everywhere, never once taking her eyes off of me.

Which in turn had made the plan me and Rosemary set in motion a lot more difficult, a plan we had 72 hours to come up with.

A fairly simple plan, but if I were to mess anything up, only God knows what Darius would do to me.

It's currently 4 am after I had awoken to a face full of tears an hour ago, a condition that had periodically plagued me ever since I was eleven.

I waited till now, to make my move.

I get off the bed and head towards the glass door hidden behind a curtain, which leads into a hallway.

I don't get within six feet of the door before it slides open, which startles me.

A hand follows, shooting through the black curtain, and sliding that open too.

"Why are you awake?" Celine asks me, her curly orange hair now falling in strings across her face.

"Don't you ever sleep?" I ask her, speaking more comfortably with her, as, we had bonded more than I had anticipated over the past three days.

Becoming her friend had been a great ease on my nerves ever since I came into this castle, as I felt safer from Darius when I was with her.

That, and the fact that Darius is never really around.

She smiles at my comment.

"I don't if I don't want to."

I roll my eyes, catching her prideful brag about her incredible skill at channeling four of Darius' Instincts at once, as opposed to the usual two.

One of said instincts is the capability to draw energy from everything, even the very air itself, courtesy of the Lelolith pack.

Another pack Darius had mated a luna from, which he killed shortly after.

Which begs the question, why am I even still alive?

Perhaps...it has to do with why Mom and Burke aren't.

"Probably that's why you look like a broomstick." I say with a grin, which she snarls at.

I walk past her, and she follows, as expected.

"You're going the wrong way, the toilet is that way." She points towards my and Darius' room.

I snarl this time, catching her remark yet again.

"You won't let me live that down will you?" I ask her.

She laughs a victorious laugh, one a blackmailer does when he has good dirt on his or her victims.

"As long as I am alive, nope." She says, trailing behind me.

Something she says tears into my mood, I don't like the comment she made about her life.

I don't like any such jokes from anyone, life is too important.

Celine notices my spike in demeanor, so she gets in front of me.

"What happened? Did you fall asleep, if you did, tell me now so I can carry you to the toilet." She smiles, bringing my mood back...

"Ugh, come on." I place my hand on her face and shove it aside in annoyance, she continues to laugh while following me.

"Why are you awake exactly?" She asks.

I stare into the garden, just beyond the glass to our left that separates the house from the outside.

As expected, guards are patrolling, even in the dead of night.

I narrow my gaze towards the 6-meter wall, which Elias scaled relatively easily the first time I met him.

How I will be able to scale that will have to be a miracle.

Celine gets to my left side, obstructing my view and waving a hand in my face.

"Hello, earth to space monkey Abigail, hello." I chuckle, then turn my gaze ahead.

"Your wolf ears must be failing you, because I already said I wanted a cup of coco."

"You said? Probably to a ghost, because you didn't even move your lips. And who drinks coco by 4 am?" She places her hands on her hips, scrutinizing me.

Which somehow makes me nervous.

"Me!" I unintentionally blurt.

"Oh, sorry miss screams a lot."

"Serves you right. Perhaps you would try being less annoying from now on." I say with a smile, trying my best to cover my panic.

"Not on your life." She grins.

We reach the end of the hallway, and to our right, is the door leading into the enormous hall where Darius held the party that almost took my life.

Once we open the door and step into the other side, our footsteps echo.

Upon hearing those echoes, I lose all my strength.

"Uuuuuugggghhh." I groan, and then I turn to Celine. "Celiiiiine?" I send her a cynical smile.

"Oh no, no you don't." She stomps past me, her footsteps echoing and reverberating across the enormous hall.

"Come on, caaaaarrrrryyyy meeeee." I stretch out my arms and chase after her.

"Not on your life." She speeds up her pace, and so do I.

We head into the kitchen relatively fast, as I had chased Celine all the way here, which now leaves me a panting sweaty mess.

But on the other hand, Celine looks as though she just came from a spa.

I frown at this, which I'm sure she interprets as me being spiteful for her not agreeing to carry me.

"We're here, get your coco and go back to bed."

"You want me to make my own coco?" I take a seat next to the large cooking table in the middle of the kitchen.

"What am I, your maid?"

"I don't see any around?" I say.

"I'll go get one."

"And leave me here all by myself? Susceptible to the assault of the rival packs." I gesticulate, with a wide grin on my face, which I make sure she sees.

"Uuuugggghhh!" She groans, then she turns her back to me and starts to fiddle away at the cupboards.

"Make enough for two."

"Last time I checked, you have one stomach." She doesn't turn to meet me as she speaks.

"How did you che...never mind, it's not for me, it's for you."

"No thanks, I don't make deals with terrorists."

"It's not a deal, it's a middle ground." I start to get anxious, if she doesn't make a cup for herself, the whole plan goes to sh*t.

"No thanks, I'm fine. I like the ground where I'm standing."

Dammit, I have to convince her.

"Come on Celine, don't let me drink alone, it'd be quite sad." I give her the puppy dog eyes, but she doesn't even look in my direction.

"No."

"Pleeeeeease."

"Okay okay, fine." I swear I can see her rolling her eyes from the back of her head.

But it doesn't matter, I'm one step closer to my goal.

She finishes up the two cups of cocoa, walks over to me, and hands me mine, but hers is in her hands.

I have to get it.

"Give me yours." I say, halting her as she makes space between us whilst trying to sip her coco.

"What?"

"You heard me, give me yours."

"Why?"

"I think you made mine smaller."

"Seriously? I did not."

"I want to check though, you know I like my coco big and full. And I will not accept if anyone else's is bigger."

"And fuller?" She purses her lips in annoyance.

"Precisely." I say.

"You know, just take it. Hurry and get back to bed." She slides the cup towards me, spilling a little when I catch it.

I wince from the heat of the coco, but I don't react to it.

I stare into both cups, and truly, hers was bigger.

"Here, you can have mine." I stretch my hand with the cup towards her.

"I don't want it anymore." She folds her hands and looks in another direction.

Dammit, she has to drink this.

"Did I make you mad?"

"No you didn't."

"You want me to drink alone then?" I ask, anxiety almost tinting my tone.

"Why do you even want me to drink with you anyway?" She asks, turning to meet my gaze.

I find myself unable to keep eye contact, so I turn away.

"Fine, don't drink, but I won't either." As I say, my stomach growls, which I am suddenly very grateful for. "In fact, I won't even eat anything throughout today."

I say, with finality in my voice.

We both hold our positions, neither of us ready to budge.

But after what seemed like an eternity, she stretches out her hand.

"Just give me the cup."

I smile, then I stretch it out towards her.

When she is about to grab it, I pull it back, and I swear I see a vein pop in her forehead.

"What is it..."

"Get something from the fridge, let's have it with the coco."

She squeezes her mouth, and stares at me for several seconds, before cartoonishly stomping towards the fridge while flailing her arms.

She looks at me once more before placing her hand on the fridge handle, which she pulls on rather aggressively.

She shoves her head inside and returns at once with bread.

"No, not that." I smile.

"What!?"

"Get something else."

She frowns again, then heads back into the fridge.

In less than a second, she produces pie.

"No, I don't want that either." I smile still, blinking my eyes at her.

"Then what do you want?" She says to me, this time, her voice is missing the boiling rage, and is instead dawning a semblance of fatigue.

"Just, call everything out for me. I'll pick one." She stares at me for several seconds, before tossing the plate into the fridge and shoving her face in it.

"We have steak, sausages, pork, beef, cake, more pie, muffins, beer, fries, casserole, leftover beans, a pot of stew..."

"Slow down will you?"

"Uuuuuugggghhh." She repeats herself.

And at once, I reach into the left sleeve of my nightgown and produce a sachet of powder that Rosemary procured for me.

I hastily dump it into one of the cups, then, I see Celine turn her head to face me.

Sh*t