strange physical contact.
“Please, don’t take offense,” I said.
“None taken,” she replied, her skin cold to the touch. It felt odd, for some reason, though it should’ve come across as natural, given her pale, almost vampiric complexion. I would’ve expected her to burn like the sun… like I was burning on the inside as I held her. “I look forward to seeing you all later.”
She descended from the gazebo and walked up the main pathway into the palace, hedges and flowers rising on both sides. I stood there, watching her, still wondering how the universe had made our paths cross in such a peculiar fashion. I needed to know more about her. To truly understand her. Valaine was holding back a lot, and I couldn’t control this ardent desire to find out everything. Everything that made her who she was.
“Relax, Tristan,” Esme grumbled. “She understands.”
“Yeah. I just… I don’t know, I don’t like thinking we might have made her angry,” I said.
“Valaine strikes me as the more reasonable among her peers,” Derek chimed in, offering a comforting smile. “I think we just need to be more careful with our questions and our assertions regarding their practices. They’re clearly protective of their way of life and don’t like it when complete strangers doubt them.”
“With that in mind, Tristan and I want to do some exploring of our own, one of these nights,” Esme said, her voice low as she cautiously glanced around, making sure none of the servants lingering nearby heard us.
Derek’s eyebrows arched upward. “What do you mean?”
“Well, you know… Some invisibility paste, a red garnet lens, a little bit of moving around without anyone seeing or hearing us,” Esme mumbled, much like a child caught doing something terribly naughty and having to explain herself. “It’s one thing to take everything they tell us or show us at face value, and a whole other thing if we verify some of this information ourselves.”
Derek didn’t seem happy with our proposal. “You know we can’t not do this,” I whispered. “You know they’re not telling us many things. We don’t mean to interfere in their affairs, but we have to know everything. We can’t get blindsided here.”
“I just don’t want a Neraka repeat.” He sighed. “We ended up toppling an empire there.”
“But we saved millions of innocent people,” Sofia reminded him. “We had no other choice, especially given their shady methods. I don’t think that’s the intent here, though.”
“We just want to be flies on the wall for a little bit, that’s all,” Esme added.
Derek nodded slowly. “Not tonight, though. It’s all too fresh. They don’t trust us enough yet. Give it another day or two, okay?”
“And whatever you do, don’t get caught,” Amal warned us. “Something tells me they don’t take kindly to spies.”
I breathed a sigh of relief, thankful to have Derek and Sofia’s approval. But Amal was right, too. Under no circumstances could we allow ourselves to be detected. Fortunately, this wasn’t going to be the first time that Esme and I had to move around unnoticed. We’d had our fair share of practice while navigating the hidden tribes of Central Africa. Invisibility paste had come in handy back then, as well.
“You know what? I think I’ll be doing some independent exploring of my own, too,” Nethissis said, twisting a lock of copper-red hair around her index finger. “Not sure if you all remember, but I can still make good use of my snake form.”
“You can move around easily,” Sofia said, smiling.
“Exactly.”
“I need you all to be extremely careful,” Derek replied. “Go and check everything out, if you must. I trust your instincts on this. But don’t get yourselves caught or worse. I would never forgive myself.”
“We’ll be okay,” I said, trying to reassure him. I found his fatherly concern endearing, and it was hard not to smile as I spoke. “We’re pretty good at what we do, Derek. I believe it’s part of the reason why you brought us along.”
He gave me a faint smile. Oh, he was definitely worried, and there was nothing I could do about that. But he was also aware of how important it was for us to question everything that the Aeternae told us; he knew why we had to verify, to see certain things for ourselves. I added checking out one of those blood farms to my to-do list. Maybe we’d get a chance to visit Rimia or Nalore, so I could witness exactly how it all worked.
Until then, however, Derek was right.