Choosing Home

Chapter Twenty Six

"Claudine? What are you wearing?"

Claudine smirked as she stood in front of Strat, Shayla, Locklyn, Audrey, and Freddy. Normally Locklyn was on first aid duty but Claudine had to assume that since she and Morgan left them a week ago, Freddy needed all hands on deck for face offs.

"Well I believe they're called clothes Strat," Claudine told him with a smirk. Normally Henry would have waited until the girls were trained up more on swords before having them go out on a face off but Claudine had been determined to prove her loyalty to the Rats.

Besides, it may have only been a week since she left the Haven but she was no slouch in training with a sword; Morgan and Brooke having given her lessons whenever she and Morgan visited Brooke's safe house. Plus she still had her daggers if push came to shove.

"No not that! Why do you look like a Rat?" Strat demanded as Freddy just continued to glare in shock.

Morgan shook her head. "Do...do they not see who we're standing with?"

"I guess being oblivious really is a trait the Angels share," Claudine said with a smirk.

"I'll show you oblivious you little traitor!" Freddy growled and pulled out one of his black handled daggers. In a blink of an eye, Claudine had her purple handled dagger in her hand.

"Don't even think about it Fred! Or should I say Freddy?" Claudine snarled. "We both know which one of us has the better aim—after all you hit Mal and she still lived to tell the tale, or so the Rats tell me! Knowing how you feel about her, I would have thought you'd have aimed to kill."

Audrey scoffed. "I'm not surprised Mal has you under her little spell. That seems to be a specialty of hers, spelling people."

"I'm sure it has escaped your noticed but Mal's not here," Claudine told her, tossing her dagger up and down in an almost similar manner as Freddy had back at Evie's castle. "Neither is Uma. However, you are."

"...where's Brooke?" Locklyn growled. "We haven't seen her since you two took off."

"Not that it's any of your business but she's exactly where she's supposed to be Locklyn," Claudine snapped back.

"I'm her cousin! Where she is is my business!"

"You stopped being her cousin the minute you allowed Freddy within one league of Brooke! No wonder your sisters stopped talking to you!"

"He's the leader of the Angels. He can—."

"Oh Gods, the one brain cell in your head must be in pain from rattling around in all that empty space," Morgan shook her head.

The other Rats on the face off team smirked in amusement as the Angels glared at them.

"There's only one God, Morgan," Shayla spat.

"Tell that to Lord Hades then," Morgan smirked. "We all believed that there were multiple Gods when we were with the Rats. Before Freddy got his claws into us at least."

"Enough of this," Freddy spat. "Claudine, if you're going to be a traitor, then you deserve everything a traitor gets. Audrey, get her."

"With pleasure," Audrey smirked and Claudine's eyes widened as Audrey threw one of her purple handled daggers. The daggers she had left in the Haven. The only reason Claudine and Morgan had daggers of their own to wield right then and there was because the Rats had a fairly large collection of their daggers.

Mainly because they'd come back in a Rat but it wasn't like the Rats were going to be returning the daggers later.

"Think you might need to work on her aim," Jake scoffed as the dagger went far right and ended up clattering on the ground.