Her Heroes

Chapter Thirty

As soon as the plane touched down, my brothers were all up and moving. 

There was no possible way that we had reached Gatlinburg yet. Everyone headed towards the exit of the private plane. Absolutely no way.

"Are you coming, Nadia?" I huffed and hopped off the chair that was layered with fuzzy blankets. After I had told Hercule and Armel about my past, they insisted that I get all the comfort on the plane. With the great comfort came mounds of attention but thankfully the pair hadn't shared the details with anyone yet. They all wanted to know; that much was clear. However, all of my brothers - including Gabriel - respected me enough to understand that at the moment all I needed was space and time. 

I looked up at Gabriel with pleading eyes. I really didn't want to leave the comfort of the plane. 

"I don't think you'll want to miss this mon étoile." I huffed again and crossed my arms. There was no way I was leaving this plane. I didn't want to go to the trial. They couldn't make me if I didn't move... right? Wrong. Matthieu's strong arms swooped me up from behind and I shrieked, eliciting a chuckle from his mouth. 

My arms wrapped tightly around his neck as he descended from the plane with me in his arms and Gabriel and Valentin in tow.

Matthieu didn't even have a chance to set me down before we were being ushered into a waiting white limo. Of course, there would be a limo waiting for us at who knows where. This didn't look like the Tennessee that I remembered, maybe I had been gone for too long to remember?

Hercule seemed to realize where my mind was as he poured himself a whiskey on the rocks. How do I know that? Well, I had some alcohol experience from The Fosters. "You were out for about two hours. One of those hours was spent by us trying to pack any last-minute items and get everything to the plane. The other was spent by you sleeping the time away." I couldn't believe that I was out for so long. My guard was down in the middle of the day. This couldn't happen again, especially since I was going to see the Fosters again in 26 hours, 58 minutes, and 5 seconds... I think. Hercule sighed and gently swirled his crystal glass. "Look, if it weren't for you passing out, you would've been panicking." True... "You passing out allowed us to be able to do this." He nodded his head back and I looked out the window. My jaw immediately dropped. 

We were driving down what I recognized to be the Champs-Elysees. Not only that but, we were headed straight for l'arc de Triomphe. I couldn't believe that this was where I was. Paris had been a dream of mine since... well since I could remember. 

My breath fogged the glass as Matthieu rested his hand on my back, a reassurance that he was there if I needed it. Our limo drove past the spectacular monument. This was why we had left so early. How did they know that this was a dream of mine? Then it hit me. My brothers and Gabriel had planned on doing this sooner yet they didn't once I learned who they were. It was weird. The knowledge that they were something evil and grotesque didn't even bother me anymore. It seemed like in the daze of the plane I had decided to forgive them all. And yet, I still couldn't forgive them for killing innocents or harming people in the building behind the house. So yes, I did forgive them for most of their actions - just not all of them quite yet.

***

"Caïd, nous sommes arrivés."
(Capo, we have arrived)
The chauffeur looked at the eight of us crowded into the back seat as the car pulled to a stop next to the curb.

"Bon."
(Good)
Hercule nodded his head in satisfaction as he took in our group before sending us all a grin.

The door next to Hercule was pulled open and my brothers began to slowly exit the car, with Gabriel following behind Alexandre. It took me a moment to realize that it wasn't a random order. It was an order devised to be fluid and clean.