Escaping Death

Chapter 51

Solana

It's deathly quiet in the house today – not that I'm complaining. There isn't anyone in the lounges or dining hall, no one hanging around the kitchen island pestering our head chef, Lucy, for something to eat.

Which means we have free reign over the spread of veggies and dip, as well as other snackable grab-n-go type foods that have been arranged on the kitchen island. Eli is consuming, more accurately inhaling, his food at twice the rate of Tate and Dean. Ace doesn't make a move unless I do, opting to follow my lead rather than make himself at home like the rest of Death has.

Lucy and some other chefs are busy getting started on tonight's dinner, so she doesn't hover over me. But she does send me a wink when she notices me rolling my eyes playfully at the way the guys are eating like this is their last meal.

"Wow," my brother's voice calls from one of the kitchen doorways. "First they get you to come home and then they get you to leave your room?"

Rhys comes up to me and cups my face in his hands, looking at me intently, checking the whites of my eyes and feeling my forehead. "Tell me the truth, did they drug you?"

Ace's lip curls into a tight snarl which luckily my brother doesn't notice because he's too busy throwing his head back in laughter. Lucy and the other kitchen staff share in his amusement, grinning to themselves at his antics but carrying on with their duties.

"No, weirdo. If I stay in my room everyone will come looking for me," I lie easily. My family will come looking for me, that's not the lie. The truth is that I left my room so I can show them all my favorite secret spots in the Grove, and because I know that I can use the four of them as my scapegoat.

Why am I in the kitchen? Because they needed to eat and I go where they go. Why did I agree to come back? Because I've got Ace who can teleport us home the very second I want to leave.

I mean...teleport us to his home.

"No they won't. Mom told everyone that you won't be here until tonight for dinner." Rhys mentions casually after taking a large bite of an apple.

"Then how did you know I was already home?"

"Please," Rhys scoffs with self-assurance, "I'm your favorite brother, I know everything that concerns you."

"Xander told you." I say flatly. Rhys has never been very good at bluffing.

His expression falls and his whole body visibly deflates, "Xander told me. But! I didn't tell anyone else, so that has to earn me some brother points."

I lean up against the kitchen island next to the stool my brother occupies and give him a grateful nudge. He's not wrong. Of all my siblings Rhys is the one who I confide in the most, the one who doesn't roll their eyes or guilt me over every one of my life choices.

"What was that bullshit earlier about you envying me? You've got it made in the shade here." I try not to sound too eager for an answer.

He lifts a shoulder up in a nonchalant shrug, "I just think it would be nice to have a life beyond the Grove."

"You love it here," a ghost of a question punctuates my words because now I'm really wondering whether or not he loves it as much as he says he does.

"I do," he says but it feels like there's a "but" attached to it and I gesture for him to spit it out. "But...I don't know how to not sound like a dick for saying this. Just that I didn't exactly choose this life, you know?"

"Neither did Calla or Cole —" I start to argue but he cuts me off.

"That's exactly the point though, Sol. At least they know where they stand here, they have very definitive roles to play. But me? I'm like the new Uncle Incandis. Guardian brother to the next queen. Which is fine, you know, family business...I get it. But sometimes I wake up and I just think if I flew off right now would it really make a difference?"