Unknown L (Book 1)

~ It's An Ability, Not Puberty ~

It was the next morning when Edra finally let L out of that room; she could still feel a dull ache in her leg, but it wasn't half as bad as it should have been. She got dressed and made to go downstairs, which was a little difficult to find; the house was much bigger than it should have been. There were more rooms than the windows suggested, and L was sure some of them were moving around. It took her ten minutes to find the stairs.

She headed down to the sound of voices drifting towards her and came out into a spacious kitchen. It looked like it had jumped straight from a catalogue, with shiny appliances and marble surfaces everywhere. There was a breakfast bar, and everyone present was either sitting or standing around it.

Emilia and Illiana hadn't returned for breakfast, L hoped they'd found somewhere nearby to stay. Edra and Bryce were the first ones to turn and greet her when she walked in. Mrs Worcester already had a plate of breakfast waiting for her. She was fussing over L while she ate at the dining table and the others fell back into their conversation.

They were talking about the repairs to the house, which wouldn't take much with a little magic. Mr Worcester was discussing them moving back in when Mrs Worcester held a hand up to stop him.

"No, I will not have this family back in that house until it is perfectly secure. I'm tired of seeing at least one of you injured every other day."

She stroked her hand over L's hair and L smiled up at her despite the truth in her words.

"Don't worry, Mrs Worcester, we plan to make sure that the house is as secure as possible. It should have been enough before but we weren't expecting another attack so soon... and especially not from another insider." Edra stated and she sounded angrier today.

They did seem to have trouble knowing who they could trust lately. L was pondering what they could do to fix that when there was a knock at the door. Edra waved a hand and a few seconds later, Vadim walked into the kitchen, and he wasn't alone. Rashka and Nate were with him, as were Maeve, Walter and Tern.

Their presence made L's head hurt. The pressure of the information trying to push its way out. Robbie and Bryce came to stand on either side of L while the Council members moved further into the kitchen; it seemed they shared the same mistrust of the Council now.

Edra was the only one who didn't seem bothered, she was chewing her food and she eyed both groups.

"There's been enough bad blood going around. Make your peace with what happened and then let us prepare for the next part of this war."

Vadim frowned at her, "We came here to apologise to L for what that imposter did to her."

"Not a single one of us had any idea that it wasn't the real Deana. We are truly sorry, L." Nate started and he looked genuinely apologetic.

"And to the rest of you present. We know you were caught up in the terrible events that transpired. The other Council members are at this moment going over stricter security measures so this will never happen again." Rashka sounded determined.

It appeared as though she took the Demon-Deana's betrayal personally.

L shrugged one shoulder. She knew mistakes like this could happen and it wasn't directly any of their faults.

"It's fine. She must have been a really good copycat to fool all of you. But that's what my training is for, right? To make sure I can look after myself and those around me. I guess you could say that the Demons are helping me test my abilities." L laughed humourlessly, she didn't know where that came from, nevertheless, it was true.

The Council members looked at her in surprise, or in Maeve and Walter's case, it was with intrigue.

"Spoken like a true warrior, a true Keeper. Oh, which brings us back to the next part." Edra said with a smile and leaned back against the breakfast bar.