Mischief in the Stars

Meeting Caeler

As the three girls left, the room fell into a tense silence. Each of them glanced around, trying to gauge each other's reactions to the information. Malakai waited for the first person to snap, he knew it was coming. However, he didn't know who it would be. He tried to figure out what was going on inside each person's head, thinking of many ways to get out of a fight should one arise.

Meanwhile, Maximus thought he had narrowed it down to who would cause the inevitable chaos. He had expected Eira or Aidan to be the one to blow up. He had never expected it to be his usually level-headed boyfriend to be the one to explode. Channing marched up to Malakai, shoving him roughly. "What the Maloid was that about, huh?"

"Down, boy!" Malakai commented wildly, amusement flickering in his eyes. But anyone could see the worry etched on his face, the wolf in front of him looking more animal than he had ever seen him.

"You worked for them?" Channing snarled angrily with a wolfish growl before turning to the warlock behind him who was watching the chaos unfold in front of him. "And you! Did you know about this? Freyr, I knew we couldn't trust you! You slimy, greasy, scum-"

"Channing! That's not helping!" Maximus shouted, placing a hand on the wolf's chest to calm him down. He took in a couple of quick, deep breaths in an attempt to relax, but the thoughts running through his head weren't helping. The warrior turned back to the others, keeping his hand on Channing. "But, he makes a good point. You didn't think that was important information to tell us? How can we even trust you now?"

"Now? How can you trust me... now?" Malakai repeated incredulously with a laugh of disbelief. "You couldn't trust me at all, actually. And the feeling is mutual, considering you all tried to kill me less than a week ago!"

"Can you blame us? You've wanted us dead for years, Valford. You had some childish goal to redeem your father by killing us! Which truly makes zero sense, by the way," Aidan chuckled bitterly, holding his hand out to the fuming boy in front of him, "the only reason we let you come with us was that we thought that somewhere in that vile heart of yours, there was a part of you that cared for Aurora. We thought that you would get out of your own way long enough to get her back, but no! No, that's just not who you are, is it?"

Malakai glared at him dangerously, trying to contain his fury. "Shut your mouth, Lucina. You don't know anything about me."

"No, you're right, I don't. But I thought Aurora did, guess we were wrong. If she's still even alive, I'll let you be the one to tell her!" Aidan spat out, shaking his head as he walked away to calm down. "Maloid, if she isn't alive, then that's on you! Do you hear me? You!"

"Can you all shut it?" Eira snapped coldly, her eyes locked on the place where Rory once stood. "There's nothing we can do about Malakai now, and we just have to deal with the fact that he's here. Fighting doesn't do anything. All we can do is wait for Rory."

"To do what? Save the day? She can hardly control her powers..." Malakai trailed off before correcting himself. "Well, actually, she doesn't even have any energy from the stars to control at the moment."

"That's why she didn't fight," Eira realized grimly, thinking back to that final fight in the village when they got arrested.

"We were on our way back to the house for her stars," he explained, nodding at Saffire in reference to where Rory left her stars.

Saffire rubbed her face tiredly. "So, we're doomed."

"Oh, please, do you really think Caeler didn't do his research? He knows all about her powers, and I can almost guarantee he has stars waiting for her," Eliphas told them pointedly from the corner of the cell.