Rise of a Queen

Chapter 41

Sneaking out of a practically empty warehouse is not as easy as one might think, especially when the only inhabitants of said empty warehouse are a group of gangsters with keen intuition. Nonetheless, we have not begun our escape just yet ... there is one last thing I need to do, one last person I need to talk to, before I disappear.

We left Dustin to sleep in his room, Lumiere brought me back to his own room and set me down on his bed. Five minutes later, as per my request, Lumiere ushered Toby through the door and guided him toward where I was sitting on the bed. He helped my brother climb up next to me and patted his head, "There you go, kiddo. Snug as a bug in a rug. Listen closely now, your sister has a few things she wants to tell you."

There were indeed some affairs I felt required to discuss with my brother, because the likelihood of my return is significantly low although I had no intentions of sharing that revelation with Toby or Lumiere. Whether my plan for leverage succeeds or fails, or whether I die from the Council's curse, I have to be realistic about this trip and its outcome. I felt responsible for providing some sort of closure for my brother, in the happenstance that I don't see him again.

And for that very same reason, I felt responsible for Lumiere as well.

As he was leaving, I reached for Lumiere's arm to stop him, "Hey ... I have been thinking about some stuff, and well, I don't want to tell you what to do but ..." I glanced at Toby, who was watching us closely, and I chose my next words carefully, "If there is anything you want to say or explain, to Erie I mean ... well," There was no easy way to put it, "You wouldn't wait, Lumiere."

He was momentarily taken aback by my suggestion but his shock quickly passed to something much more somber, "I have been thinking about that as well, actually. But I'm not sure I should tell her, wouldn't that make her feel ... worse?"

He was referring to the reason he keeps his distance from Erie. She thinks it is because Lumiere does not want to be tied down or tamed or confined to only one woman. But that could not be farther from the truth.

Lumiere absolutely loves Erie, with his entire heart and what is left of his soul, but he is deathly afraid of being the reason Erie experiences the same fate as the Crone. He maintains his distance to prevent exposing Erie to the dangers of his life when she already has so many of her own demons to battle. It is a valiant pledge of the most noble intentions, but it has painted Lumiere as a villain when he really should be praised as a hero.

I squeezed his hand, "Do you want my honest opinion?"

Lumiere squeezed back, "Always."

"If there were ever a time to tell her the truth, now would be it." I told him quietly, all too aware of how those words sounded in my brother's ears, "Just something to consider."

Lumiere nodded slowly and did just as I had asked, he considered what I said along with the underlying warning woven between, "I will think about it." He then gestured to Toby, "You do the same. You have ten minutes, so talk fast."

Then he slid away to secretly gather some supplies while I said my goodbyes to Toby.

My brother watched Lumiere leave, then he fixed me with a suspicious stare, "What's going on, Sadie? That was Lumiere, right? I don't know him as well as I know the others but I do know he is usually so cheerful, and now he is just ... sad."

I am constantly impressed by my brother, he is far more observant than most kids his age. And he has already made such an impression on the people here. He fit here the same way I did when I first arrived, as an outsider with an unexplainable connection to these people and an internal thirst for this way of life. I just hope, when this is all over, there is still a safe place here for my brother.