TIGHTROPE | fitz vacker

Chapter 7.

ALL THE "CHILDREN" gathered in Havenfield's living room after the funeral. The adults were talking upstairs about 'stuff that do not concern the children.'

   Most of them were okay with it, they were all looking forward to murdering Azalea. Naexi grumbled something about being twenty, Sophie rolled her eyes and asked the bodyguards to do a sweep of the area.

   Then, Azalea got bombarded with questions. Some of them were: "How were the Forbidden Cities?", "Who's the president now?", "Did you meet any humans there?", "Who was that man who came with you?"

   But some questions were more like: "Are you aware of the consequences to your actions?", "Do you know how worried we were?", "You're so stupid. You know that?"

   Azalea rolled her eyes at Keefe's question. "At least I didn't join the Neverseen. That's the epitome of stupid."

   "For months, I though you were safe in the Lost Cities. But when I came back, I got the news that you were in some hideout, running away from your problems." Keefe said.

   "Well, I here, and I'm dealing with them right now, aren't I?" Azalea said. "Honestly, how could you? When I went to Alluvetrre, the first thing you should have done was to catch me up with everything that happen. You should have told me about Mom, no matter how much it would have hurt me. You shouldn't have let me find out from King Dimitar, or Juline."

   "What does my mom have to do with this?" Dex interjected.

   "Juline Dizznee and Igor Hankwitz have been babysitting her for the past six months." Naexi said carelessly.

   "They weren't babysitting me." Azalea said.

   "Keep telling yourself that."

   Azalea pursed her lips together in a pout. "I don't think she likes me."

   Naexi scoffed. But her frown turned into a smile when a certain brown haired boy entered the room. She got up and gave Iggy a hug, immediately giving Azalea signals that they were friends. And suddenly, Azalea understood why Naexi was so angry at her.

   It was because Iggy had been spending so much time with Azalea he probably couldn't spend any time with his brother or Naezi.

   Embarrassed, Azalea hug her head low. Beside her, Fitz asked the question that Azalea was hoping would be everyone's first question. "How have you been?"

   Azalea smiled. "Great, actually." She looked at Sophie and asked. "Where's Elvy?"

   THE DIRE WOLF was not happy to see her. Azalea heard a bunch of footsteps walking away and guessed that the other Elves had left.

   Elvy saw Azalea, he looked her straight in the eye, then he looked away and continued playing with a ball.

   "Aw, come on," Azalea said. "You're ignoring me?"

   The wolf didn't move an inch.

   "Elvy."

   No reaction.

   "Elvy."

   Nothing.

   "Elvy."

   Did the wolf need hearing aids?

   "Elvy."

   Azalea's heart sank.

   "Elvy." This time, it didn't come from Azalea. Instead, it came from a teal eyed boy with a crisp accent. The wolf perked up and waddled over to Fitz.