Chapter 52 A War is Coming
ADRIANA
I woke up late that day. I had no idea why because I knew I’d slept early. Which meant I’d missed practice again.
I couldn’t remember how many times I’d missed practice this week alone. And I didn’t like it because it just made me look very unserious.
The fact that Hazel hadn’t spoken about it made it worse somehow because I wondered what she was thinking. I needed to attend practice more.
I got up from bed and dashed into the bathroom. Practice would be over by now but if I went quickly, I’d be able to catch her there and explain things to her.
I didn’t want her treating me differently because of Elijah or whatever I had with him. If I actually wanted to earn respect and earn a place in the army, I had to do things myself.
As soon as I came out of my room, I saw her coming out of Elijah’s office and I quickly ran down to meet her.
“Hazel! Wait up!”
She looked up at me and smiled.
“Hey, what’s good? I missed you today at practice, is everything okay?”
“Yes, it is. I’m so sorry I couldn’t make it. I slept in and I didn’t wake up until a few minutes ago. Did anything happen?”
“Oh no, practice is still on so you didn’t really miss much. You’re going to need a partner though.”
I frowned.
“Practice is still on? It’s almost eleven am.”
“Yes, we just decided to make it longer today.”
That wasn’t true. Practice started at six and on days when we wanted to practice late, it ended at nine.
“Are you sure? This is pretty late.”
“Yeah, I know. Orders from the old man.”
The old man. I hadn’t seen him in days.
“Something is wrong, isn’t there? Don’t lie to me, Hazel. It’s obvious.”
She opened her mouth but didn’t say anything.
“Why are you suddenly training so hard? What’s coming?”
“War, Adriana. There have been threats recently and Elijah wants to be prepared for it.”
I knew there was something wrong. No wonder he was acting so differently.
It was all my fault. I had caused this. If he hadn’t saved me that day, then my father wouldn’t have targeted him and then him and his little group of wizard friends wouldn’t have done what they did.
I’d heard what they had done to that pack a couple of days ago and I just couldn’t fathom it. Why would they do something like that?
Barely anyone had survived. I’d been following the reports, knowing full well my father was behind it. As of the last time I checked, the people who were still alive were dying faster than their hearts were beating.
I felt responsible for everything. It’s no wonder I haven’t seen Elijah. He obviously can’t stand the sight of me. I’m sure he regrets ever helping me because if he hadn’t, then this wouldn’t have happened.
He had lost a total of four packs just because of those people.
“So he’s really going to fight them?”
She nodded.
“We don’t exactly have a choice. If we don’t, they’re just going to keep taking and taking and we won’t be able to do anything about it. Elijah can’t take anymore hits. The people are already talking, asking when he will do something. He’s the Alpha, he has to act.”
I hated that my father put him in this situation.
“What can I do to help? I really want to do something. I blame myself for all of this.”
“What can you do, Adriana? You just have to sit back and watch.”
“No, I can’t. I can speak to him. Make him see reason.”
She laughed.
“You think we haven’t done that? Well, we didn’t exactly speak because Elijah wasn’t very chatty that day but we tried to reason with your father. Obviously, he wasn’t very interested in talking so we had to rough him up a bit.”
Rough him up a bit? I didn’t care if Elijah knocked one or two teeth out because he deserved it.
Against Hazel’s better judgment, I’d seen the photos she had shown Elijah that day and I cried. The corpses that lay on the floor lifeless were all my father’s doing.
What exactly did he want from me?
When I was there, he didn’t care about my existence. As a matter of fact, I remember him telling me on several occasions to leave his house and find something better to do with myself, but I stayed because if I left, I didn’t have anywhere else to go.
Even so, I knew he didn’t really mean it. If I tried to leave, he’d say I was sneaking out.
So I stayed back and endured it all.
Now that I had finally gone, he was fighting to get me back. For what? Didn’t they have other maids at home or was Lisa the one who missed me because she just couldn’t let me go?
The thought of all of them being together in that house just made me furious and I wish I could just kill them all.
I walked away from Hazel and went back to my room. I felt at fault that an entire pack had to suffer for me.
Not just an entire pack, but almost all the packs in this kingdom. I couldn’t even come out at night because I felt Elijah would see me and hate me for everything. Since I knew he was avoiding coming into my room as well, I just stayed there and sulked.
Hazel came in later that night though.
“It’s not your fault, you know that. You don’t have to blame yourself.”
She may say that now but what would happen when things got out of hand?
I didn’t say that though, I only smiled and thanked her and after she left. I let the thoughts come in waves, torturing me until I finally drifted off to sleep.