I've changed the first paragraph of Chapter 60 from: “It must have taken a lot out of you,” Sush taunted with a smirk when they were in the car after dropping off Enora at the royal residence, promising to pick her up for ice-cream and a trip to the park later. to “It must have taken a lot out of you,” Sush taunted with a smirk when they were in the car after dropping off Enora at the royal residence, promising to pick her up for ice-cream and a trip to the park next time.
Days after Kenji’s update, Sush was no closer to figuring out the last time she came in touch with Upshaw, and Asahi pointedly told the eastern leader that despite the eastern attacks - which he was still blaming Kenji and his octopuses for - he would never stoop below professionalism and hunter hierarchy. That assertion was entirely believable because Asahi has never broken a single rule in his career - be it something as serious as committing treachery or as trivial as abiding to lunch hour to the dot. That brought them back to the lead itself: what did Upshaw mean? When did she and Sush last meet? It was probably when Upshaw was still in the western headquarters, and the exchange was either in a queue during lunch at the cafeteria or that they brushed past each other on the archer’s floor when their practice sessions coincided. In both scenarios, they wouldn’t have even spared each other a nod or greeting. Did that count as being in touch? “What’s on your mind?” Greg’s drawl bru
FOURTEEN YEARS AGO “Over here, Sush,” the old man said from the hospital bed, his voice hoarse and weak, the words came out in barely a whisper. Seventeen-year-old Sushmita Alagumalai came home to find her uncle on the floor next to a broken mug, a pool coffee spilling over the floor. She screamed and the neighbors came over, calling the emergency helpline as she tried to wake her uncle. An ambulance arrived and she was held back as the medical team checked his vitals - another heart attack, strapped him on a stretcher and hauled him into the ambulance, letting Sush sit with him and hold his hand. In a journey that seemed too long, all she could think of was, “Please, help him. Please make him wake up. I’ll be good. I’ll do anything. Don’t let him go, too. Please.” She didn’t know who or what she was praying to. She’d just lost her aunt two years ago, and she and her uncle had been grieving her death ever since. They were happy that they still had each other, until the first heart
PRESENT DAY The Duke of L’ouest, Greg Claw, remained pensive as his darkened eyes examined the pictures and screenshots for what was probably the twentieth time. The report his top hacker curated for him - behind his back - would normally warrant a praise, a raise, a pat on the back for the initiative taken, but this was one that changed everything he thought he knew, everything he thought he believed in the last three months, everything he thought he could have. Which was why he simply accepted the stack as the glow of his complexion dimmed, leaving Jade - his hacker - without a word. The decision was supposed to be an easy one and Greg felt ashamed to admit that he hesitated and - for a brief moment - considered looking the other way, asking the subject why before doing anything rash. But he knew why. It was written in the evidence. Asking wouldn’t just waste more time and make him vulnerable, it’d make everyone he knew vulnerable. What changed his mind within microseconds? What
Izabella opened her mouth to speak but found herself muted. She tried to scream and realized that she was only forcing air out of her lungs. Before her brain computed what was happening, vines appeared from the concrete against her back and bound her limbs and body to the wall. Flowers of transparent petals grew within seconds on the tendrils, exuding a scent that she didn’t think much of when two women she’d never seen before seemed to magically appear behind Greg, both dressed in black. Izabella screamed Greg’s name, trying to tell him about the two women, who she perceived as imposters, not knowing that they were the empress and consort of the vampire community, whose presence Greg requested. Greg, his eyes now a deep onyx, began, “Izabella Delilah,” the fact that he used her full name and that his eyes were a shade that she’d never seen told her everything she needed to know. Her neck stiffened. Her wrists tried to break free but the tendrils only tightened around them. The du
At the Paw-Claw residence - the king changed his last name to include his mate’s a few years back as a birthday gift to himself - Greg extracted a white envelope from under his seat as the two pups behind raced in unbuckling themselves before getting out as soon as the car doors were opened and raced to the front door. Enora waited patiently for Greg to unbuckle her, carry her out, and set her on her feet. Her hand reached for his as they took their time traipsing to the entrance. Enora was filling him in with her classmate’s profile and quirks, and he listened attentively, enjoying the momentary distraction despite having already memorized every single profile of the pups and their families in that kindergarten. It wasn’t as if he knew everything either, he admitted. He didn’t know which ones threw watercolors and painted their classmates’ faces and clothes during art, demanded a potty break twenty times a day or vandalized the tables and chairs and subsequently got detention. All
In the evening, with Enora in the space on his crossed legs, they tore stale bread and the girl clearly didn’t get the memo when she aimed the first chunk at the mother duck of purple feathers, turquoise beak, and yellow eyes. She only missed because Greg lifted her and turned her away right on time, so the bread was hurled neatly in front of the animal, who quacked in appreciation. And so it became a game, for Enora to estimate how far off she should aim to get the ducks while her uncle deflected her point of focus. Her giggles showed that she was having more fun than their previous duck-feeding exercise. When the last of the bread was gone, some of which injured two ducklings and most of which scattered around the flock, Enora pulled out a strand of leaf next to Greg’s leg and tried to reach the dragonfly minding its own business above an empty lilypad. Before the insect got away, a gray elastic structure came from underwater at the edge of the lilypad, and the dragonfly disappeare
Four months later, Greg found himself in an elevator headed for the sixteenth floor alongside his cousins and the queen, along with the ministers and a few warriors. The metal doors parted and they trooped down the well-lit corridor with glass-walled meeting rooms on each side, indifferent to those peering at them. Only the room at the end had opaque walls and doors, bookended by a guard on each side. At the sight of the neighboring species, the guards instinctively blocked the entrance doors, forbidding entry. It was their presence which told Lucy where to go. She knew who they guarded anyway. “Lowell. Harlow. Is Valor in there?” Lowell, blond with a diamond face, replied with crossed arms, “He’s in a meeting, a matter of great urgency that just arose. You have been notified about the postponement of the treaty execution, I believe, Your Majesty.” Lucy’s head tilted to the side as her lips lifted into a smirk. “We have a meeting with him. Now. It was scheduled last week and it’s
Greg felt something when he looked at Sushmita: immense distrust - an involuntary response that oozed from Izabella’s betrayal. Every huntress was an enemy, he was sure. This one was no exception. She may be an octopus but - for all anyone knew - she was probably also a part-time chameleon, given how attractive she was. And chameleons were the most ruthless of the bunch. He knew she’d been the brains behind correspondences, the queen had told him so, but he imagined her to be more… defensive, like Patterson; or anxious, like Abbott. If Greg’s facial reading wasn’t off, the huntress just looked tired. And enraged. Yes, definitely enraged. And she had no right to be! It was her fellow huntress who started this whole thing. Sushmita exhaled as she scribbled one word on her notepad and pushed it to Valor, who took one look and his eyebrows shot to his hair before he pushed back the notepad. Facing the royals, he began, “Like we said before, Izabella Delilah’s crime…” Lucy interrupted