Suri thought about what she was being told. She had seen a child morph ripped apart in front of her eyes as man crawled from her bowls. It had all seemed so real. Was it honestly all just an illusion? And if Phoenix had one, what could the others do?
“Are you, well um,” she paused. She hated when she stammered; she always did that when she was nervous. “Are you in a Troupe? Do you have an Aptitude too?”
As his look turned unreadable, she began fidgeting helplessly, waiting for an elaboration that never came. Trenton merely unfolded his arms from across his chest to place his hands on his hips with a deep sigh. He didn’t seem nearly as upset as he had been earlier—well, more like he was done with being upset at her and had moved on to indifference—and when he spoke again, her heart stopped.
“Go on and gather up your things.”
“I-I’m sorry,” she tried. “I didn’t mean to—”
“It wasn’t a question,” he said, altogether halting her words. “Therefore, it didn’t require a response.”
“W-Why? Why do I have to go?”
When he looked away from her, Suri turned her helpless gaze towards the couple seated beside her. Fae had resigned herself to pouting at Trenton, having apparently exhausted her words already, and the younger man embracing the woman upon his lap looked torn.
“Look, man,” Dante said, “Maybe she should stay the night? Or for dinner? We can take her in tomorrow. It’s cool.”
“It isn’t ‘cool,’” Trenton said as he narrowed his eyes dangerously at the man. “I have watched her for several days and there were no signs of a Troupe symbol or an aptitude manifestation. It was an entirely normal fever.”
Before Fae could retort, he continued.
“As we have discussed at length, Phoenix has no reason to accost her once she is no longer associated with us. He only pushed her the other day to prove a bloody point.” He scoffed humorously and sighed, softening. “We’ll be cautious. We can return her home and monitor from a distance. And she can be with her family where she belongs.”
Dante had responded, but by that point Suri had stopped listening. Her head spun wildly, and her vision blurred, and before she knew it only one thing was clear in her mind: Trenton was wrong. She no longer cared what he thought, or about why he wanted to be rid of her. If he was taking her back to her house—after a day like today—then she was going to give him a better reason to want her gone.
“Fine! Take me right now, see if I care,” she shouted, interrupting their discussion, and abruptly rising from the couch. “Better yet, take me back to the train station so that you can undo the mistake of rescuing me in the first place because that is exactly where I’ll go if you take me back home. Save yourself the freaking trouble of having to deal with me at all.”
Suri rushed across the living room and past Trenton, nearly pushing him aside to run down the hallway as fast as she could. With a loud sound of frustration, she entered the guest room she had been staying in and slammed the door shut behind her. The sound of it echoed back to the living room, where the others stared after her in stunned silence, until one of them spoke out.
“I have half a mind to kill her myself,” Trenton said.
Fae snorted. “Can you blame her, Hun?”
Trenton sighed in exasperation, beginning to pace off his frustrations. The woman was unrelenting in her belief that the girl would be better off with them, but in Trenton’s mind they were the source of danger in the girl’s life. Phoenix would do anything to best Fae considering their history together, and not all Troupes would take kindly to Suri knowing information that she shouldn’t have ever been told.
“I’m trying to do what’s best. Honestly, what is so wrong about wanting her to return to her normal, peaceful life?”
Fae didn’t seem inclined to answer. She had already made her position clear. However, Dante looked at him knowingly. “I get that you have your own shit, man. But you don’t know what she’s going through.”
Trenton paused to look at him in contemplation before sighing deeply and continuing to pace off his frustrations. He was stopped mid-stride when his phone began ringing. He fished it from his back pocket, and upon seeing the contact, he placed the phone to his ear. After a brief moment he signaled towards the hall and addressed the couple again.
“It’s Adam. Would the two of you mind watching her?”
Dante shifted, allowing Fae to slip off his lap and sit on the couch. “I’ll come with.”
Trenton lowered the phone from his ear, only half listening to the man on the other end. “That’s hardly necessary.”
“You gonna carry him to your car and up here by yourself?” Trenton wavered, remotely responding to the caller, as Dante moved towards the door. “Come on. I’ll come with and drive his car back.”
Trenton caved. He grabbed his jacket and car keys before following Dante into the hall. He paused before he closed the door, meeting Fae’s curious gaze, and lowering the phone from his ear. “Be sure that she’s packed when I return. And under no circumstances are you allowed near my stove.”
Fae gasped theatrically as he abruptly shut the door, muffling Dante’s laugh as the two made it down the hallway.
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