“When can I meet her? I thought I was supposed to become friends with her like you are?” Hazel pouted, crossing her arms, her rare petulance making an appearance.
I rolled my eyes. “In good time. Your chance to win her over will come soon enough. But we have to be careful by avoiding being too obvious.”
Hazel groaned. “Fine. I’ll be patient just a bit longer, then.”
“Yes,” I insisted. “You will.”
Hazel narrowed her eyes at me and chewed on her lip, like I did when lost in thought. “But the real question is this,” she started, sitting up and crossing her legs underneath her. “Will she be able to win over the Kinetics to lead them once the insurgency’s plan to kill Forest has been—”
“Shhh…” My spine straightened, as did my sister’s, both of us quieting as we scanned the surrounding area.
“Come on,” she said, standing up in a hurry. “We need to go. I feel like we’re being watched.”
I didn’t question her, her intuition having always been much sharper than anyone else’s, aside from Chrome’s. Jumping to my feet, I assessed the park.
“You feel it, too?” she asked under her breath.
I nodded. “Yeah, not their energy. Just that…someone’s there.”
Hazel spun on her heels and took off at a brisk pace through the city park, heading in the opposite direction of the King’s Palace.
“Where are you headed?” I murmured just loud enough for her to hear.
Scooping up her glamoured light brown hair, she tied it in a ponytail at the top. She shook her head and scowled at me over her shoulder. Using her index finger, she placed it over her lips, ordering me to be silent.
I rolled my eyes, rushing to keep pace with her but focused on remaining vigilant to our surroundings. I reached for the dagger in my weapons belt for reassurance but kept it sheathed.
As we put more distance between us and the King’s Palace, we entered a city street. We rounded a corner and came to a stop at a busy intersection. Hazel appeared to know where she led me, although I shifted around beside her, uneasy, as cars whizzed past.
“Where are we—”
“Stop asking. You’ll see…” Hazel cut me off, waiting for the pedestrian light to let us know we were safe to cross the street.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Hazel, just tell me…”
“It’s not safe, dumbass. Just pay attention,” she hissed over her shoulder.
“Fine. Then how’s training going for you?” I asked with a huff, attempting to bring normalcy to our demeanor in the event we were being watched.
“It’s going. I managed to take out Marigold the other day.” The smug smile she tried to hide told me she was revisiting the memory.
“Hell yeah, Hazy. That’s great. Did you do the hold I showed you?”
A wide grin spread across her cheeks, still holding some baby fat she hadn’t quite grown into yet. “I did. Next time, I’ll lay on the kick you taught me.”
“But you’re not allowed to start hitting or kicking yet. That’s not for another few months at least.”
Tucking in her lips and casting her gaze to the ground, she bit back a grin. “Yeah, well…what the trainers don’t know won’t hurt them, right? Just Marigold and her arrogant attitude that has her thinking she can—”
The hairs on the back of my neck rose as needle pricks crawled down my spine. I stiffened, placing my hand on her shoulder.
“Run,” I murmured, cutting her off. Call it intuition, but in a busy intersection full of humans, I couldn’t remove my bracelet. I struggled to pinpoint the threat. I only knew danger was near, and we needed to get somewhere we could fight back.“Now.”
Hazel’s eyes widened, but she heeded my order as she took off down an alleyway on the right. I stayed behind her, protecting her back as I unclasped my silver bracelet, feeling my magic flood my veins, wishing I had more weapons on me. I had a dagger and a knife, as we carried our weapons at all times, whether inside or out of the King’s Palace.
“Take off your bracelet,” I demanded urgently. I didn’t know what enemy we were about to face, but I suspected they were Kinetic. “Stop here.”
Coming out of the alleyway, I turned left. Empty. The space had been vacated by a restaurant that had gone under, noting from the discarded commercial kitchen appliances out back. I reached up my sleeve, retrieving the knife I kept there andhanding it to Hazel before snatching my dagger tucked in the weapons belt beneath my hoodie.
