“I’ll get to sleep soon enough.” He gave me one last look as he opened the door. “Get some rest.” And then he was gone.
I didn’t even wash off my makeup. The second he walked out the door, I pulled out my hair, put on my pajamas, and crawled into bed.
“Oh my god,” I groaned into the pillow. “How am I still alive?”
It took tremendous effort to turn off the lamp, but after that, sleep blissfully overtook my body.
I foughtto get out from under the cover of sleep. But I became aware that the beside lamp beside me was on.
It couldn’t possibly be morning yet. I felt like I hadn’t slept more than ten minutes.
“What time is it?” I grumbled, still unwilling to open my eyes.
“It’s about 1 a.m. We’re leaving.”
It wasn’t Axel’s words as much as his tone that brought me wide awake. I immediately sat up, blinking against the light, feeling confused and disoriented. “Why?”
He was looking at his phone. “The entire family is leaving. There’s been an incident back home.”
I swung my feet over the side of the bed, but all of my muscles screamed when I did it. “What kind of incident?”
“The bad kind.” He looked up from his phone and met my gaze. “How fast can you get dressed and packed?”
“Fast.”
“You’ve got ten minutes.”
“Okay.”
“And dress in clothes you can move in.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Boots, warm pants, sweater, jacket with a hood, preferably dark colors.”
“Are you serious?”
“Get moving.” And then he was gone again.
“Don’t make me run, okay?” I said to the empty room. “I’m too stiff to run.”
He returned in ten minutes,and I had an additional three minutes’ reprieve while he packed his own bag. Then someone was at the door to bring our bags downstairs.
It was chaos in the lobby.
Our entire group was milling around in various states of inebriation. Some were staggering, others were sitting down and holding their heads or trying to get some sleep. Around them, protective details moved with precision. They ordered hotel staff to load up the cars and check the baggage.
In the middle of all this, my uncle alternated between yelling at his phone and conferring with three of his cousins.
“What’s wrong with everyone?” I asked.
“Everyone is completely drunk.” Axel stepped closer and lowered his voice. “There was an attack on your uncle’s home. A couple of buildings were set on fire.”
“What?” I stared at him in disbelief.
“They also carried out simultaneous attacks on two other homes, but those were stopped before they did any real damage.”
“What’s on fire?”
