Water's Reflection or Hero's Guilt

Chapter Forty-Nine

          A knock on the door disturbed June from her thoughts. “My Queen?” asked a guard. She turned around with a growl.

          “What is it? I said not to bother me!” After coming back from her little trip to Madame Lyss, she had been in a foul mood. The Soulanders had not cheered her up the least bit. She had retreated to her quarters, where she tinkered about with Mage Whitesands' collection.

          The man on the other side of the door sounded rather hesitant. “We have a... a prisoner.”

          She let out a snarl loud enough for the man to hear it. “I am not to be disturbed! Take him to Decker! Now leave me alone!”

          But suddenly, a second voice came through the door. “June, it's me,” he said; she immediately recognized it. Terrance. Within a split second, she had crossed the room and opened the door. Terrance stood in the middle of the hallway, with guards on either side of him. His wolf ears showed he hadn't replaced his lost ring. He stared right at her. Her gaze flashed down; his hands were untied. His tail remained still, it did not wag.

          “He came to the gate,” told one of the guards. He did not look at her; June did not wear her cloak, and was only clad in the slim wraps that covered her breasts and hips. He did not dare offend her by staring at her body. Meeting her eye seemed similarly frightening to him. “He said to bring him to you.”

          “Why did you listen?!” June spat at him, not sure what to make of the situation.

          The guard glanced at her, then quickly turned his gaze again. “Well, we.. eh...”

          “Decker recognized me and told them to go to you,” Terrance said calmly.

          She shot him a raging look. “Who told you to speak?!”

          He chuckled. “I'm not one of your minions, June.”

          “No, you are my prisoner,” she said, then turned to the guards. “Is that all?”

          One of them took a satchel from his shoulder and handed it to her. “He had this with him when we came. We searched him for weapons too, but didn't find any.” She took it without even glancing at it; her furious look caused for the two guards to mumble some excuse, then quickly leave.

          Terrance chuckled as he watched them walk away. “And I thought Joanne's minions were pathetic...”

          June said nothing—she let out another slight snarl—but flicked her wrist. A sudden force pushed Terrance forward into the study. The door shut closed immediately after he stumbled through. He quickly regained his balance. “Funny,” he muttered. “I see you still like that magic.”

          “Don't insult me,” said June as she put the satchel next to a few of Whitesands' trinkets on his desk. She watched Terrance for a moment; he let his gaze slip through the room, taking in the environment. Perhaps planning some elaborate trick.