Written in the Stars

Chapter Twenty

The next day she barely made it to the coffee shop on time. It was just midday when she arrived and found Alaric already there waiting for her. They had only spent a brief time in London when they were together, but the coffee shop had remained, or rather, the building continued being a cafe even if the owners changed.

He had chosen a table right at the back, where she could barely see him. It was a chilly spell and in typical London fashion the sky was grey. It didn't help that the cafe did not have great lighting. She wondered how the humans in here could see at all if she was struggling.

She ordered a cup of coffee, Irish, and then made her way to the open seat in front of him, beverage in hand. He appeared to have showered since they had last spoken less than twelve hours ago and she supposed that was a blessing. She waited for him to speak, taking a sip of the drink and then deciding that the barista was particularly heavy handed with the alcohol and she would most definitely be coming back here, no matter how this meeting went.

When he did eventually speak, she had drunk over half of her coffee and was considering ordering another. "Celeste. I know it is probably very confusing to you how I managed to break the glamour you had put on me. And I am honestly surprised I managed to do it also, seen as I had no idea I had a glamour on me." She smiled tightly, nodding for him to continue. "I found a powerful vampire. She refused to let me see her face or if she did then she wiped my memory of it. But her voice sounded a lot like the Izabela you are currently staying with. Obviously I am very angry with you because you ruined my life, but you should probably know that in case you can confirm if she did it. I would like to thank her if it was her." He sipped his drink and watched as she processed the information.

Celeste didn't know what to think. She had no idea why he would lie, but she also had no idea what he could have to gain from telling her this. She decided to file it away for later and deal with it then. If she wanted to she could always bring it up with Izabela and have her confirm that it wasn't her. But it was enough that he had sowed that seed of doubt in her, she could see that. Damn Alaric. She needed to find out what he had wanted and then leave anyway. She couldn't be away from Izabela for too long.

"I know you didn't bang on my door at devil o clock in the morning to tell me that the woman I'm with broke my glamour. So what is it you really want?" She tried to keep her voice level and to not let him know that he had gotten to her. "I don't have a lot of time, so don't try and waste it."

He seemed to take a deep breath in before saying, "I'm going to see your sister. I had assumed that she would be with you but things seem to have changed. From what I remember, you were never going to leave Jean. But I guess old promises die hard eh?" He could see how uncomfortable she had become and let his amusement drip into his voice. "I was going to try and see if I could separate the old family and get you - and maybe also Jean - cast out. Just for fun of course." He watched as she flinched every time he mentioned Jean. It seemed he had a lot to find out, maybe before going to the second address he had been given, seen as the first one had been a partial bust.

"You can do what you like," Celeste's voice had hardened and her face had closed off, "I no longer associate with Astrid and certainly not with Jean." It was as if she had to force his name out and she saw it in his eyes as he took note of that information. She knew she was probably setting herself up for a fall, but she had known that something along those lines was going to happen sooner or later. She wasn't allowed to be happy for long after all. It seemed the world had it out for her and Izabela. First all those years ago when she had not found Izabela after the tragic fire that had been accidentally started by a maid and caused the death of almost all of her family, and now, with Alaric coming back. She was seemingly cursed.

"Hmm, I'll take that under consideration. Although if your new girlfriend did break the glamour you put in place that might give you the opportunity to get back into the fold. See if they'll take you back and all that bullshit. And then I can ruin it when I tell them that you were the one that forced me out and put that inconvenient curse on me. They don't need to know the truth until later?" She could see he was having fun toying with her emotions and she supposed he deserved a bit of fun after what she had done to him all those years ago. She was still getting over the fact that he was back. It was definitely a shock to the system.