Written in the Stars

Chapter Twenty Four

Celeste walked away from the house as quickly as she could without arousing the suspicion of the guards they had positioned surreptitiously. She had to get to the nearest phone box, first of all to see if the Mayor of London had left any and if he had, if any of them still worked. She had to speak to Astrid or Jean or even Alaric as soon as possible. She didn't care who as long as it was one of them. They had to know what Izabela was planning. She had never thought that Izabela could do something that would cause Celeste to doubt her, but here it was. Making it clear that Astrid had to be removed from the picture was apparently a step too far for her.

She hit the jackpot within the first ten minutes of her search and found one that took both contactless and cash. It was a not so terrible day indeed, aside form the part of her having to kill her sister. Once she found the nearest phone box, which she was surprised still had a working phone, had not been vandalised, she put some coins in because there was no way she wanted her transaction to be tracked, and called her sister. She waited whilst it rang through, tapping her foot against the concrete floor and glancing around herself out the glass windows every few seconds. She didn't trust Izabela to not put a tail on her. Apparently she just didn't trust Izabela at all anymore.

With this realisation she also came to realise that she felt more like herself in that moment than she had in weeks in months even. She hadn't felt so clear headed and free since Izabela had come back into her life all those months ago. It was so clear to her now what she had done and how she had hurt those she loved. She felt sick.

Astrid answered.

"Hello. Who is this and how did you get my number?" Her voice was impatient as if she had been interrupted. It was almost the time Astrid went to bed so Celeste was concerned. She never sounded this irritable this close to sleep, it was a rule.

Celeste took a deep breath before answering, "Hi Astrid. I have something important to tell you. Can we meet?" She spoke quickly to prevent her sister from hanging up on her. She heard her sister sigh on the other end of the line.

"Celeste, you had better not be taking the piss or trying to scare me. I thought we had gone our separate ways? Why not just leave it?" Celeste could tell she was seriously considering just hanging up the phone and being done with her, but Celeste couldn't let that happen. Not tonight.

"Please, it's urgent. I don't want to tell you over the phone in case I've got eyes on me, but you need to know." And she wanted an excuse to see her sister - and Jean - again after everything that had happened. Even if it was one last time.

"All right, you know where to meet me. I'll be there in ten." Astrid sighed again as she hung up the phone and Celeste wondered if she would just be meeting her sister or if she would also be being joined by the rest of the gang. She wasn't sure what she wanted more.

She did indeed know where to meet her sister, but it was at least 20 minutes away at a brisk walk. If she was lucky she would be able to make it to the nearest tube station without being detected. That would cut her journey down by half, she hoped. If she made it there.

After a furtive glance around to make sure there were no obvious figures she ought to be worried about, she sent out a small pulse with her power to see if there was anyone around with ill-intent. Somehow there were not and so she took this as a good sign. She may manage to make it to the tube station after all.

Celeste stepped out of the box and started walking quickly towards the station. It took her a couple of minutes to reach it and in that time she managed to gain a suspicious car. It followed along beside her slowly, never getting too far ahead or behind, but also almost pointedly not driving right next to her. It was almost saying that it had her right where it wanted her. And she did not trust that one bit. Not at all.