World on Fire | J. Saltzman - Legacies [4]

E I G H T

Despite her eljun refusing to pick up the phone, Josie can feel that Stella is still close. Close enough not to trigger the bond and for Josie to know she is completely and totally safe. Stella's decisions today had shocked her; Josie knows Stella well, better than most. She believes in Hope's right to choose, yet she had not shown that today.

So, if Josie can buy Stella time to figure this out, she will.

As she and Lizzie stand by Hope who lies incapacitated as she visits Raphael's prison world, she can hear Isaac and the other students organizing the dinner behind her. From the stories Stella told her, Josie just hopes that Hope appreciates it.

"Hope?" Lizzie calls out as the woman comes to, sitting up from the ground.

When Hope turns, Isaac comes up between the twins with a small smile. "We thought we'd have a meal and tell some stories. A sort of wake. This is your home, Hope, and if this is going to happen, it should happen here. With your family."

Hope's eyes dart behind them, her smile faltering. "What about Stella?"

Josie glances at the others as she sighs. "She's not here yet. She will be." She can't bring herself to promise it, though. Instead, she lets Hope loop her arm through her own and Lizzie's as they walk her to the crowded table.

Josie leaves a seat open between herself and Hope. A grey cat leaps atop the chair and purrs, leaning into Josie's hand which continuously pets him.

After some time, some students stand up and begin telling stories. Josie's side hurts from laughing so much, but her heart still feels empty—as empty as the seat by her side.

"...So, we had already been up for two days at this point because of the Night Hag," Wade explains with a glass of muted wine in hand. "But, anyway, Dr. Saltzman was still making us take exams, and Hope was generous enough to give us a break and cancel the final, but there was this one blowhard professor who gave us more work, so Hope spelled him so he could only speak Ancient Babylonian. He was the only one who didn't realize. We were all dying."

"You can't prove that was me," Hope replies with a small smile. Josie had noticed through the dinner how Hope's free hand has stayed on the empty seat, clenching into a fist before relaxing whenever Sir Arthur Meatball licked it. "Ok, it was Sumerian."

"I got a favorite Hope memory," Dorian announces. 

"No..." Hope drawls as a blush covers her cheeks.

"It was when we had the slugs," Dorian says. "Yeah, Hope had a slime trail going from her cheek into her nose." The whole table begins groaning. "I think you and Stella were hogging the showers that night."

Hope's smile falters significantly as her gaze drifts to the ground.

"I have a memory." Josie straightens her back as she follows the voice behind her to see Stella standing behind them, her hands clasped tightly together in front of her as she awkwardly shifts her weight between her feet. Arthur leaps off the chair and saunters over to Stella, meowing until she gathers him in her arms. Stella's eyes dart to Hope as she says, "Yeah, uh, it was a while ago, actually."

The cousins stare at each other for a moment before Hope nods. "Doubt it can beat the slugs."

A shiver runs down Stella's spine. "Ugh, the slugs." She makes her way to the table and sits down, pouring herself a glass of wine. "No, this is so much better. I was fourteen, so you were still in school, technically, but I had just scored a date with this girl at my school."

Stella quickly glances over at Josie. Though she will never admit she does not feel a spike of jealousy, a warmth spreads through Josie's stomach when she meets Stella's gaze.