Eliona's War 3: Lethal Healer

Ch. 23

9:32 pm

In hindsight, it probably wasn't a good idea to leave things in Mrs. Beakor's hands.

Not that Seth expected it to be, but when she waltzed in a half hour after the diner closed, she had the widest grin on her face. One look and chills went down his spine.

"Hello, boys."

"Hi." Seth tried not to hunch down behind the table. It would have been like showing a wolf his neck.

He looked across booth to Chadley, who'd been entering some notes on his laptop. The two of them had been going over what had happened last night in Eliona. Between the Knight, the Fang, and the long discussion he had with Agadhi, there'd been more than enough material there to keep their little meeting running well over half an hour. Knowing Chadley, the man was probably making another detailed slideshow presentation to share with the others later.

Chadley grunted without even looking up from his screen. It was his way of offering a greeting.

"Tripp in the back?" Mrs. Beakor asked.

Seth nodded slowly. Her weird exuberance hadn't faded the slightest. It worried him.

"Great. I need to tell him you won't be in tomorrow."

"I won't—what?"

At the same time Seth spoke, Chadley glanced up. He regarded Mrs. Beakor for a moment, before returning to whatever he was working on. There hadn't been a single change in his stoic expression.

Seth felt betrayed. He narrowed his eyes at the unhelpful man, before returning his attention to Mrs. Beakor.

"What are you talking about?"

The look she gave him was one of exaggerated disbelief. "Did you forget already? We're going to go get that box. Our plane leaves at noon tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Seth repeated, flabbergasted. It hadn't even been twelve hours since he made the phone call. How had she even-

"Tripp, dear!" Her loud call rang out. She strode around the counter and shoved open the kitchen door. "Do you have a moment?"

A man's giggle came from the kitchen. "Hel! What a wonderful surprise!"

Seth nearly gagged. He put his head down on the table. Yeah, he really shouldn't have expected anything different. The only good news was that he was pretty sure she wouldn't be able to smuggle her shotgun onto the plane.

***

This wasn't how Seth wanted things to go.

He'd thought having Mrs. Beakor hang out in his apartment while he went to Eliona was bad enough, but this—this was on a whole new level.

"You don't have to sit there, you know." He sat awkwardly on his bed while side-eying the chair that Mrs. Beakor had lugged into his room the night before. Only this time, the person sitting in it wasn't Mrs. Beakor. It was none other than Jake, and his entire presence seemed to sprawl off the chair and fill the room.

"It's okay," Jake said.

He showed no inclination of budging. It was like the armchair was his throne, from which he surveyed the entire scope of Seth's bedroom. At least he was polite enough to refrain from making comments about the mess, but that only made Seth all the more self-conscious.

He really had to clean up his apartment one of these days.

Seth sighed. "Well, thanks for coming, I guess. I'm not sure what Mrs. Beakor ran off to do. "