The Shadow Wanderers

Chapter 25

When Calista walked out of the stadium with Zayden, she was surprised to see Isaac Scott standing alone near the parking lot, as though he was waiting for someone. The address had long finished and the Erinians had all rushed to their homes.

He turned to Calista as soon as he saw her and put his hand up in an awkward wave, his face neutral. Calista stopped, confused.

"I think he wants to talk to you. I can wave him away if you want," Zayden said to her, noticing Isaac.

Calista frowned, still deciding what she wanted to do. The last time she talked to Isaac, his words had become the ultimate reason for the life that she lived today. But she also felt like she owed him at least a few kind words on account of him literally saving her father's life.

"I'll deal with him. Thank you," she said to Zayden, walking towards Isaac. Zayden and his commanders walked away, but she knew she still had a soldier at her heel.

"Hey," Isaac said—his tone gruff—as Calista approached him.

"Hey," Calista said back, and then as though there was nothing left to say, both stood awkwardly, their hands in their jeans' pockets.

Calista decided to break the silence. "Thank you for the other night. Words might not be enough to express what that meant—"

"That's fine," Isaac interjected, as though getting embarrassed. "I'd have done it for anyone."

Although touched, Calista refrained from saying how he was the last person she'd thought would do something like that for anyone.

"Besides, I had help. The King cleared my way. I don't think I would have made it out in time if it weren't for him," he said. Calista nodded, remembering how Zayden and Isaac had walked out of the hospital together, her father unconscious on Isaac's shoulder.

"So, while I was gone, what changed, Isaac? I can see you're a different person now," Calista said, meaning it as a light-hearted comment, but Isaac's frown and the shifting of his weight told her it hit a wound.

He opened his mouth to say something but stopped. And then said, "You mind taking a walk with me?"

Calista frowned, a bit taken aback, but said nevertheless, "Sure."

And so, they walked parallel to the stadium, passing the school until they reached the nearest commercial area.

Calista admitted to herself she had no idea what was going on in Isaac's mind. She didn't know if the Isaac she was with right now was the same person she had known two months ago. But she was willing to listen to whatever it was he wanted to say to her; she thought the time had finally come that the both would open up about their grudges with each other. After so long, Calista could glimpse a light of hope that might possibly bring her peace regarding all the Erinians—through the mayor's public apology—or at least, the ones that had begrudged her the most—through the impending conversation with her bully.

"My sister passed away," Isaac said, all of a sudden, his head down.

Still walking, Calista looked up at him to see if he was joking. "I thought you were an only child," said Calista.

Isaac led her to a café where they took a table near the window after ordering their drinks. Reclining back in his seat, Isaac sighed, trying to make himself comfortable. Calista waited for him to speak.

"I had a half-sister. Nobody on Erini knew except my father and I," he said. "Isabelle Jones."

Calista did a double take. "Isabelle's dead?" she exclaimed, immediately regretting it. That was not the type of reaction anyone would want to hear about the death of a family member. But the news of the thirteen-year-old Isabelle's death was as hard to grasp as that of her being Isaac's half-sister.