12

eighteen

Diana~Aries

"How's India?" I asked, propping my arm up on the desk in my room. The Fire House was deserted; Chloe was in India with everyone else and Rufino was out with Ezra. Ezra requested his help when it came to his new invention idea.

"Hot," Chase said his voice in a groan. "I'm dead serious. It's like we are on the surface of the Sun."

I nodded. Chase had called me on my bracelet, his face popping up in a video call. Behind him, people in bright vibrant colors passes, and I could hear the small chatter in the back.

"We may be back soon, so that's good news." He coughed and looked behind him. Smoke billowed from a tiny kiosk.

"So why did you call me?" I asked.

"To tell you just that," he said. "I'm just calling to say that we may be home soon. Sorry for leaving you with the boys."

"Ay, they're fine," I told him. "Don't worry about us. I heard from one of them that we may go out to the library and do some research."

"Perfect, you guys do that. I'll see you, Diana."

"Au revoir, Chase."

He grinned and shut off the call. I pressed my thumb against the Aries symbol, turning it off, and sighed.

Suddenly, a knock on my bedroom door caused me to jump in my chair. I stood up and crossed the room.

"Who's there?" I called out, my hand against the door knob. I haven't seen the boys in a few hours. Usually, if that happens, Ezra probably blew something up and got himself killed. Hopefully, it wasn't Rufino who was knocking to tell me this.

"Rufino," a familiar voice said. "Open up."

My heart flew up into my throat. What did he want? Were we going to go to the library? I thought it was going later...

I twisted the doorknob and the door swung open. Before me stood Rufino, smiling. My heart started hammering when I didn't see Ezra.

"Where's Ezra?" I asked, concerned.

A face popped up from behind the door frame. Ezra smiled. "Ey, French princess." he winked.

"Ezra!" I cried, bursting through the door. I wrapped my arms around his neck, bringing him into a hug. He returned the gesture.

Rufino coughed behind us. "Hi, Diana."

I released Ezra and turned my head to look at Rufino. "Hey," I said with a smile.

Ezra snickered and walked over to the couches in my room. He jumped and landed in the cushions, his body disappearing briefly. "Damn," he said. "You guys have better pillows than we do over in the Water House. It's like I'm sleeping on rocks all night!"

Rufino sighed, slightly annoyed with him. He turned to me. "We were wanting to know if you wanted to do the research now."

"Oh, right. I was gonna ask about that," Ezra said.

"Now?" I asked. "I thought we were going a little bit later."

"We pushed it to now," Ezra said. He sat up and leaned against the backboard of the couch, a grin on his face. "Come on, Diana. Let's go."