The Rogue Guardian

Chapter 54: Left Behind

Everyone remembers the heist Morane and the gang had planned for today, right? Replacing royal weapons with Lucien's defective ones? ok great let's go!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I'm serious," I whined. "All I want to do is go to sleep."

Evvie refused to budge from the threshold, where she was blocking me from closing the door to my room. "Not yet. We need to talk about this."

Even knowing how ridiculous it would sound, I couldn't help but sigh, "Why?"

"Because in the space of about three days you've gotten us the royal spymaster, an alliance with the King of Assassins, and the Silver faction. How the hell did you manage all this?"

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it?" Liz squeezed past both Evvie and me and settled down on my bed. "She's a Guardian. There's different rules for her."

I abandoned trying to block the door and turned around. "What do you mean there's different--"

Lucien pushed into the room dramatically, knocking me aside, followed by Wes and Kay. "Honestly, Eyro-- I mean Laerhart-- I can't believe you didn't tell us from the beginning."

"You mean the beginning when you guys attacked me for following you? Or the beginning when the whole gang kidnapped me? Or the beginning when you guys rigged my duel with Wes?"

He waved one hand vaguely. "Any of those times would have sufficed."

"I just can't believe Kay is being so calm about this," Wes put in. "I mean, he just found his long-lost sister." They all looked at Kay expectantly.

He raised an eyebrow. "Morane and I worked all this out weeks ago."

"You've known who she was this whole time?" Lucien asked, sounding betrayed.

Evvie half raised her hand. "I've known since the night we kidnapped her."

"I've known for about two weeks," Liz added. "Evvie sleep talks."

"It's an issue," Evvie sighed.

"I'm the only one who didn't know?" Lucien demanded.

"Wes didn't know," I pointed out.

"That doesn't count. Wes doesn't know anything."

"Hey!"

I pressed two fingers to my forehead and growing headache. "Shouldn't you guys be sleeping? We've got a big day tomorrow."

"Should have thought of that before you decided to singlehandedly restructure the framework of the entire Phoenix organization," Liz advised.

"It's not that big of a deal," I insisted.

Liz snorted and Kay rumpled my hair affectingly. "You could set off an earthquake that destroys this whole city and then tell us it wasn't a big deal."

I scoffed. "Don't you think that's a little unrealistic?"

"Well," Lucien mused, "There was an earthquake after the Choraia Convention, and you've already made plenty of allusions to that tonight."

"The earthquake only happened because a Guardian was killed. I don't plan on being killed."

Evvie shook her head. "After tonight, I'd watch your back. Dahra hates you."

"Well, she'll have to get in line," I told her. "There are people who have been waiting for longer than she has to kill me."

"That's adorable," Liz quipped. I wondered if she thought I was kidding.