The Mighty Ones' Fall

Chapter 10: 'G' for Girlfriend, 'E' for Escape

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"Alec, where's your g-" the little blond girl was cut off mid-sentence when Alec gently covered her mouth and scooped the child off the ground in one graceful movement. The tone of his voice, however, did not match his seemingly kind gesture. Exchanging curious glances, Layna, Hannah, the twins, and I jumped off the ground and jogged toward the relatives. The young girl's mother and Alec's mother, Clara, were still far behind her and well out of ear-shot.

"I thought I told you to never speak of that again," Alec hissed at her, removing his hand from her mouth, his blue eyes flashing angrily. "What are you even doing here, Anna?"

Anna stuck her lower lip out in a pout, possibly the cutest pout I had ever seen besides Layna's, and her soft brown eyes grew wider and wider. She tugged at the collar of Alec's t-shirt and complained, "But our mommies didn't hear me, so it's okay. I just wanted to say hello."

"No, it's not okay," Alec argued, and the little blonde started quaking. I was about to tell Alec to take a chill pill when he continued, just as harshly as before, "You can't speak about it to anyone ever again. Got it? No one."

"Another secret, Alec?" Layna cut in, her voice tight, her arms crossed. "I was hoping you were finished with those."

"Would you please shut the hell up?" Alec hissed, turning to face the newest Knowing member, still holding a quivering Anna in his arms. "You have absolutely no idea what's going on."

Layna only scoffed at Alec, raising her eyebrows at him in disbelief. "Well, it looks to me like you're bullying a little girl. I was just wondering what part of the hero's code justified that."

"The part of the hero's code that tells me to protect secrets from outsiders. And in this case, everyone here is an outsider," Alec responded furiously. As he said this, he subconsciously tightened his grip around Anna's waist, and she yelped in pain. Suddenly jolted out of his angry trance, Alec set her down on the ground and took a step back, as if she had been the one to hurt him.

Simultaneously, Alec's and Anna's mothers walked over to us, so Layna rightly decided to keep her mouth shut. Without saying a word, Anna buried her face in her mother's long skirts and began to whimper. Her mom, a tall, blond woman, only sighed and patted Anna's head lovingly, while Clara, who was holding Felix, studied her eldest son. But Alec was just staring at the ground, avoiding everyone's gazes and making no move to greet the dark-haired toddler in his mother's arms. I had a hard time believing that Alec had actually taken care of Felix when the two were living in the Woods with the Forest Gods.

Just when I thought the situation couldn't get any more awkward or tense, Alec cleared his throat, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and said, "I should go train some more." No one objected, though we knew that he did not, in fact, need to train. Honestly, how much more advanced could his sword fighting get? Plus, the sun was just starting to set in the glowing purple sky.

Nevertheless, Alec headed back to the arena, leaving Hannah, Layna, the twins, and I to socialize with Clara, Anna, and Anna's mother. We exchanged simple, polite greetings and then headed to the mess hall, where we split up to go get food and find tables. Hannah picked out a table at the edge of the hall, as far away from the angry Jason and his council as we could possibly get. And if Hannah and Layna leaned back in their seats far enough, they could catch a glimpse of the shirtless Alec whipping his sword about, slashing at the practice dummy in the otherwise empty arena. Needless to say, the topic of the dinner conversation started immediately with the troubled hero.

"What do you think Anna was going to say to Alec?" Darius whispered to the rest of us at the table as he stuffed a bite of pork in his mouth. "It definitely started with a 'G.'"