The Makers of Destiny: Monarchy

Chapter Eight: Midnight Intruder

"If this is one of those prophetic dreams where you wake up screaming in fright, I think I'll pass," Lillian said in a warning voice without turning around.

"This is not a prophetic dream - you need to be truly special to receive those - and you won't wake up screaming in fright, at least I hope you won't." Whoever was speaking replied in a polite voice.

"Oh, I feel so much better now," Lillian scoffed. "You hope? How promising."

"You certainly are very optimistic," the voice continued pleasantly. Lillian wasn't amused.

"I try my best."

"So why don't you turn around then and we can sit down and have a nice chat."

Lillian paused, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. Whoever was talking certainly didn't seem very threatening and she was curious enough as it is, so she did. Before her stood a man. He wasn't very tall, just average, and had dark brown hair with the slightest curl and a neatly trimmed beard. He wore a light blue business suit and had a relaxed posture with his hands clasped behind his back. Eyes the color of dark chocolate twinkled at Lillian. A smile played on the edge of his lips and he looked as he was about to give Lillian a deal he knew she couldn't turn down.

Seeing the man's formal wear, Lillian looked down self-consciously at her own old T-shirt and sweatpants. Suddenly, to her shock, they shimmered and changed into a white blouse with black jeans. Slightly more formal than she would usually wear. She looked up and saw that the man had already sat down on one of the couches, his hands clasped on his knees. Slowly, she approached the second couch and sat down, balancing at the very edge of it.

"Don't worry," the man assured. "It's just your subconscious responding. My guess is that you reacted to what you perceived as formal wear and tried to keep up to it. It's interesting that your first concern is the clothing, though you are a teenage girl; I shouldn't have expected anything else."

Lillian gritted her teeth. "Yeah, I'm a teenage girl. You know what else I am? Not very patient. So can you skip the big words, cut to the chase, and please tell me what is going on?"

The man raised an eyebrow and studied her in a way that made Lillian want to hide her face. "You sure are feistier than I expected. We didn't see that in our previous... observations."

Lillian's mouth dropped at the new revelation, but she was quick to respond. "Wait, are you saying you and whoever else is with you were stalking me? You have got to be kidding. You know what? Normally, I would be flattered, but when it's a grown man that I'd never met, this is just downright creepy." She held up her hands. "I have enough of this. Can you just let me leave whatever this is? The last thing I need right now is to be sleep deprived." Lillian had been ready to collapse on her bed the entire night. Being forced to have a conversation with a stalker was not on her to do list. After the day's event and with what was coming up the next day, she really needed a few hours of uninterrupted rest. The man couldn't blame her for being cranky.

Lillian knew that she must really be asleep - the possibility that she had somehow been magically transported in the middle of the night was something she didn't even want to begin to consider - yet her eyelids were starting to feel heavy and the room swam at the edges. This was too much for her to take.

To Lillian's chagrin, the man just chuckled. "Oh, this would be fun," he said with a grin.

Frowning, Lillian replied, "Is the definition of fun different in the magical world? Because Ameria seemed to have a twisted idea of it too."

Immediately, the man's smile vanished. "Ameria Costantini is the worst of all. Seers are too caught up in their own importance to appreciate actual fun," he snarled.