Sentry of the Arcane

Chapter 23: Sophie

"And...done!"

I suppress my groan as I stare at myself in the mirror. My blond hair was curled as a dark magenta blouse fit snugly against my torso. I still wore the boots I came with earlier, though. Shaking my head in awe, I walk over to my pajamas and fold them neatly. "You did a great job, Laurel. You know, I think Audrey would also like a makeover." I can't help but laugh when Audrey glares at me for my suggestion. Laurel squeals, clapping her hands as forces Audrey to sit in the chair. I can't help but laugh when Audrey groans in response.

But before Laurel can start her "operation", knocking on her door interrupts her. Frowning momentarily, Laurel walks over to the door as Audrey jumps up and backs away, smirking as she stands near me. "Totally got out of that one," she whispers, a smug smirk on her face.

Shaking my head, I proceed to organize Laurel's mess of a makeup-desk when I hear a deep male voice chuckling, much deeper than the one I'm oh-so familiar with now. Suppressing a sigh, I put all of the brushes and combs away neatly in a drawer as I hear Audrey walk over to greet whoever's at the door.

Suddenly, I feel two hands jab into my shoulder's pressure point, causing me to jump so hard that I drop whatever brush I'm holding. I'm about to scream when I only see an Audrey struggling to contain her laughter. As I hold a hand to my beating heart, Audrey finally bursts into hysterics, so much so that she has to wipe a tear from her eye. I scowl at her as I pick up the fallen brush and put it away. "I swear, Audrey. Now is not the..." My voice trails off when my eyes meet the ones of Fitz. Fighting myself to keep my impending blush down, I turn away and finish cleaning up after the female Altruistic.

Laurel, on the other hand, seems so gleeful to see Donovan and Fitz. My eyes widen when I see the suspicious smirk grow on Laurel's face and quickly rush to her side before she can say anything that I will regret later. When I near the two boys, I ask, "Why are you knocking on Laurel's door instead of Benen's?"

"Unless you want a makeover, since that's fine by me," Laurel adds. "I can help you get ready to look nice for them." She whispers the last word so quietly that I have to strain to hear her. When I see her pointing at me and Audrey, I begin to blush madly as I try to look away, finding anything more interesting than the words coming out of the girl beside me. I glance up to meet Fitz's blushing face when Laurel adds, "And I already see that I've made progress..."

My eyes widen to their full capacity as I stumble back, my voice not working. I glance over to see Audrey smirk at me. Fitz clears his throat as he asks, "Um... well, Benen's actually sleeping right now. We-" He pauses, throwing Donovan a stern glance. "I didn't want to wake him, so we knocked on your door instead. Is that alright?" Although the question seemed to be towards Laurel, Fitz kept his eyes on me for my response. Not trusting my voice, I just nod.

"Just use the connecting door to go see Benen," Laurel adds.

Fitz and Donovan nod as they near the door. Before Fitz gently opens the door, Donovan whispers something into his ear. The male Sovereign's smirk grows when a blushing Fitz elbows the him in annoyance. Then they disappear into the Benen's room, the door closing softly behind them.

Sighing, I sit down on the edge of Laurel's bed, embarrassed beyond words. Laurel sits herself on the ground as Audrey pulls up the chair from Laurel's makeup-desk. When I look at the two of them skeptically, Laurel and Audrey look at each other, then smirk.

...If only I knew beforehand what they had planned for me.

"Why were you blushing so much?" Laurel asks, her smile growing. "I swear, both of your faces looked like tomatoes after I finished speaking." Laurel then laughs at my speechlessness and high-fives Audrey.

"Also, I want to know why you two were like that when we spied on the boys in the conference room a few days ago," Audrey adds to my dismay. My eyes widen more as I remember how close Fitz was to me when I was finally confronted. Shaking my head, I press my lips together as I stare at the wall, purposely avoiding both of them.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Laurel tap her chin in deep thought. "Oh yeah! And they were whispering about....what was it.... 'That'..?" I raise my eyebrows in shock that they still remember what we talked about. Dread then pools into my stomach as I realize that they remembered that we talked about that. "What was 'that'?"

I shake my head as my hidden blush begins to finally show. I exhale sharply. I wasn't going to get out of this easily. As I open my mouth to make an excuse, something crashes, specifically in Benen's room.

Remembering that the three boys are in there, we quickly jump up to go see what it is. When both Audrey and Laurel hesitate to open the door, I swing the door open, wondering what happened.

"Donovan!"

At Fitz's outburst, I jump up in the air. But when I see Donovan holding someone dressed in black in a headlock, I stumble back. "W- what is that?!" I finally stammer, my eyes wide.

"Who is that?" Audrey asks as she walks over to the now-standing Donovan. As he brushes himself off, Audrey looks down upon the person Donovan tackled and said, "Why'd you tackle Mr. Wallace?"

Donovan's eyes widen as Fitz walks over to help the middle-aged man up. "Sorry, Mr. Wallace," Fitz apologizes sincerely. "We didn't wait long enough to see who it was. How did you manage to open Benen's door to his room?"

Benen, now awake, nods in agreement. "I was beginning to freak out when the door just opened." He holds his room key out towards Mr. Wallace. "Especially when I saw my key card next to me."

Mr. Wallace nods understandingly. "I see. But might I wonder why the Sovereign resorted to tackling before anything else?" He winces as he rubs his lower back.

"Yeah...sorry about that," Donovan replies, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "I'm more of the take-action type of person."

Fitz and I can't help but roll our eyes. "Totally didn't know that already," Fitz adds, earning an eye roll himself from the male Sovereign. I stifle a laugh, but end up smiling to contain my hysterics. Audrey elbows me, but I still see the smile on her face.

Mr. Wallace accepts the apology with a firm nod. Adjusting his glasses, he turns around on his heel and silently strides out. I raise an eyebrow at how he walks like he just wasn't tackled by the most hard-headed male I know. The six of us are left with the silence of his exit as he closes the door behind him.

I glance over to see Donovan cracking his knuckles angrily, Fitz raising an eyebrow at the door skeptically, and Benen still pale and wide eyed. Laurel sees this and walks over to the male Altruistic with concern in her eyes. "Benen?" she almost whispers.

Benen shakes his head. Staring at Fitz, he says, "Why did you let him get away?"

Donovan tilts his head to the side. "'Why'? Because it was that Wallace guy."

"No," Benen quickly said. "He looked exactly like the man I saw in my room last night." Benen abruptly stands up and walks over to the male Percipient. "I don't trust him." I walk over with a raised eyebrow. But when I do, I hear in almost a whisper, "If I stayed awake for the rest of the night, I would've spent some time looking at who the person was while trying to fake my sleep. And I did." He glances at me, then at Fitz again. "I'm telling you, he looks almost exactly like that man in the shadows."