Sentry of the Arcane

Chapter 28: Fitz

I shake my head as I look at myself in the mirror. My face's color still hasn't returned, so if someone sees me, I can't just say that I'm alright. I then proceed to wash my face with warm water, hoping that I'll have more color then. Fortunately, the warm water makes my face seem less pale than it was after Mr. Wallace left. Concluding that the warm water will be the best I can do for now, I dry my face and muse my hair a bit before going downstairs again.

When the elevator on the left opens, my eyes widen when I see Benen standing there. His eyes widen in surprise as well, but not after a gleeful grin spreads across his face. He ushers me in and presses the button for the ground floor. "I was confused when the elevator went up instead of going down," Benen says. "But now I won't be going down there alone, so that's good."

I nod, remembering how Benen doesn't know about the warehouse. I then curse myself when I realize that I didn't ask if either Sovereign knew about it as well. I force myself not to frown when I note how Laurel knew about the warehouse and not Benen. Not to be offensive, but Laurel faints more than anyone here. What will happen if we find something shocking?

I force my mind to not think about the warehouse when the elevator rings, signalling our arrival on the ground floor. Benen quickly exits the elevator, but waits for me as I walk out behind him. We then make our way to the conference room.

While Benen goes to meet up with the others, I walk over to Mr. Wallace. Mr. Wallace looks up from his book and stands up once he meets my gaze. "Is this about the warehouse?" he asks. At his abruptness, I force myself to not act surprised.

"Well, yes," I admit. "I wanted to ask why Benen doesn't know about the warehouse but Laurel does. It would make sense if neither of them knew, or both. Yet out of the two of them, Laurel knows."

Mr. Wallace nods, a smug smirk on his face. "I should've known you'd ask about this first," he says as I begin to wonder whether I should take that as a compliment or an insult. "But long answer short, I-" He suddenly cuts himself off as he glances over at the other five teenagers. But when he turns to look at me again, he asks, "I know that you have more questions. What are they?"

I frown at the noticeable evasion of my question. I sigh, knowing that I'll have to ask some other questions before questioning him about Laurel again. "Where is this warehouse located?"

Mr. Wallace shakes his head. "It's in the middle of a dry valley. I can't seem to tell what city it's in."

I furrow my brows at this answer. "How far is the city from the closest city?"

"About 5 hours."

I inwardly groan, knowing that this is the best answer I can get regarding this question. He's wording his answers wisely, I think to myself. Out loud, I ask, "Why don't either of the Sovereigns know about the warehouse?"

Mr. Wallace smirks darkly at me. "Who told you that they don't know?"

I raise an eyebrow. "So they do?" I ask.

"Maybe."

I grit my teeth at the vagueness of the answer. "Does Donovan know?"

"No. That's the only specific answer I'll give you," he adds to my dismay. "And you only get one more question."

"You have to give me an answer for this question," I say, noting how he agrees to my terms. "Vague or specific." After a moment, I ask again, "Why does Laurel know about the warehouse while Benen doesn't?"

Mr. Wallace frowns. "That's because-"

He cuts himself off again as he reaches to my head. My eyes widen when I realize that Mr. Wallace's hand hasn't touched the side of my head. Yet even still, he doesn't have to since I still feel it.

Once Mr. Wallace retracts his hand, a sharp agony blossoms throughout my head, causing me to clutch it gingerly. As the pain only worsens, I then realize that I've felt this much pain only once before.

When I had the circlet on my head.

Cringing along with my major headache, I shake my head and grit my teeth tightly. I glower at the middle aged man. "You did something," I seethe. "I know you did. It's like that... that..."

Mr. Wallace holds a finger to his lips. "Shh..." he coos sickeningly. He then grabs me by the shoulder and turns me around. "Just go to bed. The pain will cease later."

I open to say a retort, but the pain makes my surroundings all too dizzy. Groaning, I clench my fists together as I quickly walk out the doors to go to my room again.

Afterwards, I'm going to find out what he did.

...

When I wake up again, the pain's gone. I swear under my breath when I realize that Mr. Wallace knew the agony would pass after I fell asleep. Shaking my head, I get up and head towards the bathroom to take a shower, hoping that the water will wake me up again.

After I finish taking a shower, I change into a dark blue shirt with grey jeans. I slip on some grey leather shoes and grab my room key card. Running a hair through my hair, I mentally curse the middle aged man as I walk over to my door.

So of course I'm surprised when I almost run into a rather livid Sophie.

"Where did you go the past three hours?!" she practically hisses at me. When she sees my raised eyebrow, her angry features dissolve into worry. "I saw you clutch your head as you walked away from Mr. Wallace," she says, surprising me further. She then places a finger on my chest. "Don't think I didn't see his hand almost touch your head. I have a feeling that he had something to with you coming up here."

I shake my head and hold up my hands to stop her from asking more questions. "First of all," I begin, dropping my hands to my sides. "It was three hours?" When Sophie nods, I say, "I was sleeping. Mr. Wallace said that the pain would go away once I fell asleep." I tilt my head to the side to stretch. "He did something with his hand."

I furrow my brows as I replay the memory of what Mr. Wallace did to me. "He kind of just swung his hand toward my left temple. And then the pain blossomed." I shake my head. "I'm surprised that I didn't faint right then and there. It was as if..."

My voice trails off when I see Sophie's hand swing up to my left temple, just like he did.

Almost by instinct, I grab her wrist before it can touch my head. I look at her eyes and see that she was merely trying out what I'd described what Mr. Wallace did as well.

But when my vision blinks between black and color, I release my grip on Sophie and clutch my head.

It's already happening.

But this time, the pain feels even worse than when Mr. Wallace did it.

So I can't help but let a scream escape my lips as my knees give out from under me.

As my mind is slowly dimming into unconsciousness, I faintly hear the sound of the elevator reaching our floor. I hear loud footsteps near the two of us and a slew of foul words. I force the remnants of my consciousness to open my eyes, and I find myself staring at Mr. Wallace as he reaches down to hoist me up. I will my legs to not fail me again as Mr. Wallace lets go of me asking, "You can stand right?" I can't hear his next words clearly, but I think I heard, "I should've known you'd remember what I did..."

I nod unconvincingly as I grab onto the wall beside me for assistance. I feel my brain's connection to my legs thinning out and force my arms to hold my weight.

I glance over to see Sophie wave a few fingers in front of my face. She opens her mouth to say something, but realizes another thing and presses her lips together tightly. After a moment of painful silence, she leans in and whispers, "I did the same thing to you again,, didn't I?"

I can't help but nod when my vision blacks out from the agonizing pain. I don't even know that I've collapsed again when I see Sophie kneeling beside me, her face full of worry and concern.

Another throb of agony pounds against all areas of my head, and my consciousness thins out into nothing. And I can't hear Sophie saying my name anymore.