The Shadow Kingdom

Chapter 16 - Loose Ends

"I trust everything is in order?" I ask Nicholas. As luck would have it, Nicholas really is a Wall Street investment banker. Unlike Adrian and Anessa, he is not a prodigy, and as such, he has to make a living the hard way. He is a day trader at Goldman Sachs, and he was kind enough to do me a favour and agreed to handle my application for a small business loan.

"Indeed, they are. Congratulations, Ashcroft Highness. You have just been approved for a low interest loan." I happily accept the cheque for a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Nicholas extends his hand to me on my way out, but I pull him in for a strong hug.

"Thank you so much for your help."

"Of course. Those of us who were born without money making gifts have to stick together." I smile widely at him before leaving.

After the shooting at Saffron Imperial, the store's real estate value plummeted. Using the eighty thousand dollars I won at poker and the hundred and fifty thousand that I just got from Nicholas, I am going to purchase the store for dirt-cheap.

Adrian used his leverage and convinced Evelyn Santos to abandon the drug trade in New York City and sell the store to me. There is no doubt she knows that the Shangs were responsible for her husband's assassination, but hey, what's she going to do about it? I don't fully understand why Augustus seems to have such a strong aversion to drugs, but if anything, it is kind of a redeeming quality.

In less than a week, the new Saffron Imperial is open for business. I hired some staff to come by and fix all the bullet holes and clean up the bloodstains that Diana left behind. It turns out that all the art that used be here was counterfeit, so Evelyn didn't bother taking any of it with her. As of now, lot of the art hanging on the walls is my own. It fills me with pride to know that I have finally found a place where I can use my powers to do what I love. And never again will I have to worry about rejection. If an art gallery won't accept you, then buy your own art gallery! Over time, new artists will come to me with their pieces, and this place will finally become a legitimate business.

I am hanging a photograph of East River frozen over in December when the door chimes. "Hello, welcome to Saffron Imperi..." I stand frozen like the photograph when I realize who just walked in. "Alex?"

"Hey, baby sister." She smiles at me as if she has just crossed an ocean to see me. "How have you been?"

I immediately grab her arm and pull her into the back. "Alex, what are you doing here?"

"I came to see you. It's almost Christmas, and we've never had a Christmas apart from each other." I pull her in for a strong embrace. "I know; I've missed you too."

"Alex, I told you to wait for a phone call from me."

"I haven't heard from you in over two months. I had no way of knowing if you were alive or dead! I had to come back and see what was going on; I couldn't just sit around back in Pittsburgh and wonder when you were going to contact me."

"Oh, Alex." It warms my heart to know that my real sister has finally returned to me. "It's good that you're here. Everything has been resolved now. We're safe."

"Scarlett, you still haven't told me anything about what has happened. If it's resolved, can you at least tell me now?"

I deliberate the idea for a minute. True, the overseers will kill her if they find out that she knows what I am. But she has to know. I ask her to sit down at a table with me, and I tell her everything.

"You're a witch?" She asks incredulously.

"A waterweaver, yes. That's the reason why I was able to save your life that day when mom and dad died. And if you think that's impressive, you should see the kind of things that Adrian can do."