Inheritance

Chapter 14

My hair is blowing around my head when I feel ground beneath my feet again. My knuckles ache  as I squeeze Trystan's hand, keeping my eyes shut. Teleportation seems to have a rather bad impact on balance. "Care to give me a little warning next time? I swear you deserve laxatives in your drinks and larvae in your food!" I basically yell at him as the world centres itself once again. "From where she grew up, I'm pretty sure she thinks it's a delicacy,"  I hear someone whisper, a soft chuckle, a thud and two yelps of pain follow soon after. We're not alone it seems. Great... Now I just need to keep my eyes closed for the rest of forever and then, maybe, I won't turn as red as a ripened tomato. "Sorry your highness. Next time I'll present a hand-engraved invitation two weeks in advance and wait for your RSVP." I can basically hear the smirk in his voice. Oh... The nerve of him. "STOP INSINUATING I'M A SPOILED BRAT! You uneducated, disrespectful, bad mannered brute! Not everyone has a pool cue stuck so far up their rectum that we can't even chalk the tip!" I'm definitely red now, but it has nothing to do with my eyes now being open or the half a dozen or so people littering the room. No, the blood in my cheeks are from pure, undiluted indignation!

After a moment of silence he laughs. LAUGHS. What's wrong with this guy? The metaphorical pool cue up his ass isn't going to stay metaphorical for long if he keeps laughing at me. "Me? Uneducated? Disrespectful? Ill-mannered?" he forces out between laughing fits. "I'm not the one who's pissing off the person who saved me. That's all you. Princess." And with those parting words he turns on his heels and struts out of the room, still laughing. Almost half of our onlookers filter out of the room with him. Leaving me alone with two complete strangers. A girl that looks roundabout my age, if not older, and a boy who looks about 7 with his round, rosy cheeks and golden-blonde hair. "Hi," the girls says with a small wave. "Hi?" My greeting comes out as more of a question than a statement. "I'm Alia, and this little shortbread is Nevin," she introduces herself and the cutie with puppy-brown eyes at her side. Alia herself has pitch-black hair that curl all around her head and eyes that nearly glow orange in comparison with her chocolate skin. "Hi, I'm Katei. I'd say it's nice to meet you, but I have no idea what's going on and I wouldn't want to lie." Her lips curl into a small smile and the little boy looks between us. "I can't blame you. Trystan can be a bit... abrasive at times. I must say though, from what I just heard, you give as much as you get." Feeling a bit embarrassed and guilty, I can feel a slight heat rising in my cheeks. "Yeah. I might have been a bit harsh with the laxatives and larvae, but in my defense, he woke me up and then poofed us here with, literally, no warning. And I'm a bit on edge." 

She smiles at me as she takes Nevin's hand. "Don't worry, I won't judge you for it. Goodness knows that boy has had a good tongue-lashing due for some time now. I don't know much about what happened with you, when Trystan called, he told me the bare basics and asked where we were, not much else. You wanna talk about it?" Her face radiates kind sincerety, but I can't bring myself to talk about today yet. "Everything's such a jumbled mess right now. I'd love to talk about it latet though... Right now all I want is someplace quiet where I can try figure out what the hell is going on."
"That's understandable," she laughs. "Do you want me to show you to one of the rooms?" I nod gratefully. "Follow me then. You look like a grey type of person to me." I smile at her and follow her and the cutie out the room. "Where is here anyways?" This time it's little Nevin that answers me. "We's at my mommy's the house." I chuckle a bit at his words. "Basically," Alia says as she follows the munckin up a flight of stairs. "There are two bathrooms on each floor, one for guys and one for girls, but, we try and keep the guys and girls on different floors entirely. One too many pranks have lead to way too many injuries." I hear the amusement if her voice. "You'll be on the top floor, sorry, it's a lot of stairs, but I doubt you want to share with preteens and all our other teens are already paired up." I hum in agreement.
My lungs start to protest around the fifth, mayby sixth floor. So. Many. Stairs. Here and there I see people milling about, but I think there's a lot more people here than I can see. It's like I can feel them. At least a couple of dozen people. "How." Breath. "Many." Breath. "More?" Nevin laughs at me. "Don't worry! There's only ten storeys! We're almost at the top." I groan inwardly and continue to follow the two up and up and up.
After what feels like an eternity, we reach the top floor. The stairs lead into a large sitting room with a TV and a few couches with blankets, pillows and a cozy-looking fireplace. Doors are dotted around the room, some of which have names, pictures or posters on them, claiming them as bedrooms. There are doors on both sides of  the fireplace with signs to show which bathroom belongs to whom.
Alia comes to an abrupt stop in front of a plain door, left-over tape sticks to the otherwise clean door. "This is the grey room. Everything you need should be there, and I'll send some extra PJ's up later." She unlocks the door with an antique-looking key and pushes it open. Two double beds with matching end tables sit on the far sides of the bedroom. Both's feet facing towards a massive wall-length window, I wonder what it looks out on, but the pitch black outside makes it difficult to see. Especially with the glare making it difficult to even make out some stars in the night sky. Two wardrobes sit off to the side with a vanity table nestled in between them. But it's the other wall that draws my attention. So many books. Old, new, worn spines and one's that seem to have never been opened.
"Like I said, you seem like a grey girl to me," she chuckles, noting my obvious awe. Nevin lets go of Alia's hand and streaks into the room, jumping onto one of the beds. "I would offer to get the books removed, but somehow I've got a feeling they won't be a problem." I nod distractedly as I slowly walk through the doorway. "Kattee!!! Come look atthe book, it my favourite book!" I smile at Nevin as his small hand grabs my fingers and pulls me towards the wall of books. "I look back at Alia and at her nod I eagerly follow him. "Nev, your mom will be back before nine. Make sure you're in your room before eight-thirty!" Nevin nods at her words, pulling me down a couple of inches to his head height to show me his favourite books. "Wait. You're going to him here? With me? You don't even know me!" Alia smiles and looks at Nevin with a look of wonder in her eyes. "Nevin seems to like you, he never shares his books,so I like you. The boy has a good judge of character. Just don't feed him sugar and he'll be fine." With that she leaves the room, closing the door behind her. I turn my attention to Nevin as he excitedly starts to tell me about his favourite stories. I really want to ask him about everything that's happened lately, but I'm pretty sure interrogating a child is frowned upon.
"Do you want me to read it to you Nevin?" He hugs the book close to his chest and vigourously shakes his head. "Nope," he says smiling at me, revealing a small gap between is top front teeth and a missing tooth a little to the left in his bottom jaw. "Imma gonna read it to you." He runs to one of the beds and basically flies onto it. "Come on Kattee Kitty Kat! Come sit with me!" My inside turns to mush at his nickname for me. Seeing as no one would ever be able to deny a request like that, I plop onto the bed beside him, putting my arm under his head so he can be more comfortable tryinv to read his book.
He reads extremely well for someone who can't be much older than seven. He tells me the story of a group of friends, demigods,  that go on adventures, saving the world. The Lost Hero, I've probably read it a hundred times, buth there's something umdeniably comforting about a story so familiar and captivating.
As easy as that, the little boy reads me to sleep as I hold him close, needing the extra comfort of his small body next to mine as I nod off, feeling safe for the first time since I sat down in my living room this afternoon.

I'm a day early this time..
But rather early than late, right?
See you guys soon and let me know what you think so far!

FYI: Nevin is probably the cutest person in the world!!! A total heart breaker if you ask me. I mean he's grad one or two and he's reading Rick Riordan!!! It's his favourite!!!

I want a real lif Nevin!!!