Selection (Book 2 of P.O.E. chronicles)

Chapter 28 Unlikely Alliance

Swallowing the lump in throat I told myself for the umpteenth time that I could do this. My thumb kept running over the USB drive in my hand as though it would disappear on its own if I don’t reassure myself that it’s there. Maybe that’s exactly what had happened, I had finally lost my mind and imagined Akram de Silver telling me that I had a destiny to save mankind, or POE-kind, whatever.

You know he is the perfect guy to talk to. I told myself this and pushed opened the door leading to the common room. Sure enough, he was sitting there with a book along with his minions. It really amused me how they sat through all his crazies without batting an eye. That Raven girl definitely had a crush on Gerald, and she still went through with the whole thing without seriously flipping out.

“Oh look who is here!” Liam exclaimed, his long hair still unruly as ever as he stared at me excitedly. Everybody immediately turned towards me and I had to resist the urge to hurl the table onto their faces.

“Gerald.” I force the words out through my gritted teeth. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

Nodding, the weirdo looked up and with a glance his minions began to file out. Raven gave me another scowl and Liam winked at me. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and told myself to focus on the task at hand.

“Have a sit.” Gerald said, gesturing to the empty seat beside him and I settled down slowly. His face was still a mask of calm and his eyes cleared of any emotions. That was the creepiest thing I found about him. Despite the proposition he made me he had shown no sign of emotion whatsoever on the topic, as though he was merely making a business deal. I had a feeling that he must be born without emotional hardwire in his brain, but I had seen the way he treated others in the quarter and he was actually a nice, border-line compassionate person.

Shaking my head I reminded myself that I didn’t come here to make a psychological analysis of Gerald Fitz William’s mind. This was a topic better left t profressional.

“I need your help.” I started and immediately engaged his interest. “I need to find Katarina Falcon.”

Gerald looked at me for a second and although he wasn’t a telepath, he always had his guard up around his mind so there was no way to tell what he was thinking without ending in a tug of war with him. A part of me was screaming for me not to tell him anything, heck, I didn’t even know why I was doing it. But somehow, I knew that he was the only one who could help me whole-heartedly, without any hidden agenda.

“Watch this.” I took out a tablet that was given to me by Lynette for my lessons use and slotted the thumb drive into the connecting slot. My heart was in my throat the whole time as he watched the personal video that Akram de Silver had made for me. He had never specified for me not to show it to anyone and a part of me thought that somehow he must have known.

When the video had finally finished Gerald looked up at me, his eyes burning with an intensity that I had never seen before, not even when he thought our union could make the family greater. I felt like someone was constricting my windpipe as I continued to look into his eyes. There were a lot of emotions swirling in there, more than what I had seen so far and none of what I had expected someone in his situation would have felt like.

There were purpose, determination and most of all passion; it was as if he had found his life purpose through the video that was meant for me. For a second I was so consumed by his feelings that I was a little jealous how convicted he is about this whilst I was still lost about how I felt.

“You didn’t tell the elders.” He said, and it wasn’t a question either. I shrugged, knowing somehow that he would understand why I didn’t.