Occhiolism (#2 in the Hajar Series) [ON HOLD]

twelve

chapter twelve - space

song of the chapter: insomnia - zayn

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"WE'D LOVE TO," Farah said almost instantly, ignoring Israfil raising his eyebrow at her. She wore a ghost of a smile on her face, something he didn't expect to see if she sat through this meeting. She was handling it fairly well-- but then again, she was in the presence of her cousin that she hadn't seen in years. He trusted that even if she were to be affected by something about Noah she would be able to control herself.

"We'll see," Israfil said, almost dismissively. He didn't miss the way Farah's smile slowly slipped off her face, returning it to its neutral expression with her signature furrowed, slightly raised brows, indicating she was slightly annoyed. He would deal with that later though. "In the meantime, we need an immediate solution to our rogue crisis between Alexander and I's borders."

Younes shook his head, "I'm going to be honest with you, these fuckers are hard to get rid of without proper protection."

"Which means?" Alexander asked.

Younes slightly leaned back in his chair, interlacing his fingers and resting his hands on his chest. "It's not looking good," he voiced, "the only fix I can think of includes witchcraft, a protection spell. Even that is not one-hundred-percent effective, nor is it immediate." Before Israfil could interrupt, he carried on. "Especially if it's as bad as you guys say it is. You're lucky they haven't really attacked you yet."

He paused.

The room fell awkwardly silent for a moment. 

He didn't know about Jamison and what he had done to Farah. She swallowed hard, irritated that there was a ball of emotion from the incident clogging her throat. Farah looked up at the ceiling light for a moment, then back at her lap, so they couldn't see her glassy eyes. A warm sense of comfort when she felt Israfil's hand slip onto her thigh, squeezing her leg with reassurance. Sure, she was still very angry at him, but right now, she needed to keep calm.

"You could be looking at something much more serious than pesky rogues bothering your border controls--"

"A war," Alexander concluded, his jaw tight with anger.

Farah looked up then.

A war?

"Are you guys on drugs?" Farah said suddenly. Her outburst made them all turn their heads towards her in confusion. "Seriously?" she scoffed, "a war?" her voice was dripping with incredulity. "You realize we live in America right? In the smack middle of the state of California?" she sounded as if she couldn't fathom the concept of a potential war.