they can have my legacy - fedex (the legacies series 3)

6

tw: death threats, throwing up (not in detail though). this one's a doozy.

dex woke up to the sound of juline's muffled sobbing.

he blinked his eyes open, disoriented. mom? he mumbled. what time is it?

his room was dark, & his blankets were soft & light. it was dark out: early morning, probably. he remembered what had happened the day before, & felt suddenly as though a beam of sunlight had lodged itself in his chest.

& then dex heard another sob, & knew something had to be wrong.

he sat up, stretching, listening for the tiniest hint of what was wrong. he couldn't remember the last time juline had cried. usually, she was strong: easily conquering difficult situations, probably by contacting the black swan some of the time, but often all on her own.

the sunlight in his chest curdled like spoiled milk & sunk down, until it was right above his stomach. fear. nerves.

we have to go, eda. we should be there for them. that's just not right.

eda. so she was talking to her sister. but who was 'them'? what wasn't right?

what was going on?

do you think i should wake the kids? i don't want to worry them. a pause. i guess since they're dex's friends...

now he was definitely scared. which friends? sophie? but that was only one...

mom? he asked softly, paddling out of the room. juline was sitting at a small table, amber hair loose & messy, talking on her imparter. what's going on?

she frowned when she saw him, worry lines around her eyes deepening. dex is here, eda. i have to go.

once the imparter was off, she turned to dex, not even trying to hide her glassy turquoise eyes & the tears surrounding them. dex, something happened. to... to the vackers.

he drew in a shaky breath, mind whirling.

fitz.

is everyone okay? he asked quickly.

yes, everyone is fine, thankfully. she shook her head. it's horrible. there were protests all this morning, elves marching & chanting cruel, bigoted things in front of everglen. they vandalized the gates with cruel drawings of biana & linh.

is it still happening? dex asked, heart pounding. fitz. biana. linh, too. & keefe & tam. he knew what this was about.

the rioters have mostly been broken up, but there's still many of them there. she stood up decisively. aunt eda & i are going to help out della.

can i come? dex burst out.

juline gave him a long glance. she looked tired, achingly so. are you sure you want to, dex? it's going to be hard to bear.

he nodded, a pair of aquamarine eyes floating behind his own. i... yeah. yeah, i should go.

okay.

that was maybe one of the best things about juline. she didn't underestimate you. she saw you exactly as you were, & she let you do what you wanted.

so they leaped to the back of everglen, a secure, separate entrance the public didn't seem to know about. although he didn't see anyone directly, or any of the crude graffiti, he could hear chanting. give us back our system. give us back our system.