Broken

Chapter 20

Tons of questions swirled around my head. What was in the box? What powers did Thia, Ty, and Evan have? What did the prophecy mean when it said we were undefined? Who was the final person in our group going to be? When were my powers going to fully develop?

It was almost sunrise and we were three quarters of the way home.

"How old are you?" Xavier asks me, breaking the silence between us.

"Eighteen."

"Oh."

"Why? How old are you?"

He shrugs. "I don't know. I know time goes by faster in the angel world so I wasn't sure."

"Do I not look eighteen?"

"No, you do. I just wasn't sure if you were older."

"Older than you? Well that would depend on how old you are."

I look at him, expecting an answer but he remains silent.

"So how old are you?" I press.

"Under the age of thirty."

I exhale loudly. This was like pulling teeth. "Xavier, is it really that big of a deal?"

"No, I just prefer not to share it."

"Why?"

"It doesn't matter. It doesn't affect my personality or who I am. It's just a number so why should it matter?" Xavier says defensively.

I  back off. I didn't know it was such a sensitive topic.

We reach our house after another ten minutes of walking. I don't think anyone is up yet so maybe we can sneak in without anyone knowing we ever left.

I quietly open the door and look left to right. I see Thia standing in the kitchen with her back to us. Maybe we can sneak past her and go undetected.

We tiptoe into the house and close the door as quietly as we can.

"Where were you guys?"

Thia turns around to face us, a coffee mug in her hand. Busted.

"We went for a walk." Xavier answers.

"In the middle of the night?" Thia responds with.

He nods.

Thia rolls her eyes. "Oh come on, I know you guys went to look for that imaginary place. Why? It was such a terrible idea. You could have been kidnapped by raiders!"

"But we didn't and it was an actual place. I knew it was real."

She notices the box in Xavier's hands. "What's that?"

He shrugs like it was no big deal at all. "I dunno. A wizard gave it to us."

"What wizard?" She asks suspiciously. 

"We don't know his last name but he said his name was Allen."

Thia's eyes practically pop out of her head. "You met the Allen?!"

We nod.

"What?! What did he say? How did you know where to meet him?" She says quickly.

"No, I want to know what-"

"Thia. It's important for everyone to hear. There's no need to explain ourselves twice."

She glares at us but doesn't argue with Xavier anymore."Thia, calm down. When Ty and Evan wake up, we'll explain everything that happened and why we were meant to meet him." Xavier states calmly.