Des'Tai: Book Two

192: Faye

Following Koko through the slim hallways of Thebe Palace, I found my anxiety was skyrocketing. That was not the welcome committee I had envisioned for our arrival here, despite Luna's warning that Koko is stern. Sure a woman with the name Koko couldn't be such a tyrant, could she?

"How long have you been aware of your ability?" Koko spoke as she abruptly turned down another long corridor. As we passed through the first hallway, I noticed that there was large floor to ceiling windows every 12 feet or so and looked out onto a pool of water. Oddly enough, the windows down this hallway also looked down into what appeared to be the same body of water.

"A few months," I answered plainly. I got the feeling Koko didn't care for the backstory behind the night we'd Bonded.

"A few months is very non-specific. Were you aware of it as a child?"

Although Koko didn't seem to be walking very quickly, her long legs were eating up the floor beneath us, and I struggled to keep up. Picking up my pace, I was nearly jogging. I really needed to take Blaise up on his offer to train me to run.

"No."

"Interesting. It was dormant in you until just a few months ago. Was there a triggering event?" Suddenly the white-haired Elder whipped around, slamming her staff into the ground and propped one hand on her hip in the middle of the third corridor we'd turned down. "Were you gifted something during The Judgement?"

I nearly barreled into the tall woman and had to stop on my tiptoes unless I wanted to tackle her. The Elder eyed me cautiously, and I felt her gaze nearly burning a hole into my mind. She was trying to read my thoughts. Taking a solid step back, I cleared my throat and shook my head, "No."

Squinting, Koko tilted her head to the side and placed her other hand on top of the one already gripping the staff. Leaning forward, she got closer to my personal space, "One-word answers don't suit you. Luna informs me you're quite the chatterbox, which leads me to believe you're uncomfortable. Do I intimidate you?"

Swallowing, I blinked my eyes twice before I sighed, "Yes, Koko, you intimidate me."

"Koko? My staff addresses me as Madam Koko or Madam. It's not proper for a student of mine to..."

"And you wonder why you're intimidating?" I muttered without thought, catching her off guard and cutting her off.

'Shit.'

'What? What's wrong?'

'Nothing.'

'Faye...?'

A slow smirk lifted one corner of the serious-looking Elder's lips as she leaned back out of my bubble and straightened her shoulders.

"Artemis informs me you're a spitfire. That's the girl I want to see, not the shy little thing that arrived in my parlor. Understood?"

Gazing into the piercing light green eyes of one of the last female Elders on Siofra, I watched as she raised a steady brow. She was challenging me, and my response was critical. My instant reaction was to tell her to quit being so damn demanding and that I'm a person, not a lap dog who comes when you snap your fingers, but I don't think that's what she was looking for here.

Rolling my shoulders back, I grinned at her, "You got it, boss."

"Boss?" she responded promptly, her other brow raising in thought. "I like it." Nodding her head once as if she had finalized our conversation, she spun around and pushed on two large maroon double doors I hadn't realized we'd been standing before. I exhaled the breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding and felt my limbs relax a little.