Page 60 of Even Angels fall
“Shh.”
I manage to stay silent for another twenty seconds when I lose patience again.
“He’s not happy,” she says, then removes her ear from the door altogether. “He’s coming.”
She pushes me out of the way and starts to talk as fast as she can, without even taking a breath.
“The man on theparvisis Marcel, the head ofLibération.He believes your wedding to Elhyor is a betrayal to them. He wants Elhyor to give you to them, and in exchange, he won’t attack Notre Dame. Elhyor answered no and stormed away. Be prepared for anything.”
As she finishes, Elhyor opens the double door in something akin to a storm, the doors banging on each side with the strength of his anger.
Because this is anger that I can see in his eyes in this instant. Pure raging hot anger.
“BRICE,” Elhyor roars.
“What is wrong?” I ask.
“Not now,” is the only answer Elhyor gives me.
He hasn’t stopped walking, crossing the distance from the double doors to the other side of the cathedral in long steps that eat the ground at a speed I can’t keep up with.
When Brice appears at the door on the other side of the cathedral, Elhyor doesn’t stop, but I still can hear him clearly with the church’s acoustic.
“Get the men ready.”
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My brain doesn’t want to compute what Elhyor has just said, and yet I’m running after him.
“What can I do?” I ask. I don’t know where this is coming from because I don’t think it would be smart to help if they’re going to attack Notre Dame, because it could actually help the plan I’m supposed to be following.
But then I think about Cassiopé, who I must admit became my friend in such a short time and the books she loves so much that probably are going to get destroyed in this attack, and then I think about Elhyor, who doesn’t really want to marry me, and yet doesn’t want to hand me to theLibération.
Because there is no doubt what this is. He refused to comply with their demands, and now he’s preparing his men for the impending battle that is coming.
It takes a few minutes before he finally seems to register that I asked a question. That’s when he pulls Brice after him and motions me to move with them into his office.
I’m not surprised to see that Cassiopé is following, too.
“You both need to go downstairs to the bunker,” he starts in Cassiopé’s and my direction.
There is a bunker under Notre Dame???
I had no idea. Not that I’ve seen any of the ground plans, but I would have seen a reinforced door, right?
I didn’t see the laundry room at first, so maybe not.
But that’s a cool thing to know.
“Why in the bunker?” Brice cuts him before he can say anything else. “They have torches, Elhyor.”
Why would that change a thing? We would still be protected, so I don’t see the point.
“There’s enough food in there to last at least a couple of years,” Elhyor answers his right-hand, as if he should know better.
“Yes, but what do you think they will do when they realize she isn’t amongst the corpses?”
