Page 83 of The Explorer
“But surely someone less important and busy could do it. We don’t want to disturb you,” I insisted.
Victor walked away, throwing a last comment over his shoulder. “I’m doing it as a personal favor to our prime minister.”
Indiana and I jogged from the environmental headquarters to our apartment. After sending Banni a message saying that we were being picked up and where we wanted him to meet us, we packed a few things and headed to the outskirts of Old Europe.
It was the sweetest sight to see the large diamond-shaped aircraft descend from the sky.
Victor came toward us with a cloak that made him look like he’d time traveled from a different century.
“I see you decided to come out as a wizard?” Indiana joked.
The edges of Victor’s sharp red lips lifted enough to break his permanent serious expression for a second as he lowered the hood so we could see his thick dark hair.
“I’m told capes are in high fashion now,” Victor said and leaned his head back to follow the drone descending. “You must be excited to go home.”
“I can’t fucking wait to see everyone.”
“Same.” I shifted my balance from one foot to the other with impatience.
When the aircraft landed, I gave a shriek when I saw Sparrow’s face in the window. The second the door opened we flew into each other’s arms and kept hugging while rocking from one side to the other.
“Mmm, you have no idea how much I’ve missed you,” she whispered.
I squeezed her one last time and pulled back to smile at her. “Not as much as I’ve missed you.”
Sparrow and I had been friends since we were toddlers. Unlike my cousin Freya, Sparrow was adventurous like me and a great fighter. As children, we used to build treehouses and play in the wild for hours. And as we got older, we’d been each other’s confidantes when it came to crushes, dreams, and secret desires. It killed me that I hadn’t been able to share with Sparrow that Indiana and I were together now. It was something I wanted to tell her in person.
“Wow, you look so different, Aubri. Your hair is much longer, and your make-up is… different.”
“You don’t like it?” I asked with a grin. “I’ve just adapted to my environment.” My eyeliner was orange and drawn in a bold way compared to the more subdued and natural make-up we wore in the Northlands.
“It looks sort of futuristic,” Sparrow said and looked to Victor while I greeted Jones, who had been hugging Indiana.
“I know who you are.”
Victor raised an eyebrow, but let Sparrow continue.
“Mason and Thor told me what you said to Freya about dying rather than living with her.”
“So?”
Sparrow walked closer to Victor and looked up at him. “Not that you deserve my kindness, but I’ll still give you this advice; stay away from Khan. He knows what you said to his daughter, and should you ever step foot on his lands again, it will end badly.”
“Is that a threat?”
“No. It’s a valuable warning. I heard rumors that the political situation between our countries is volatile and I’d hate to see a pretty head like yours get shipped back to France detached from its body.”
Placing an arm around Sparrow’s shoulder, I laughed. “Victor knows that he owes Freya an apology, right, Victor?” Sparrow, Jones, Indiana, and I were staring at him.
Victor raised his chin. “As I’ve told you numerous times, what I say or do is none of your business. I’m here to make sure you get on board the drone and leave in good order.”
“Then you can leave now that you’ve seen it’s not an invasion of your country. Jones and Sparrow will need to stretch their legs before we fly off. There’s no need for you to stand around and wait for that.”
“Yeah, it’s fine. We’ll see you in August for the summit,” Indiana said to support me.
“Feel free to run up and down the ramp a few times if you must. I’m afraid that’s all of Old Europe you’ll see,” he told Sparrow and Jones.
I narrowed my eyes, provoked by his rudeness.
