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“Good evening, Mister”—the bellman glanced at the tray—“Smith.”
I winced.
“May I come in?”
“Please,” I answered, moving out of his way only long enough to let him pass before securing the door once more.
He crossed to the desk and slid an extension out from the bottom. “Lovely weather this evening.”
“Yes,” I said. I grabbed the ticket from the tray as he removed the dish covers to display our dinner. I tipped him well, but not enough that he would mention it to anyone.
“Thank you, sir,” he said, only nodding to Emily before heading for the door. “Have a wonderful stay.”
I touched his shoulder as he passed. “Here,” I said, brushing away his memories of the couple in 402. “Let me get the door for you.”
He walked, slightly dazed, from the room, and then seemed to remember himself halfway down the hall.
“What?” Emily said from behind me.
I’d jumped. Again. “Nothing,” I said. “Let’s eat.”
She peered out beside me in time to see the bellman enter the service elevator. I pressed her back into the room and latched the door.
Emily stood staring at the plates of food, so I unrolled the napkin and handed her a fork. I kept the knife, and began cutting the sandwich in half, and she followed my example by dumping the condiment bowl and portioning out salad. There was only the one chair at the desk, so she moved the plates to the center of the bed, and climbed in to sit cross-legged by the headboard. I sat on the opposite side near the end, and picked up half a cheeseburger from our shared platter.
I was on my last bite when she said, “So… Mister Smith?”
Unprepared, I almost choked.
She smirked, quite nearly a smile, and bit into a French fry. “Where did you learn all of this?” she asked. “This cloak-and-dagger stuff?”
I laughed. “Cloak-and-dagger?”
She shrugged.
“I didn’t,” I said honestly. I picked up a grape and rolled it between thumb and forefinger. “This… this wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Emily leaned forward, and I regretted giving her any clue to the unreliability of the prophecy.
I dropped the grape. “I was never supposed to be on the run. Before all this, it never crossed my mind I’d be doing surveillance, or misleading Council, let alone protecting someone. It wasn’t part of the plan.”
“The plan?” she asked.
“They had it all figured out,” I explained. “Taught us everything we’d need to know.” I met Emily’s eyes. “They trained us all right, just not for this.”
“Us?”
“Morgan,” I said. “Morgan and I were educated in the ways of the blood, learned in the ideals of Council.”
“Morgan,” she said, “he’s the one I saw at the warehouse? He’s your brother?”
I nodded. “My older brother. The first born.”
“The chosen one,” Emily whispered. She’d lost her appetite as well, dropping her last fry back to the plate.
“He came into this world knowing he would rule,” I said, thinking of the devastation he would cause, of the thousands he would kill, of the rest he would send to war. Of the end of our lines. All for power. I let go of the thought, finding Emily once more. “When I came along a few years later, he decided I was to be his underling, that I should serve and bow to him.” I wiped my hands on a napkin and tossed it onto the tray. “He feels he’s owed this by Council, by all of us. Nothing in this life will ever convince him any differently. The idea of the prophecy has warped his sense of being, his principles.”
Emily pulled her knees up tight, tucking her hands over her bare feet. “And so he’s been waiting? All this time, searching for Brianna?”
