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Desmond frowned and rubbed his chin. “Hopefully I’ll get the concerned father and not the Councilmember but if I get the Councilmember I have a lot of choice questions for him.”
“Is there any way I can call Holly?” Claire asked, anxious to talk to her friends and let them know they were okay.
Headmaster Dorian nodded. “There is a second communication orb in Gwen’s desk.”
“I’ll help you set it up in the library,” Helene said, smiling warmly at Claire.
Everett squeezed her shoulder but when she stood up, he let her go, not getting up to follow. Her men must be giving her privacy to talk to her friends and Claire sent a wave of thanks down their bond. Puck came with her though, padding behind her
She followed Helene out of the office, taking a deep breath now that she wasn’t in the heavy air. The world seemed to be crashing in around them a little bit. The pressure was on and they were running out of time.
Helene retrieved the orb from Gwen’s desk and they walked down to the library. Although abandoned, the air in the library was still warm and welcoming and Helene activated the orb on one of the desks.
“Holly and Zack have been staying at our cottage at Brandlevine,” she explained. “I’ve keyed this orb to ours there.”
“Thank you,” Claire said gratefully.
“Of course. I’ll leave you to it. Bring it back to the office when you’re done.” Helene squeezed her shoulder and left, the door closing with a soft thud behind her.
The orb shimmered for a few moments before it connected and Holly’s face sprung up from it.
“Claire! You’re back!”
Claire smiled at her friend, emotion clogging her throat. “It’s so good to see you,” she said. She had missed her friends.
“Tell me everything,” Holly said, reading her face or her emotions, Claire wasn’t sure.
Claire briefly recounted the events of the last two weeks. She kept to the high level details as she wasn’t sure how much time she would have but she told Holly about the Forest, the Feluas, meeting her Uncle, learning of her mother’s loss (although she glossed over that), training with Greta, meeting Synora, the journals and the plan to go to the Dragon Mountains.
When she finished, Holly was silent for a moment, processing. Then she said, “I’m coming with you. Tell Desmond to pick me up at Brandlevine.”
“It’s too risky, especially with the travel bans right now,” Claire protested. “Besides, we are just going to collect more information. That’s the most important thing right now. We need to uncover all of the pieces, big and small. I have a feeling that’s the only way we’ll complete the puzzle.”
“Are you sure?” Holly asked “I can just come with to be there for you.”
Claire’s heart warmed and she smiled at her friend. “I’m okay. My Triad has been taking good care of me. The most helpful thing you could do right now is stay safe and find out anything you can,”
“Then that’s what we’ll do here,” Holly said. “Zack and I will dig into the witches and I’ll have Bethany and Cody dig into the shifters. That’s where Zack is now actually, up at the coven’s library. We’ll send our information to you by locator orb. Uncle Frederick has one in his study. Ask Desmond if he still has one at the Academy.”
“There’s one other thing,” Claire avoided meeting Holly’s eyes. “The Headmaster, Andy, Helene and Desmond are putting out some information on their channels.”
“Ok, what is it?” Holly’s tone was confused and when Claire looked back at her, her brow was furrowed.
“That there is a new Queen of the Elves who is interested in starting up trade again but is being met with resistance by the Council.”
Holly’s eyes widened. “And is there a new Queen of Elves?” she asked carefully. Claire had told her about the coronation ceremony but had focused more on the attack afterwards then the fact that she was actually Queen.
“There is,” Claire bit her lip. The title still felt weird. Up until Desmond said that, she was still having a hard enough time getting used to ‘Princess’ but he was right. There was no other Royal above her so that made her Queen. She swallowed hard against the lump in her throat. Yep, that was going to take some getting used to.
“Oh, Claire,” Holly’s sympathetic look meant that she could feel Claire’s conflicted feelings all the way through the orb.
“It’s okay,” Claire said.
“It’s not.” Holly didn’t let her get away with it. “But it will be. Are you sure you don’t want me to come with?”
Claire would love nothing more than to be enveloped in one of Holly’s hugs right now but she knew her friend was going to be safer in Brandlevine.
“No, it’s okay. We could use you there. Say hi to everyone for me?”
