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He’d said what I was thinking. Maybe that was the Leader’s “condition” for us being here as a safe haven; we would help as his good little soldiers.
Honestly, it wasn’t that bad of a deal, all things considered. We were inevitably going to have to fightsomebody, so it might as well be the people that had tried to kill us and the others that had tried to manipulate a kid out of us.
“He’d rather none of us fight, actually,” Marilyn contrarily said, putting my expectations on their head. “He says that he’s perfectly happy to sit back and watch the two sides destroy each other, all so that he can pick off whatever’s left of them afterward. Granted that they don’t somehow rope the Resistance in, too.”
I internally grimaced. That was a really grave viewpoint. All was fair in war, I guess.
“They better not involve Mikey,” Sariel growled dangerously.
“They’ll probably keep him locked up. Hey, maybe that dungeon will be a blessing in disguise for him,” Neo quipped.
Sariel glared at him, but it was a weak thing. He was kind of right; being a captive would keep Sariel’s brother and birth mother out of the war.
“Speaking of which,” Johnny started, a weird look on his face, “the… Leader told us to tell you that he wants to talk to you when you’re settled in. That’s probably not surprising, though.”
Noticing his hesitation, Sariel’s glare turned to Johnny. He narrowed his eyes at him. “What else?”
Johnny looked even more uncomfortable. “There’s nothing else.”
“You’re a shit liar, Johnathan. What are you hiding?”
“Nothing. I have to go… do something.”
Completely uncharacteristically, he got up and ran away with his metaphorical tail between his legs.
Marilyn just shook her head fondly. “He’s been acting weird ever since meeting the Leader, and he won’t tellmewhy, either. Ignore him.”
“Well,” I began, “we’re rested, washed, clothed, and fed. Should we go get this meeting with the mysterious Leader over with?”
“You can’t yet,” Neo piped in. “When I went to the municipal building yesterday to tell him that you two were literally teleported here, he wasn’t in his office. They said he was off doing something and will probably be back this afternoon.”
I blinked. “Isn’t… isn’t it the afternoon right now?”
He turned to look at a clock in the room. “Huh. So it is. I guess he’ll be here any minute.”
I nodded. They didn’t seem all that concerned about us meeting the Leader, so I assumed that he must be a chill guy. Still, the fact that he was looking for us specifically was… weird.
This is weird, right?I asked Sariel.Why would he be looking for us? The Resistance doesn’t seem like it’d be interested in using us as bargaining chips because that would probably undermine their whole message, I think.
Maybe it’s because we’re stupidly strong hybrids. We wouldn’t be able to turn the tide of any war or even protect everyone in this camp all by ourselves, though.
We didn’t get to think much more about this. Just like Neo had predicted, a singular, nicely-dressed woman came into the mostly-occupied cafeteria, then made a beeline for us. She was all smiles and didn’t give me any strange or alien vibes—it was a nice change of pace from the fae.
“Hello,” she said to Sariel and me, her brown curls bobbing with her movements. Her accent was distinctly European, probably Polish. “You are Sariel Ambrose and Aria Gribald?”
I smiled at her with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. “We are.”
“Nice to meet you. I am Zuzanna. The Leader is back and would like to meet with you, please,” she said cheerfully.
We both agreed, then got up from our table. I went to grab our dirty plates, but Reese waved us off. “Go on, you two. I’ll get these.”
“Thanks, Reese,” I said, then turned and left after Zuzanna.
We walked across paved roads and a lot of nondescript buildings. Some looked old, and others looked makeshift—it was like some new things had been built on top of an old military base or something. I kind of wanted to ask Zuzanna about it, but she seemed perfectly happy to just bounce along.
Besides, I had some more important worries on my mind, like who in the world the Leader could be and how he knew of us.
I couldn’t think of anything good the whole walk to the municipal building. Neither could Sariel; I could sense that he was on high alert, though.
