AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I had not found my way back to sleep after the incident. Many things were buzzing around in my head, and I couldn't shut out the thoughts. No matter how hard I tried.
At dinner, my father announced he had arranged with Chris that I would come to confession that same evening. Training? In my condition? It's not a good idea, but canceling would be far worse.
So, an hour later, Stephan drove me to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Again and again, I nodded off during the short drive. This double life would demand a lot from me. That became clear to me now. I had imagined everything to be easy, but it was a tightrope act.
"Miss Myrina, we have arrived. Do you hear me? Wake up!" I suddenly heard Stephen's hypothermic voice speaking to me as if through cotton candy. Startled, I pulled up and looked directly into the ice-cold eyes of the butler, who was watching me suspiciously. Hastily, I rubbed my face and, without answering, fled from the car and up the steps to the cathedral's entrance. Without gazing back, I pulled open the large door to the church and almost collided with my brother.
"Myrina, be careful. Not so fast!" Laughing, he caught me, as I had almost lost my balance from the fright. "What's gotten into you, sister?"
"Stephan," I replied curtly, eyeing him meaningfully. Concerned, my brother looked over my shoulder through the open door to our butler, his eyebrows drawn together.
"Come," he whispered curtly, closing the large portal and pulling me further into the church hall. "We don't have much time. Your fiancé is already waiting for us in the training room with his friends. But I did want to talk to you briefly about the two additional trainers." He quickly scanned the surroundings and then gave me a piercing stare. "Do you trust Jack and Edward? Because we either have to trust them completely or send them away. I'm not sure what to make of either of them. So my question for you is: Let them stay or send them away?"
I didn't know myself. But Chris was right. Now was the moment when we had to make this decision.
"I trust Alex," I returned. "Maybe sometimes it's enough to trust the person who knows the other person better and can therefore assess him."
"So you mean we can trust that Alex made the right decision because we trust him?" Chris looked up at the dimly lit ceiling, adorned with a 100-year-old fresco of the Last Supper story.
"You're probably right," he breathed. "Every day I put my trust in the hands of God, then I should be able to do the same with your fiancé."
I nodded in agreement and prayed we were right. Otherwise, it would be the end of us all. Hastily, I swallowed the uneasy feeling and followed my brother further into the nave to the confessional.
Chris led the way with a lamp this time, and I walked behind him through the increasingly familiar hallway. For the first time, I took a closer look at my surroundings. The stones resembledthose of the tunnel that ran from our library to the Amazon hideout. Only the floor here was made of stone, not clay and earth, as in the other tunnel.
Could we find a connection between the two tunnel systems? One thing was sure: I had to let the boys in on it. And now that Chris and I had accepted Alex's fellow students as our comrades-in-arms, it was also time to tell the Amazons about them. They would certainly not be thrilled to suddenly work with four men, but I'm sure that would eventually subside.
Alex's, Jack's, and Edward's voices could be heard afar. They seemed to be playing and having a good time. It was nice to hear Alex laughing so boisterously. Our moments together were just always too short and too secret to be able to really have fun together again.
Shaking his head, Chris opened the door and entered the training room, saying, "You can be heard all the way up to the church!" He looked sternly at the gentlemen sitting at the table, grinning like three schoolboys and holding a few playing cards in their hands.
"Don't be like that, Chris. There's not a soul up there now anyway," Jack tried to reassure my brother.
"Join us, brother-in-law!" exclaimed Alex, winking happily at me. "You seem like you could use a little fun yourself, priest."
Now, even Chris had to laugh and promptly sat in the middle of the boisterous round with his own set of cards in his hand. So I also plopped down on a chair and watched how the four tricked each other for some time. I was absolutely not angry with them, although practice seemed canceled today.
Exploring the tunnels with Aspasia and Maggy later would be enough activity after so little sleep.
The thought reminded me that I still had to initiate my training mates regarding the Amazons.
"Listen, there's something I need to discuss with you," I tentatively approached the subject.
"What is it, Rina?" asked Alex, observing me questioningly. "Are you not feeling well? You're so pale and look a little exhausted."
"No, don't worry. I'm fine. I'm just very tired because I've been out all night."
Now, four pairs of eyes stared at me in wonder. "What do you mean?Outall night?" echoed Chris, lowering his cards. "What happened, sister?"
Could I tell them about the necklace and the map in my room? Coldly, the amulet lay on my chest and almost seemed to whisper to me, not to mention it. Although I had wanted to ask Alex about it for so long, it never came up. By now, it would be better to keep quiet about it. Why? I didn't know.
"Well," I stammered. "I found access to a tunnel system similar to this one at our house."
"You what?" my brother now exclaimed in complete surprise. "Surely that's not possible! We would have noticed something like that all the years before. As kids, we scouted every nook and cranny of the building."
"It was more of a coincidence," I lied, marveling at how easily this lie slipped from my lips. "I had sneaked into the library, lost my balance, and fell against a wall. That's when it suddenly opened."
"So you mean it came open without your doing just by your body weight?" asked Jack in wonder. Strangely, just the part of the story that corresponded to the truth was now being questioned.
