Chapter 4
Word Count: 2,756
Uploaded: 04/02/16
Uploaded: 04/02/16
Castellina grabbed the coffee pot from the maker, her other hand reaching for a mug in the cabinet. "We're taking you off delivery duties," she said as she set the mug down.
Sirenia looked up from her bowl of cereal, spoon finding its way back into the milk. "What?" She slid off her chair when her aunt didn't repeat herself, and walked over to the sink where Castellina stood pouring the coffee. "Tita, you can't be serious."
"I am serious." Castellina returned the pot to the maker, prepping another batch for later. "We'll temporarily hire someone to take over deliveries while you reconsider your actions and make appropriate changes."
Sirenia followed her into the living room, not caring if her cereal went soggy, and Sirenia never let her cereal go soggy. "Appropriate changes?"
"I don't want to hear any of it, Sirenia. You're off duty, and that’s that." Castellina picked up some mail on the table, rifling through bill after bill until she landed on a letter marked from Avallinia. She stuffed that one into her back pocket, proceeding to open up the other envelopes.
"But that's not fair!"
Glancing up from the electrical bill, Castellina was glad to find an incredulous look to momentarily distract her from the number on the sheet. She snorted in return, lowering her eyes back to the bill. "It's fair, Sirenia," she said. "It's very fair when we've clearly discussed you're not to go out past midnight. And with you trying to run from the clinic is another thing. Do you know what would have happened to Ren if she hadn't brought you back in?"
Sirenia dropped herself onto the couch, kicking her feet up onto the coffee table. Castellina swatted them off, wondering if it was even worth reminding Sirenia how many times they’ve discussed the no-feet-on-any-eating-surface rule. "You’re off duty and you’re grounded. I don't want any of your sass inside the house either."
Sirenia shut herself up before retorting. Doing so would get her locked in Casa’s clock tower, and the part of the clock tower that wasn’t her grandmother’s office at that.
Something in the lines of her aunt’s face told Sirenia there was a chance of that happening if she mentioned it. There weren't any laws on the islet banning that sort of juvenile imprisonment either. So yes, Castellina could very well lock Sirenia in the clock tower if Sirenia made it necessary. Keeping quiet would keep that option off the table.
Sirenia sunk deeper into the couch and continued to bite back her words. Being taken off delivery duties wasn't the worst of it. Castellina had yet to give her the worst of it.
Her aunt, to her surprise, had given her and the entire clinic the pleasure of refraining from her lectures that morning when she came to sign Sirenia out. She'd done the whole town a favor by keeping quiet as she dragged Sirenia back to Casa Manila without a word uttered. She'd also done Sirenia a favor by keeping things simple: no lectures, no nagging, and no build up to the punishment. She went straight to it, even when she knew there would be some resistance on Sirenia's part. She was tired of repeating herself without ever once being heard, so she took up a new approach as she had other things to worry over.
"Fine," Sirenia finally sighed.
Castellina looked like she wanted to say more, her lips ready to verbalize the spew of words rushing through her head from habit. Maybe she didn't like her new tactic after all, and she actually needed to lecture to help get her own hot steam out. But she didn't. Doing so would only give her a bigger headache.
She slowly turned away from Sirenia first, as if still contemplating the need to lecture.
Sirenia watched her continue through the mail in the kitchen, sighing at the numbers. She wondered if the family's business would be enough to cover everything. The restaurant barely brought in just enough to pay for most bills, and they were end to end with payments. Check after check went to one bill or another, leaving very little room for anything else. The fact there weren't as many guest staying in the inn of Luella’s pocket portal didn't help numbers either. Normally that covered anything the restaurants income couldn’t.
Gathering the rest of the mail, Castellina decided to ignore the numbers for the time being and clear her head by helping her mother run things downstairs.
But before she left, Sirenia called her back when she said, "Luca had said something to me," before Castellina could step over the threshold. The girl had done so in hopes Castellina would tell her something, anything.
Her aunt turned to look at her, expression stoic and unreadable from practice.
"Don't listen to him,” she said. “He's just trying to rile you up." She didn't hold Sirenia's gaze like she normally would have, show her niece that she was serious and without a lie to share, but her body moved quickly as she turned to shut the door.
Sirenia had never mentioned what it was Luca said, but Castellina’s reaction was enough for Sirenia to read into.
Kaurou was a giant. At six foot four and two hundred pounds, he took up space in the living room Sirenia never thought they'd run out of. She'd never before been in a closed space with him either. They went to the same school, sure, but he was a year ahead and on a curriculum that guaranteed they'd never have to cross paths in the halls.
He wasn't always so big though. When Sirenia and Mikilay first moved onto the islet, she remembered him being tall for his age, but not unusually tall. His limbs were long, thin enough she was convinced she could snap them if she tried. But supposedly he disappeared his first year into high school, the one year they weren’t technically in the same school, and returned the giant he was.
He wasn't used to his size, Sirenia could tell, as he curled into himself inside the room even where there was enough for him to spread his limbs if he wanted to. Of course he'd have to knock over a lamp and push the couch a few inches out of place to do so, but there was space.
"How'd you get my number?" he asked, his eyes wandering the room, searching for other escape routes.
"Your grandfather," Sirenia said. "Does he know you're one of Luca's goons?"
Kaurou's face reddened and his gaze flickered to her at the direction she’d gone with her answer. His gaze was a steady one, as if he were the pins holding an insect to a display board--firm and with no intention to let go. "I'm trying to find a way out."
She snorted at that, leaning on the arm of the couch separating them. "Easy. Just say, 'Luca, you're an asshole, and I don't like assholes, so I'm dropping your sorry ass.'"
"It's not that simple." He wished it were. Wished he could take those very words to Luca once he was out the building and feed it to him. But Luca wasn't simple.
"You're twice his weight, Kaurou. Crush him if you have to."
"Why'd you call me here anyway?"
She was surprised he'd come to begin with. She figured he would have gotten the message and ignored it, but he came. There was no turning back, and she was glad he was the one who went straight to business, because she knew she’d be the one to linger.
"Luca said something that night, and I haven't been able to let it go since."
"Luca's got a big mouth. You can't trust anything he says--"
Sirenia held up a hand and Kaurou went quiet. "That's exactly why I can't ignore what he said. He's got a big mouth; he says everything without a damn filter, even things he’s not supposed to say."
He stared, and Sirenia wondered how much of his mother did he actually look like. Janko, his grandfather, had said the resemblance was uncanny, and that if his daughter were still alive, she could easily pass for Kaurou's twin. Did they really share the exact shade of dark brown hair that sometimes looked red in the light? The same almond shaped eyes and aquiline nose? What about the blue eyes? Were they the same Mediterranean blue or were they a few shades off?
"You want to know if what he said was true? About your people?" Sirenia nodded and Kaurou curled tighter into himself. "The truth is, I don't know."
"Surely you know something." He was lucky he stood on the other side of the couch. "Any rumors? Rumors I'll take. We all know rumors in Avallinia are rarely ever just that."
The boy backed away, taking slow steps toward the door meticulously left open when he entered.
"I know you listen in on your grandfather's meetings. That you go through his letters. He complains to my grandmother all the time, so don't tell me you know nothing."
He kept taking steps, determined to get out.
"Kaurou, I need to know if my people are being hunted in Avallinia."
"Yes," he then blurted, pausing in his steps.
His eyes were closed and he was tense all over, almost to the point of shaking, almost as if he were trying to hide the fact he was shaking. For someone so big, Sirenia wouldn't have expected him to look vulnerable. But he did, and in front of her of all people. She wouldn’t even think about trying to take him down if she wanted to. Not just because of his size, but she feared he’d use whatever ability he was rumored to have on her and crush her like she wanted him to do to Luca.
"But they're just rumors. We don't know how or why or by who or if any of it is even real. The Courts," he paused, a shudder rattling him. "They've been withholding information since talk started. They haven't released any formal acknowledgement confirming any of it. So just rumors."
Sirenia should have nodded and told him to leave, but she didn't. He left on his own when he realized she wouldn't say anything more.
They won't say anything because they don't care.
She had wanted it to be true, had hoped her people had found some freedom in dying earlier rather than enduring the Avallinians, even if it was through murder. She couldn't help the relief she had felt when Luca told her, the relief that made her feel sick at the same time for feeling.
Now that there was some confirmation from three people but only one realizing it, she wanted it to be a lie. A lie because it wasn't fair that her people had to be the ones to suffer on all accounts and from every angle.
There was a new kind of sick seeping into her.
Sirenia sat down, pulling a pillow to her chest. It only made the erratic heartbeat more noticeable.
The only other Wilter she had ever come across was killed when she was in first grade. People had said it was an accident, but Wilters would know it wasn't. Sirenia and the girl had never talked, but she looked at her like she looked into a mirror. The two were often mistaken for sisters, but they were strangers who had come to a strange mutual understanding that it was safer never to speak to each other, even when they hadn't yet know what they were.
It's common practice among Wilters, whether they knew they were a Wilter or not. Instinct let them know. You don't look at each other, and you walk away.
Sirenia heard Mikilay come up the stairs, knew it was her younger sister before she opened the door. Unlike others, Mikilay took the stairs two at a time, slow and steady to make sure she didn't trip or miss a step. Her three keys jingled against a key ring littered with vinyl key chains of cats and her favorite characters from a television show.
She gave the doorknob its necessary shake when she reached the landing, and it opened.
"Ate! Ate! Look!" The younger de los Santos sprinted over to Sirenia, leaving the door hanging on its hinges. "Sophia gave me her Alyvia Hunt key chain!" She held the cluttered lanyard out for her sister to see, but the key chain in particular was hidden behind a tortoiseshell cat and a chibi version of Ezra James Goodwell--a character Sirenia felt had a name far too fancy for what he really was.
Mikilay fished through the curtain of other key chains, revealing the heroine with her signature magenta eyes and white steel sword. “Becky got her this as a present, but Sophia’s mom also got her Alyvia. But she got her Alyvia and three other rare characters, so Sophia said I could have the one Becky gave her. But she didn’t let Becky know. You know, just in case she gets mad at Sophia.” She sat back on the couch beside Sirenia, running her finger over the rubber surface and trying to wipe away strays of lint. “Apparently, it’s really hard to get Alyvia because she’s the main character, but Sophia’s mom is friends with a person who works for the show, and she got him to get Sophia the rare key chains in time for her birthday.”
She went on like this, and Sirenia wanted to listen to her. She wanted to ask Mikilay to remind her what the premise of the show was, reveal how Alyvia managed to escape from her captors from the latest episode, and why girls were so hung over Ezra James Goodwell.
But instead, she tuned out and could only think of the Wilter girl from first grade.
Sirenia hadn’t understood then when she died, hadn't understood that they were different from others. She'd accepted the accident when it happened, so close to the girl's home and not that far from where the de los Santos family had been living then.
“Ate?” Mikilay dropped her lanyard to look at her sister. “Wait, why are you crying?”
Sirenia ran her nail against the side of her thumb, feeling the skin catch beneath the bed and rip down just a little. The pain was small and more like an itch, but she wished it were sharper.
“Ate, wait, what’s wrong?” Mikilay's voice shook as she tucked her feet beneath her and turned to Sirenia. Mikilay pressed her hands to Sirenia's shoulders, trying to keep her sister from curling around the pillow and into herself.
“They killed her…” Sirenia said, replacing the pillow with Mikilay. She wished she could shut up. She couldn't worry Mikilay, not when she hadn't yet confirmed the rumor as being more than mere talk. Even if rumors leaned more toward truth in Avallinia, there was still a slim chance it was just a rumor—something misheard, a red scare of some sort to frazzle the Wilters. They’d done it before, and who said the Avallinians wouldn’t do it again.
Make it a spoiler.
Sirenia pulled from Mikilay, forcing an apologetic smile that felt wrong to make. "Spoiler alert...?"
Mikilay's eyes rounded, her mouth falling slightly agape. "Ate..."
"Oops?"
Mikilay swatted her arm, looking as if she wanted to do more than just that. “That’s not funny! Take it back.”
“I take it back.”
She paused a moment, wondering why Sirenia hadn’t continued teasing her. “Joke lang,” was all the older de los Santos said, and she said it with a smile as she wiped away a tear. “Good acting, huh?”
“That’s not funny.” Sirenia didn't think so either, but she couldn’t admit that to Mikilay. “That’s really not funny, Ate. I really thought that was a spoiler.”
Sirenia kicked her feet up on the coffee table and reached for the remote. The news was airing when the television clicked on. Mikilay nudged her feet off. “Can’t be. She’s the main character,” Sirenia said as she rolled her eyes. “They won’t kill her off, otherwise, you’d all riot.”
“I’m going to start my campaign then. If Alyvia Hunt dies, we riot.” Mikilay sat back, resting her head on Sirenia's shoulder as she fidgeted with her lanyard. The show wouldn't be up until seven, three hours too long for her to wait in the silence.
Sirenia looked up from her bowl of cereal, spoon finding its way back into the milk. "What?" She slid off her chair when her aunt didn't repeat herself, and walked over to the sink where Castellina stood pouring the coffee. "Tita, you can't be serious."
"I am serious." Castellina returned the pot to the maker, prepping another batch for later. "We'll temporarily hire someone to take over deliveries while you reconsider your actions and make appropriate changes."
Sirenia followed her into the living room, not caring if her cereal went soggy, and Sirenia never let her cereal go soggy. "Appropriate changes?"
"I don't want to hear any of it, Sirenia. You're off duty, and that’s that." Castellina picked up some mail on the table, rifling through bill after bill until she landed on a letter marked from Avallinia. She stuffed that one into her back pocket, proceeding to open up the other envelopes.
"But that's not fair!"
Glancing up from the electrical bill, Castellina was glad to find an incredulous look to momentarily distract her from the number on the sheet. She snorted in return, lowering her eyes back to the bill. "It's fair, Sirenia," she said. "It's very fair when we've clearly discussed you're not to go out past midnight. And with you trying to run from the clinic is another thing. Do you know what would have happened to Ren if she hadn't brought you back in?"
Sirenia dropped herself onto the couch, kicking her feet up onto the coffee table. Castellina swatted them off, wondering if it was even worth reminding Sirenia how many times they’ve discussed the no-feet-on-any-eating-surface rule. "You’re off duty and you’re grounded. I don't want any of your sass inside the house either."
Sirenia shut herself up before retorting. Doing so would get her locked in Casa’s clock tower, and the part of the clock tower that wasn’t her grandmother’s office at that.
Something in the lines of her aunt’s face told Sirenia there was a chance of that happening if she mentioned it. There weren't any laws on the islet banning that sort of juvenile imprisonment either. So yes, Castellina could very well lock Sirenia in the clock tower if Sirenia made it necessary. Keeping quiet would keep that option off the table.
Sirenia sunk deeper into the couch and continued to bite back her words. Being taken off delivery duties wasn't the worst of it. Castellina had yet to give her the worst of it.
Her aunt, to her surprise, had given her and the entire clinic the pleasure of refraining from her lectures that morning when she came to sign Sirenia out. She'd done the whole town a favor by keeping quiet as she dragged Sirenia back to Casa Manila without a word uttered. She'd also done Sirenia a favor by keeping things simple: no lectures, no nagging, and no build up to the punishment. She went straight to it, even when she knew there would be some resistance on Sirenia's part. She was tired of repeating herself without ever once being heard, so she took up a new approach as she had other things to worry over.
"Fine," Sirenia finally sighed.
Castellina looked like she wanted to say more, her lips ready to verbalize the spew of words rushing through her head from habit. Maybe she didn't like her new tactic after all, and she actually needed to lecture to help get her own hot steam out. But she didn't. Doing so would only give her a bigger headache.
She slowly turned away from Sirenia first, as if still contemplating the need to lecture.
Sirenia watched her continue through the mail in the kitchen, sighing at the numbers. She wondered if the family's business would be enough to cover everything. The restaurant barely brought in just enough to pay for most bills, and they were end to end with payments. Check after check went to one bill or another, leaving very little room for anything else. The fact there weren't as many guest staying in the inn of Luella’s pocket portal didn't help numbers either. Normally that covered anything the restaurants income couldn’t.
Gathering the rest of the mail, Castellina decided to ignore the numbers for the time being and clear her head by helping her mother run things downstairs.
But before she left, Sirenia called her back when she said, "Luca had said something to me," before Castellina could step over the threshold. The girl had done so in hopes Castellina would tell her something, anything.
Her aunt turned to look at her, expression stoic and unreadable from practice.
"Don't listen to him,” she said. “He's just trying to rile you up." She didn't hold Sirenia's gaze like she normally would have, show her niece that she was serious and without a lie to share, but her body moved quickly as she turned to shut the door.
Sirenia had never mentioned what it was Luca said, but Castellina’s reaction was enough for Sirenia to read into.
Kaurou was a giant. At six foot four and two hundred pounds, he took up space in the living room Sirenia never thought they'd run out of. She'd never before been in a closed space with him either. They went to the same school, sure, but he was a year ahead and on a curriculum that guaranteed they'd never have to cross paths in the halls.
He wasn't always so big though. When Sirenia and Mikilay first moved onto the islet, she remembered him being tall for his age, but not unusually tall. His limbs were long, thin enough she was convinced she could snap them if she tried. But supposedly he disappeared his first year into high school, the one year they weren’t technically in the same school, and returned the giant he was.
He wasn't used to his size, Sirenia could tell, as he curled into himself inside the room even where there was enough for him to spread his limbs if he wanted to. Of course he'd have to knock over a lamp and push the couch a few inches out of place to do so, but there was space.
"How'd you get my number?" he asked, his eyes wandering the room, searching for other escape routes.
"Your grandfather," Sirenia said. "Does he know you're one of Luca's goons?"
Kaurou's face reddened and his gaze flickered to her at the direction she’d gone with her answer. His gaze was a steady one, as if he were the pins holding an insect to a display board--firm and with no intention to let go. "I'm trying to find a way out."
She snorted at that, leaning on the arm of the couch separating them. "Easy. Just say, 'Luca, you're an asshole, and I don't like assholes, so I'm dropping your sorry ass.'"
"It's not that simple." He wished it were. Wished he could take those very words to Luca once he was out the building and feed it to him. But Luca wasn't simple.
"You're twice his weight, Kaurou. Crush him if you have to."
"Why'd you call me here anyway?"
She was surprised he'd come to begin with. She figured he would have gotten the message and ignored it, but he came. There was no turning back, and she was glad he was the one who went straight to business, because she knew she’d be the one to linger.
"Luca said something that night, and I haven't been able to let it go since."
"Luca's got a big mouth. You can't trust anything he says--"
Sirenia held up a hand and Kaurou went quiet. "That's exactly why I can't ignore what he said. He's got a big mouth; he says everything without a damn filter, even things he’s not supposed to say."
He stared, and Sirenia wondered how much of his mother did he actually look like. Janko, his grandfather, had said the resemblance was uncanny, and that if his daughter were still alive, she could easily pass for Kaurou's twin. Did they really share the exact shade of dark brown hair that sometimes looked red in the light? The same almond shaped eyes and aquiline nose? What about the blue eyes? Were they the same Mediterranean blue or were they a few shades off?
"You want to know if what he said was true? About your people?" Sirenia nodded and Kaurou curled tighter into himself. "The truth is, I don't know."
"Surely you know something." He was lucky he stood on the other side of the couch. "Any rumors? Rumors I'll take. We all know rumors in Avallinia are rarely ever just that."
The boy backed away, taking slow steps toward the door meticulously left open when he entered.
"I know you listen in on your grandfather's meetings. That you go through his letters. He complains to my grandmother all the time, so don't tell me you know nothing."
He kept taking steps, determined to get out.
"Kaurou, I need to know if my people are being hunted in Avallinia."
"Yes," he then blurted, pausing in his steps.
His eyes were closed and he was tense all over, almost to the point of shaking, almost as if he were trying to hide the fact he was shaking. For someone so big, Sirenia wouldn't have expected him to look vulnerable. But he did, and in front of her of all people. She wouldn’t even think about trying to take him down if she wanted to. Not just because of his size, but she feared he’d use whatever ability he was rumored to have on her and crush her like she wanted him to do to Luca.
"But they're just rumors. We don't know how or why or by who or if any of it is even real. The Courts," he paused, a shudder rattling him. "They've been withholding information since talk started. They haven't released any formal acknowledgement confirming any of it. So just rumors."
Sirenia should have nodded and told him to leave, but she didn't. He left on his own when he realized she wouldn't say anything more.
They won't say anything because they don't care.
She had wanted it to be true, had hoped her people had found some freedom in dying earlier rather than enduring the Avallinians, even if it was through murder. She couldn't help the relief she had felt when Luca told her, the relief that made her feel sick at the same time for feeling.
Now that there was some confirmation from three people but only one realizing it, she wanted it to be a lie. A lie because it wasn't fair that her people had to be the ones to suffer on all accounts and from every angle.
There was a new kind of sick seeping into her.
Sirenia sat down, pulling a pillow to her chest. It only made the erratic heartbeat more noticeable.
The only other Wilter she had ever come across was killed when she was in first grade. People had said it was an accident, but Wilters would know it wasn't. Sirenia and the girl had never talked, but she looked at her like she looked into a mirror. The two were often mistaken for sisters, but they were strangers who had come to a strange mutual understanding that it was safer never to speak to each other, even when they hadn't yet know what they were.
It's common practice among Wilters, whether they knew they were a Wilter or not. Instinct let them know. You don't look at each other, and you walk away.
Sirenia heard Mikilay come up the stairs, knew it was her younger sister before she opened the door. Unlike others, Mikilay took the stairs two at a time, slow and steady to make sure she didn't trip or miss a step. Her three keys jingled against a key ring littered with vinyl key chains of cats and her favorite characters from a television show.
She gave the doorknob its necessary shake when she reached the landing, and it opened.
"Ate! Ate! Look!" The younger de los Santos sprinted over to Sirenia, leaving the door hanging on its hinges. "Sophia gave me her Alyvia Hunt key chain!" She held the cluttered lanyard out for her sister to see, but the key chain in particular was hidden behind a tortoiseshell cat and a chibi version of Ezra James Goodwell--a character Sirenia felt had a name far too fancy for what he really was.
Mikilay fished through the curtain of other key chains, revealing the heroine with her signature magenta eyes and white steel sword. “Becky got her this as a present, but Sophia’s mom also got her Alyvia. But she got her Alyvia and three other rare characters, so Sophia said I could have the one Becky gave her. But she didn’t let Becky know. You know, just in case she gets mad at Sophia.” She sat back on the couch beside Sirenia, running her finger over the rubber surface and trying to wipe away strays of lint. “Apparently, it’s really hard to get Alyvia because she’s the main character, but Sophia’s mom is friends with a person who works for the show, and she got him to get Sophia the rare key chains in time for her birthday.”
She went on like this, and Sirenia wanted to listen to her. She wanted to ask Mikilay to remind her what the premise of the show was, reveal how Alyvia managed to escape from her captors from the latest episode, and why girls were so hung over Ezra James Goodwell.
But instead, she tuned out and could only think of the Wilter girl from first grade.
Sirenia hadn’t understood then when she died, hadn't understood that they were different from others. She'd accepted the accident when it happened, so close to the girl's home and not that far from where the de los Santos family had been living then.
“Ate?” Mikilay dropped her lanyard to look at her sister. “Wait, why are you crying?”
Sirenia ran her nail against the side of her thumb, feeling the skin catch beneath the bed and rip down just a little. The pain was small and more like an itch, but she wished it were sharper.
“Ate, wait, what’s wrong?” Mikilay's voice shook as she tucked her feet beneath her and turned to Sirenia. Mikilay pressed her hands to Sirenia's shoulders, trying to keep her sister from curling around the pillow and into herself.
“They killed her…” Sirenia said, replacing the pillow with Mikilay. She wished she could shut up. She couldn't worry Mikilay, not when she hadn't yet confirmed the rumor as being more than mere talk. Even if rumors leaned more toward truth in Avallinia, there was still a slim chance it was just a rumor—something misheard, a red scare of some sort to frazzle the Wilters. They’d done it before, and who said the Avallinians wouldn’t do it again.
Make it a spoiler.
Sirenia pulled from Mikilay, forcing an apologetic smile that felt wrong to make. "Spoiler alert...?"
Mikilay's eyes rounded, her mouth falling slightly agape. "Ate..."
"Oops?"
Mikilay swatted her arm, looking as if she wanted to do more than just that. “That’s not funny! Take it back.”
“I take it back.”
She paused a moment, wondering why Sirenia hadn’t continued teasing her. “Joke lang,” was all the older de los Santos said, and she said it with a smile as she wiped away a tear. “Good acting, huh?”
“That’s not funny.” Sirenia didn't think so either, but she couldn’t admit that to Mikilay. “That’s really not funny, Ate. I really thought that was a spoiler.”
Sirenia kicked her feet up on the coffee table and reached for the remote. The news was airing when the television clicked on. Mikilay nudged her feet off. “Can’t be. She’s the main character,” Sirenia said as she rolled her eyes. “They won’t kill her off, otherwise, you’d all riot.”
“I’m going to start my campaign then. If Alyvia Hunt dies, we riot.” Mikilay sat back, resting her head on Sirenia's shoulder as she fidgeted with her lanyard. The show wouldn't be up until seven, three hours too long for her to wait in the silence.
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