Chapter 381: Lunia
For the next two years, Little Ro trains diligently in the Varnhol military. During those two years, Strathmore has annexed Varnhol and is now hunting down the remnants of its army.
This is the third location the base has moved to. The soldiers remain in chaos, but they’re determined to survive and fight back. Some have already fled. Not everyone who stayed loves their country so much they refuse to leave, most simply have nowhere else to go.
Few countries are willing to take in Varnhol refugees, fearing Strathmore’s military power.
"Teska! How’d it go? Did you find it?" A soldier Hawk doesn’t recognize asks Little Ro.
Little Ro is fourteen now. He’s grown tall and lean with muscle. The other soldiers don’t call him little anymore. It doesn’t suit him, since he’s not little anymore.
Roan grins wide. "Of course I did. You don’t know my skills by now?" He shoots back.
The other soldier lets out a whoop. "Yahoo! You’re the best, Tesk! Knew you could do it!"
Roan laughs. "Sure you did. You never believed I could do it. Always thought I was too young."
"Bullshit! I had money riding on you. You think I’d bet on someone I didn’t believe in?" The older soldier fires back.
They both burst out laughing.
Then the older soldier’s expression shifts. Roan notices immediately and raises an eyebrow. The man tips his chin toward something behind Roan.
Roan turns and finds a little girl, no older than nine, peeking out from behind a tree trunk, staring at him.
The older soldier sighs. "She’s been waiting on you. Wouldn’t go to bed."
Roan sighs too. "I’ll handle her." He turns and walks toward her.
"Be gentle, Tesk. She’s just a kid."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know." Roan replies, waving him off as he approaches.
"Hey." He calls to her gently.
She vanishes behind the tree trunk.
"Heard you were looking for me. Well, here I am. What do you need?" He asks.
No answer. Not even a sound.
Roan sighs. This is nothing new with her. He’d rescued her a few weeks back, from a small village that had been wiped out by Strathmore soldiers.
She was one of the few survivors, and she’s been attached to him ever since, following him everywhere, though he’s never managed to actually get her to speak.
Beyond knowing her name, Lunia, Roan doesn’t know a single thing about her.
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A few meters away, Hawk is stunned silly. He never expected to see Lunia here. He knew he was reliving his past, even though he doesn’t know why or how, but he never expected to see her again, not this soon.
The moment he sees her hiding behind the tree trunk, his chest tightens.
"Oh, Lunia." His voice breaks.
He remembers the way she used to stare. Those eyes have haunted his nightmares for years, even now.
She followed him everywhere at the military base. Whenever he left on missions, she waited, refusing to sleep, terrified he’d leave her there for good.
When Strathmore soldiers finally found the base and opened fire, Hawk ran and dove behind something, he can’t even remember what, completely forgetting Lunia had been right behind him.
When he peeked out to try to spot the enemy, he saw her instead. Hit by multiple bullets. Her eyes locked onto his, her face full of confusion, not understanding what was happening to her, still hoping he would come out and save her.
But Hawk stayed hidden. He only stared.
Her expression shifted into pure sorrow the moment she realized he wasn’t coming.
She dropped to the ground. Dead. Eyes still open. Still staring straight into his.
That is Hawk’s nightmare.
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"Dear passengers, this is your Captain speaking. Welcome aboard Aurenvale Air, flight number ARV 998, bound for Highcrest. This flight will take twelve hours and fourteen minutes. Weather is reported clear along the route. We’ll be taking off shortly, so please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts until the seatbelt sign has been turned off. Have a pleasant flight."
Sonia raises her hand to catch a flight attendant’s attention, but no one comes by, everyone’s already seated and buckled in.
"What do you need, Your Highness?" Elder Loujt asks, keeping his voice low.
Sonia shifts in her seat, clearly irritated. "This seat is too small for me. The seatbelt’s too tight. I can’t move." She pouts and squirms again.
The passenger beside her shoots her a glare.
Sonia is seated in the middle, Elder Loujt on the aisle. She’d wanted the window seat, but none were available, and now she’s taking it out on the chair itself, rocking her back against it hard enough that the whole row shifts with her.
"Your Highness!" Elder Loujt hisses through clenched teeth.
"Excuse me!" The woman by the window snaps. "Young lady, stop moving!"
Sonia returns the glare, and her eyes glint strangely as she says, "Quiet, lady."
The woman’s expression goes slack, her eyes blank. She turns slowly to face forward and leans back into her seat, obedient.
"Your Highness! Did you just hypnotize her?" Elder Loujt hisses through clenched teeth.
"She was being annoying!" Sonia pouts. She knows she went too far, but it’s already done. She settles down, pout still firmly in place.
Elder Loujt lets out a long sigh, faces forward, and leans back into his own seat.
"Unbelievable." He mutters.
Sonia looks down. She knows she’s in the wrong, but she doesn’t want to apologize, so she stays quiet instead.
The plane begins reversing from the gate.
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In his Solitaire Class suite, Linus fastens his own seatbelt and puts away all his gadgets, ready for take-off.
He sighs and looks out the window.
The sky is clear, a few stars visible against the dark. He rarely gets a moment to just sit and be still. There’s always something demanding his attention, documents to read, calls to make. When he flies his own plane, he doesn’t bother with seatbelts or putting anything away. He just keeps working straight through.
His plane’s built-in safety systems operate on an entirely different level than anything commercial.
He settles back, accepting that tonight he won’t be working on his laptop, and finds he doesn’t much feel like reading his tablet either.
His mind keeps circling back to Harrold. Claudette. Liam.
Part of him believes Liam will be fine, since Liam can use magic. Linus has long suspected the Monfort madness is somehow tied to magic itself, though he doesn’t know how or why.
Another part of him fears Liam will end up with it regardless.
Liam is nearly twenty-five now. Most Monforts start showing symptoms shortly after their twenty-fifth birthday.
But what about Claudette?
His chest tightens further. He clenches his jaw.
Claudette is the youngest, and she’s female. She doesn’t fit the pattern at all. It’s always been the firstborn son, the one usually positioned as heir.
Which means Claudette shouldn’t fit the pattern.
Linus closes his eyes.
Or has this always happened, just rarer than we thought?
He sighs.
I need to go back through the whole genealogy.
He takes a slow breath, steadying himself.
When he opens his eyes again, the plane is already lifting off the ground.
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"LUNIA!"
Hawk’s eyes fly open and he sits up abruptly. Alicia and Maeve, both seated nearby, jump at the sound.
Neither of them approaches. They watch him carefully from a distance.
He’s disoriented, but conscious, blinking rapidly to get his bearings. It takes a while for him to register that he’s no longer in the past.
He scans the room and stops when he spots Alicia and Maeve.
His brow furrows.
"Ms. Collins? Ms. Lutherford? I’m not seeing things, am I? Am I really here? What year is this?" Questions pour out of him one after another.
"Yes, it’s us. You’re not seeing things, Hawk. You’re really here. This is the present. You’re not in the past anymore." Maeve answers without hesitation, without any judgment in her voice. She knows he needs those answers plainly, something solid to calibrate against.
Hawk blinks, staring at her, working through it. Then his attention shifts to Alicia, who nods.
"Yes, Hawk. Everything Maeve just told you is true. You’re not in the past anymore."
Hawk keeps staring.
Then he exhales, slow and shaky.
"Where am I?" He asks, his tone loosening slightly. He looks around the room. "I don’t think I was here. I was in some kind of café."
He looks at Maeve. "Right?"
She nods. "Yes. You were in a café with Thea and Liam."
"We brought you here since..." She starts, then stops herself abruptly. She glances at Alicia, who seems to immediately understand what her teammate needs from her.
Alicia steps in smoothly. "You suddenly went unresponsive and started muttering things that didn’t make sense. We couldn’t leave you at the café, so we brought you here. This is the Monfort guesthouse. It’s where we’re staying."
"I’m at the Monfort guesthouse?" Hawk says, disbelief clear in his voice.
"Yes, Hawk. You are. But that’s not what matters right now. What matters is, are you okay? How are you feeling?" Maeve asks.