The urge to grab and question why the crown prince of the fae kingdom is doing in the human realm almost won against me. If I didn’t remind myself that I am with Leo, I probably would have done it.
“Chace.” I move myself before Leo so he could not see the cautious look I am giving our unexpected visitor. Hopefully, the tone that I used to greet him isn’t giving me away. “What brings you here?”
Whether Chace’s visit here has something to do with me or not, I cannot tell. He is masking his expression pretty well.
“Isn’t this a surprise.” Chace beams, completely ignoring my question. “Shouldn’t you be back home and resting?” He shakes his head. “Come on, Stella. Let’s get you back home. I’m sure that your sister is worried.” When Chace tries to grab my hand, I immediately step back.
“I am not coming with you.”
My response makes Chace furrow his brow. “I’m not trying to pick a fight with you, Stella. Come with me, right now.” Before I can go and slap away Chace’s hand, to my surprise, Leo suddenly steps between us to intervene. He grabbed Chace’s wrist, stopping him from further making advances.
“I think she made it pretty clear that she doesn’t want to come with you.” Leo, the kind and soft version of Kellar, is suddenly becoming intimidating enough that I can finally see that he is Kellar’s other half.
“This does not concern you. This is between Stella and I.” I don’t know if Chace knows the real identity of Kellar or not since he is looking at him coldly like. “Get your hands off of me, you lowly human.” Hearing how Chace addressed Leo almost made me let out a breath of relief. At least, for now, it gives me confirmation that Chace doesn’t know Leo’s true identity. That only means that Chace is here solely for me. I don’t even know whether I should feel pleased or angry about it.
Fairies can be so stubborn. I know because I am one—or share their blood.
“Human?” Leo cocks a brow, looking weirded out. “You sound as if you are not one yourself. Are you feeling alright?” From the sound of it, I am guessing that Leo must think that Chace is some sort of weird kid, but whatever he thinks of him, it is for certain that he knows that Chace is someone dangerous. Leo proceeds to push me behind him, which did not go unnoticed by Chace. Though his facial expression never gave anything away, the freezing temperature in the room and how his fists clench at his sides are enough to let me know that he isn’t pleased with what he saw.
The situation isn’t alleviating itself. I should do something before Chace does anything to Leo. I don’t have my powers so I definitely can’t fight him. Maybe I should surrender myself for a while just for Leo’s safety. When we get back to Thalia, maybe my sister and Ace can do something to help me.
But what about Kellar? I need to get back to him as soon as possible.
“If I were you, I would mind my own bus—” Chace starts to say, but Javi, in his cat form, jumps at Chace’s face and temporarily distracting him. Javi turns to me with a hiss and even though I am not a tamer, I completely understand what she wants me to do.
I take that opportunity and start to grab Leo’s hand before dragging him past Chace and out of the club room. Leo is confused as to what’s happening, but he is silently following me while we run away from Chace in the empty hallway of the academy as most of the students are on their way to class. Wondering gazes cross our path, and I can tell that it would only be a matter of time before a faculty member would come after us.
“Stella, slow down. We can solve this by—”
“Please just follow me for now.” I must have looked desperate in his eyes, because Leo did not question me further and simply answered me with a silent nod of his head.
A door. I need to find a door to make a portal while keeping a safe distance from Chace.
We started climbing up the stairs. For some miraculous reason, Javi managed to catch up to us, which means that Chace might be right behind us.
“Stella, are we going to the rooftop!?” He starts asking me, sounding completely fine even though we are running up the stairs.
“Just…just the door.” Goodness. I wish we could have taken an elevator, but Chace would probably have caught up to us if we did.
“Stella, stop!” Chace screams.
Damn it. I hate stairs! But it is probably the only nearby isolated door with a keyhole aside from the classrooms.
I am already panting and about to lose my breath by the time that we reach the door. I believe that I may or may not have sounded like a wheezing hyena at this point.
THIS WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED IF CHACE WOULD JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!
Great. Now I am starting to sound like my sister.
“Stella, are you alright?” As soon as we reach the clearing and pause in front of the door leading to the roof deck, I feel a twinge of embarrassment that Leo can see me in such a pathetic form.
“I’m fine. I just need to breathe—”
“Stella!” I can hear Chace calling somewhere down the flight of stairs that we’ve been on just now. “We need to talk!”
Sometimes, I feel like I just can’t take a break around here.
“Ugh!” After letting out a dragging and irritated sigh, I jam the key in the keyhole, opening up a portal to the other realm. As soon as I manage to push the heavy metal door open, I turn to Leo. My heart racing inside my chest because of mixed heavy emotions. “Leo, let’s go. Hurry.”
Leo seems to be frozen in place. His eyes looked mesmerized and afraid at the same time. “Stella, this isn’t…this isn’t the rooftop. Where is this?”
I don’t think that I can blame him for his reaction. A normal person would expect to see the roof deck when I opened the door. But how on earth can I tell him that we're heading into my room instead?
Yeah, I better not tell him until after we pass through.
“Leo, please follow me for now. I will explain everything once we pass.” I extend my hand out to him. Javi already passed through the portal; now it is up to me and Leo to pass through. “Leo, please.” I start to beg. I can already hear Chace getting closer. The skids of his shoes on the stairs are making it clear that he’s almost catching up.
Leo can sense the urgency of the situation. His forehead begins to wrinkle, and he closes his eyes before grabbing my hand. “I trust you. And I trust that you will tell me what’s going on after this.”
I smile, even though Leo couldn’t even see it. “Yes. Yes, I swear, I will explain everything.”
“Stella!” Chace finally reached the end of the flight of stairs, panting and sweating when he arrived. “Let’s…let’s talk!”
I say nothing to Chace when I quickly pull Leo with me through the door. Chace’s eyes widen in disbelief, and just before I closed the door behind me, I see him running and reaching out, but it was too late. The portal to Thalia closed as soon as the metal door closed.
I know that Chace probably has a means to return, but at the very least, I don’t think that he will be reaching us any time soon.