HEART OF THE CHOSEN (CASTE BOOK 1)

Chapter 46

The rest of the drive had passed in silence. Eric’s resounding declarations had calmed everyone’s enthusiasm. It was dark when we parked the X5 in the hotel parking lot. On one level, the concierge’s lodge was only a few metres from our rooms.

“Two more rooms, please,” ordered Eric, taking out his card.

“Ah sorry, sir, we’re full.”

“What? You do have another room, at least.”

“No sir,” replied the concierge, “it’s school holidays you know, so it’s full.”

Eric turned around, looking very annoyed.

“We need to find another hotel.”

“Well good luck, young people,” intervened the concierge a bit paternalistic, “because, at this hour, you’re not likely to find much!”

“You only have one room?” Nicolas asked while I dreaded this question.

“Two,” Eric replied in a whisper.

“Well that’s perfect!” declared Abigail, “I’ll sleep with my brother and you’ll share your room!”

Eric sent her a look that pierced a concrete wall. She put on a blush that she tried to control by clearing her throat. Without ceremony, and seeing no other way out, I could hardly imagine Eric sleeping in the same room as Nicolas, so I led them to my room and took some things for the night. I went to join Eric in his, my heart pounding. This situation reminded me of the one, three years earlier, when we had stayed in a Londonian hotel. Nothing had happened, but I remembered that night with some emotion.

Eric was pacing and complaining: it was Blake who had rented the rooms himself, and if it had been up to him, they would have stayed in Somerset in a much larger hotel which had at least a couch. I left him to his torments and jumped in the shower. No sooner had I finished than I put on a black cotton nightgown that came to mid-thigh. Quite simple, but not long enough for my taste.

“Eric, you don’t like my company, that’s a certainty and I understand it very well, so don’t worry, I’ll know how to behave. We can sleep perfectly together, each on their side of the bed, because, if I remember correctly, this isn’t an unprecedented situation. So relax and sleep peacefully!”

He froze in place. His incandescent eyes met mine, and without my being able to control it, the colour rose to my cheeks. I immediately went to lie down under the covers and left him standing in the middle of the room. He went to take a shower that lasted forever. For my part, I was thinking about how I was going to fall asleep. The whole day had been a source of stress and the constant presence of Eric undermined my hormonal control. In other circumstances, I would have welcomed this feeling with a certain pleasure, but it was a real ordeal at this hour.

Eric came out of the bathroom. I thought I discerned a T-shirt and boxer shorts, but he quickly slipped under the covers as I had done half an hour earlier. A heavy silence reigned in the room. Neither he nor I were able to sleep, I was sure of it, so I tried to stay still and breathe as little as possible despite all the sensations that were going through my body. Eric moved, and I froze. Eric was breathing, I gasped. Finally, and while I thought I had controlled this power, I realized that in the event of an extreme situation, the task was almost insurmountable.

“You did very well today,” Eric whispered, cutting short any thought.

“Oh, yes?”

“Yes. You were able to convince him without using any process that would have frightened him more than necessary. I remember you and Thomas didn’t get the same treatment.”

“Indeed, but the era of Magnus Burton Race is over now and I intend to be the instigator of some changes.”

“Which ones, for example?” Eric went on, raising his voice slightly.

Since we had come to a simple discussion, and it was difficult for me to talk to a wall, I decided to turn around. There was a very embarrassing moment of hesitation when I realized that Eric was facing me in bed. He didn’t look away though as I rested my head on my arm.

“I’m planning in-depth changes to our recruitment methods,” I continued as if nothing had happened, “and reviewing our security system at Mortain, I find that far too many people come and go as they please.”

“I see you’ve thought of everything,” Eric commented, a smirk on his lips, “it’s true that you’re seconding Carmichael now.”

“Yes, well that remains just a possibility for the moment.”

“Carmichael is perfectly right to appeal to you, he could not have found a better ally.”

“It’s very nice of you to tell me that, but I think that the nice Everliegh flew away a long time ago.”

“That’s what I was told, and that’s also what I saw,” he whispered, lying on his back.

“What exactly are you talking about?”

“Thomas explained to me what you did in Amsterdam to free the prisoners and above all the violence with which you did it. He had a hard time recognizing you too.”

I tried to understand where he was coming from, but I refused to interrupt him. He had already thought about this conversation and I wanted to know where it was going.

“He also told me about how you killed two people, one with a dagger in the heart, the other by pulverizing them in self-defence.”

He paused. I could have sworn he was trying to find his words to avoid upsetting me, or else his thought was much deeper.

“As far as Egeria is concerned,” he resumed, “I quickly understood that you had no choice. But for the other caste, who from what I understood had powers so weak that they remain undetermined to this day, I quickly wondered. So, the next day, I had to know the reasons that had pushed you to such an act. I couldn’t believe you flipped out like that and stabbed a woman you could have easily overpowered. So I went back to see Thomas and asked him the question. What had that woman done or said to make you kill her? There, my brother changed his mind. I had never seen him like this, so distressed and so tormented, that I already seriously dreaded his response. Thomas ended his silence and revealed to me what this woman had said in front of everyone that evening. If I speak to you today about this horrible episode, it is because I want you to know that you were perfectly right to kill her.”

He stopped talking. Silent tears streamed down my cheek. My whole body was shaking frantically.

“On the other hand,” he continued after a long pause, “what you are doing to Magnus Burton Race doesn’t please me. Not that he didn’t deserve it, on the contrary, he should even endure more. But I’m afraid that if you continue down this path, Eve…”

“I don’t want to discuss it,” I cut him off, unable to bear it anymore.

Eric turned his face away from me and remained silent. His keen eyes didn’t express pity but pierced my defences a little more. I lowered mine and settled myself slowly against him. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and although, at the time, this contact and this heat had been terrible tests for our senses, we fell asleep like this, snuggled up against each other.

But before falling asleep, I thought back to what Eric had said. I had not put it on the account of love but on that of the attachment which had always bound us. He would have said the same words as a friend as if he had spoken them out of love. I realized that there was hardly any hope between us anymore. More after what had happened to me, more after what I had done to him and, above all, more after he had known the truth about my ordeal in London. I knew he would never be happy with someone like me, I was far too damaged to bring him happiness. Never having intended to make him suffer, I swore never to do it again.

Eddy and Wanda Monteiro are lying in their peaceful bed. They sleep. Suddenly, their eyelids lift, their eyes are on the verge of popping out of their sockets, and they hold their necks and gasp for air. They die.