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"What if the diversion doesn't work? What if they are expecting that?" Te Che asked, his hand around his wife's waist and his eyes roups

"Delia, Justice and I will still be able to ic Our tunnel into the Citadel will take us directly into the castle completely undetected Worst-case scenario,for her son's life Noe all know that will not get us anywhere, but while that is happening it will act as a backup decoy The only thing that would change at that point is that our rescue mission would include two of my family members instead of just one," I answered, authoritatively I wondered if I was getting the hang of this whole leadership thing

"What happens if Avalon dies? Will they get any of his usted

"I cannot be sure, but I want to say no I possess all of Avalon'sexceptmore than just Caden's fears to rest "But they won't kill Avalon, I will never let that happen," I spat defensively, "Next question?"

"When do we leave?" Titus shouted, full of energy and exciteer cohts and thentowards the Citadel Gabriel and I, will take a smaller plane directly to Sibiu" I explained, absolutely dreading the idea of riding in another airplane with Gabriel, but he insisted on takingeveryone else

"So what are the plans for the diversion?" Nai fuchsia with excitement

"I'll let Jericho explain those details," I handed over the floor to Jericho who took command with practiced charm

I sat back down next to Aunt Syl who had not moved from the pile of debris She looked at me for a moment, her face completely unreadable She was afraid, almost terrified, but cal this led closely to her, and I looked back out into the crowd I realized I felt the saht, so was out of place in our plan and that terrifiedthese feelings, I knew they were long in the

Chapter Thirty-Six

I felt pretty Aunt Syl paet e, and then shopping for dresses that I had absolutely no need for The day was coant and most certainly unnecessary, but it hat Aunt Syl had always loved to do with me and I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I preferred split ends and chipped fingernails when stor a castle

I did have use for at least one of the dresses though I changed into a lavender halter-top su a couple inches aboveit overit loosely with a hair-tie I didtattoo that I noticed distracted les were freshly cut and styled so the curls had more construction than normal, and the frizz ell under control

I worked at my make-up for the first time in months More than just eyeliner I used powder and shadows, irl and capable of being pretty

Jericho was already downstairs,dinner We would not even leave the house for our date, but for

I took off the necklace that hadn't left age sparkled next to the dull, obsidian stone and I looked away quickly, not able to listen to its silent accusations

I slipped on sooodtiain and walked downstairs

The house was empty except for Jericho Aunt Syl had taken Lilly out for the night and I assu Lilly

I could s fro When I walked into the kitchen, he was busy stirring solass containers I leaned against the doorfra his expert precision as he tasted and re-tasted everything to otten a haircut today too, and the stray curls at the botto a white collared shirt with the sleeves pushed up to his elbow and a brown vest that screamed his style I expected an apron tied around his waist, but decided he was probably too advanced and skilled to need any kind of protective garment

"Don’t be shy, come on in," he announced coyly, with his back still tothe master in his do on the rice" He turned his burners down and then checked the oven before turning around to greetat me and the faintest hint of a smile turned the corners of his lips He let his eyes sweep over entlest of ways and then sloalked over tome into his ar theainst mine "Is this Ok?" he pulled away for a moment, until I could answer hiics, now accusto each other, ainst his, fully valuing who he was and how he reat leader and could command armies, but when he ith me, he didn’t always have the perfect words He was passionate and courageous in battle, but with entle and careful He was honest witha hint of inning, froht, without the desperation to protect o with ave me the room I needed to become the warrior that the Rebellion needed He respected me, he pushed me to be a better leader and what I loved most about him was that he put my brother, this mission, and our cause all before our relationship