Chapter 146

• Alicia walked back to the hotel, the heat from the coffee cup she was holding sending warmth into her body. By right, they should have been staying in the pack, but Alicia didn’t want to go there before the D day. She didn’t want to see Leo or anyone related to him before she was going to take back her pack. And so, to satisfy her wish, Shawn had booked a suite for them. Theo, Philip and Anastasia were in the suites right after theirs. Even she was surprised when she found out that Anastasia was coming with them. Ever since the day they returned from the palace, she had noticed that there was something strange and different about Anastasia, but no matter how much she thought of it, she couldn’t pinpoint what it was. The woman wasn’t bitchy to her as before, nor did she set off a fight between her and one of the soldiers. However, her silence was getting to Alicia.
• What could be her problem? What could she be thinking, and most importantly, why come here with her? The trip to the East wasn’t made mandatory for every Shadow soldier. Apart from the soldiers who were chosen to travel by Hillary, the higher-ups can either decide to go or not to. According to what she heard from Shawn, he didn’t even want any of them to travel because it would be bad if they left the North defenseless. And should anything happen, before they could travel from the East back to the North, it would already be too late. In her mind, she had thought that only Theo and Philip would be coming with them, and the job of Philip was to look after her after the fight and treat any injuries. Imagine her shock when she saw Anastasia tagging behind them with a luggage. She had glanced at Shawn and he had shrugged, telling her then in the mind-link that Anastasia had asked to come with them.
• The more Alicia thought about it, the more she was confused and want to find out what the woman was thinking about, or perhaps her purpose of coming with them. She was lost in thought when she bumped into someone. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” she rushed to say, feeling bad at her coffee that had spilled on the person’s red overcoat.