And so it begun, a ti of coldness that was colder than any winter outside. Scarlet and Esong avoided being in the sa room together.
When they t by accident, none said a word and each walked away quickly. They suddenly found themselves behaving like strangers.
She thought that it would be easy living in the sa house and acting normal but it wasn’t. So when Esong stopped sleeping at ho, she was a lot more relieved.
He still continued visiting the children, always at tis when she was out doing her governor duties or teleporting in at night.
Sotis he slept in the nursery and she could detect his energy in the mornings after he left. He was keeping true to so of the promises he had made her at least, and being a good father. He even took Justin out often on little father-son adventures. Their son was happier for it. So far, at least, sothing good had co out of the holiday they were taking in their relationship.
She was using work to keep herself busy and when she wasn’t working, she was reaping or playing with the children.
It had been two weeks of the sa routine as she tried to figure out who she was without him, which was no easy task as she still thought about him ten tis a day minimum.
"Do you want tea or coffee?" Carolyn shook her and asked.
Scarlet turned her eyes away from the window slowly and blinked a few tis as if she had been woken from sleep. She had forgotten for a mont that Carolyn was in her office.
"Hmmm." she answered.
Carolyn held up two cups and repeated, "Tea or coffee?"
"Coffee i guess." Scarlet answered.
Carolyn put down one cup and said, "Tea it is."
She squeezed in next to Scarlet who was sitting by the window and she looked outside, taking in the view of the still heavily falling snow.
Scarlet in the anti poured the tea which Carolyn had forced onto her into a flask and replaced it with hot chocolate.
She took one sip and sighed.
"What are you doing here in my office again Carolyn?"
Carolyn was looking distastefully at her coffee and then she mimicked Scarlet’s actions and settled for hot chocolate as well.
She licked clean the spoon which she had just used to mix the hot chocolate before replying, "I am here to keep you from throwing yourself off the balcony."
"Do i look suicidal to you?" Scarlet asked her.
Carolyn looked Scarlet up and down as she thought about the most noticeable and significant changes in her sister. "You have lost five kilograms of weight in two weeks and you are still forcing yourself to smile. Our parents are worried and frankly speaking, so are the rest of us."
"So what are you, the special suicide watch?" Scarlet responded dryly.
Carolyn kicked Scarlet’s foot lightly and rolled her eyes. "I am my sister’s keeper. Of course i know that you would not commit suicide, you would not do that to your children especially not the day before christmas. But if you haven’t noticed, our parents are walking on eggshells around you. Mother seems to think that you are so fragile, you could crack at any mont."
She shivered and looked at the upper window which was wide open. "Why is it that you never close those windows?"
She had just asked the question when a bird flew into the office and landed elegantly on Scarlet’s desk.
"That’s why." Scarlet told her.
The bird flew to a corner in the office and quickly started sipping water from a bowl which was ant for the hounds.
Carolyn shook her head judgntally and said, "You are not feeding the officials anymore so you are feeding stray birds. You charitable heart knows no bounds my little sister." She looked closely at the bird and frowned. "That’s a crow, right? What’s a crow doing flying around in winter?"
Scarlet was aware that the crow was Lanta in a different bird form but that was not information she would share with her sister.
Instead, she played clueless and shrugged.
Undeterred, Carolyn continued talking more and more. Scarlet knew what she was doing. It was an attempt to keep her mind off Esong. Everyone in the family was aware that they had problems but the couple had not let them in so they couldn’t begin to guess or help.
She tapped Scarlet on the arm, drawing her attention which had traveled and asked. "Will he be coming for the christmas eve sleep over? You basically invited everyone."
"I canceled it, didn’t you get the ssage?" Scarlet looked at the corner because the bird was making sounds.
Lanta was hoping around in circles, which ant that they needed to talk.
"I have work to do Carolyn, you should end this check in now. I am fine, i have eaten sothing and i got five hours of sleep last night, which is more than what i got in the days prior."
Scarlet pulled her sister up and pushed her out of the office. She also sealed the door to ensure privacy and in the anti, Lanta morphed into her human self.
She was naked and Scarlet tossed her a pair of new underwear, thick sweat pants, a light sweater and a jacket. She also prepared water, hot chocolate in a very large cup and donuts for her.
"Thank you." Lanta sighed in relief.
She gulped down half of the hot chocolate without pausing like she was drinking a cup of ice cold water. Scarlet thought about comnting but sohow, she didn’t feel up to it so she just waited patiently for the other to take a pause.
"Exactly how long have you flown for?"
"Two days, I have been flying for two days straight and let tell you it was just as difficult as flying for a week in the sumr."
"What was so urgent?" Scarlet asked.
Lanta smiled proudly and replied. "I got the guy you wanted and then i had to kill him because i wanted to fly back and see if i had missed anything. We hardly spoke after the short war before you sent off to hunt for your enemy who by the way had struck a deal with a fate demon to trade his soul and be turned into an incubus. I don’t know what is wrong with so humans but they put the double o in foolish."
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