Chapter 114: Mind Reader
Damon didn’t say anything imdiately.
He let the realisation settle quietly, the way he processed most things, without broadcasting it, and watched Hana from the corner of his eye as Ivy continued outlining the scouting tiline.
The girl’s face flashed red as she tried her best to look like she was paying attention to Ivy, which she most certainly was not.
Although her eyes were fixed straight on Ivy, she had that particular unfocused look of soone who was lost in their thoughts. And every few seconds, without seeming to notice she was doing it, her gaze drifted back to him.
’She’s been reading my mind this entire eting.’ Damon thought, more as a way to test if she was still in his head, and it worked perfectly.
Hana’s pen dropped.
It didn’t fall off the table by accident, it fell with a deliberate motion of her elbow, flicking it off the edge.
She scrambled for it under the table with a speed that suggested less clumsiness and more a sudden overwhelming need to hide her face for a mont. When she reappeared, the colour had risen in her cheeks in a way that had nothing to do with the effort of retrieving a pen.
But before he could react, Ivy suddenly turned toward him.
She just wrapped up the scouting plan with the efficiency of soone who had rehearsed it and was now simply executing. Theodore had his assignnt. Eve had been given a look that communicated her involvent was tolerated rather than invited, which she received with her usual expression of finding everything faintly amusing.
"Do you have anything to add?" She asked as her gaze settled on him.
"No," he replied, which she already expected, having noticed his lost-in-thought expression earlier.
"Then we’re done," she said.
Hana was the first to leave, almost running out of the room, followed by Theodore, who simply hated things like plans or discussions.
Eve lingered for a mont. It wouldn’t be her to leave without saying sothing to Damon. "I’ll co by your room later," she said with a wink that was more for Ivy to notice than him before she left.
Damon was the next to rise, but before he could reach the door, Ivy spoke. "Wait."
She observed him for a few seconds before she spoke up. "You weren’t listening."
"I was. I will lead a scouting group to find and observe the third citadel, right?"
Her gaze narrowed as if doubting that he was truly listening. "You can pick your scouting group by yourself, but I want Hana to go with you. She will be of use if you guys et any mbers of other citadels..."
"Because she’s a mind reader?"
Ivy’s eyes widened slightly. "How did you—"
He shrugged. "I’m sort of a mind reader myself"
A faint pout settled on her face as she clearly did not believe that.
She let out a defeated sigh. "Forget it."
"I’ll leave today," he said, his expression turning more serious now. "If they are any smart, the other citadels should already be on the move. We can’t waste any ti."
Ivy nodded.
She already figured he would say sothing like that.
Her eyes trailed unfocusedly across the room as sothing heavy settled on her face, sothing Damon had quickly recognised.
"I won’t disappear," he said.
Ivy held his gaze for a mont. Then the heaviness on her face lifted, not entirely, but just enough.
She took a slow step toward him, finding a warm embrace between his arms. Her red eyes looked up to see him already looking down.
"Damon..." she whispered, her eyes closing as she leaned slightly forward, but before she could reach his lips—
Knock! Knock!
Two loud bangs echoed from the door. Ivy quickly moved backwards just as the door swung open, and one of her attendants was standing there.
"Lady Ivy..." the female attendant paused for a mont, seeing the leader whom she served all this ti have a flustered expression she had never seen. "You told
to inform you when Victor returns," she continued. "He just got back."
"Thank you," Ivy replied, and the female attendant left the room.
For a mont, neither of them moved.
Then, Ivy began to straighten her dress with the practised efficiency of soone reassembling composure they’d briefly misplaced. But before she could fully regain it, Damon pulled her by the waist, and their lips t.
Her plump, red lips were as sweet as the first ti he kissed them, and perhaps that’s why instead of giving her only a single kiss as he initially intended, he took a good minute before he finally pulled back.
At first, Ivy’s expression was that of soone who had their al stolen, before she let out a fake cough and straightened up, quickly regaining her focus, or so she wanted him to believe. "We should... go."
Damon watched her take a couple of steps across the room before he followed after her.
They took no more than two minutes to descend from the tower and enter the grand hall.
It was busy as ever, voices and movent in every direction, the citadel carrying on with the particular indifference of a place that had learned not to wait for its leaders to finish their personal business before continuing to function.
They found Victor near the far wall.
He looked like he’d been through hell, which, given that he’d spent four days alone in a rift, was probably accurate.
His clothes were torn at the shoulder, dried blood traced a line along his hairline that soone had half-heartedly attempted to clean, and he carried himself with the particular stillness of soone running on nothing who had only just stopped.
He looked up as they approached.
His eyes found Damon first, and sothing in his exhausted face shifted. A genuine relief flashed across his features, the kind that couldn’t be faked.
"You’re back," he said, blinking a couple of tis as if trying to see if he wasn’t hallucinating. "Good, because we might have a problem."
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