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The night in London wasn’t that calm as the nights were in Crawley. Evie definitely needed some time to get used to that, to the noises; traffic and people are yelling and drinking on the streets, girls are selling themselves, trying to catch their future clients attention – and to the fact the train they just won this day was constantly moving under her.
Her bed was comfortable after all. She found it lovely enough, laying on top of it, already got rid of her coat, weapons gloves and boots, making herself a bit more comfortable, but too lazy to properly get dressed for bed yet. Zander also appreciated it, as he was laying next to her and partly on her, enjoying how she lazily scratched his neck and behind his ear, heavy paws and fluffy tall all over her, hugging her close. The vibrating from him as he purred made Evie lazy and relaxed – they both were quite tired and thankful for this bed to enjoy. Jacob wasn’t so lucky; he had to be happy with a couch. A very fancy one, but still a couch.
No matter how tired Evie was, she was unable to fell asleep, wondering about how many things happened under so short amount of time.
Days ago they still were in Crawley, fulfilling boring and pointless missions. Jacob kept nagging her to leave everything behind and finally do something what mattered, like go to London and deal with real Templars. She refused for a time and he wasn’t pleased with that; Cazimira always ruffled her feathers to show how annoyed she was with her and Jacob kept making comments and faces, like he was 5 years old instead of 20. It wasn’t their best year, they still didn’t recover from their father’s sudden death and Evie wasn’t sure Jacob only wanted to run away from the haunting memories or really felt the drive to do some good.
But one day even she had to admit it was pointless for them to stay and let herself to be dragged by his enthusiasm and charisma. And maybe charm too.
She had her weak moments. Had them over the years as well. Deep down Evie always knew there could be something more, something very risky, something that can destroy so much around them. She was tempted to go for it, but decided to do against that temptation, refuse to fall and do not care about the tomorrow. It wasn’t easy and sometimes she made mistakes. A smile. A touch. But she was always too afraid to push forward – fearless in a fight, but such a coward in her personal life.
Zander moved, stretching his neck a bit, let out a small meow, feeling how Evie was thinking about the topic she tried to avoid all the time. He didn’t share her opinion and they usually end up fighting if it came up between them – he stayed silent now, not wanting push her.
When Ethan died Evie felt such a fear, like never before. He was her main anchor to keep herself tied to the ground, not to do anything stupid. His presence in her life meant rules she had to live by, meant barriers, meant things she couldn’t do, no matter how badly she wanted it. When he was no more, these rules and barriers were gone, leaving her behind with such a freedom Evie couldn’t handle.
Jacob of course loved it. Or he seemed to be loving it, maybe that was his way to hide his pain – they never talked about it. After Ethan’s death Evie was afraid to talk to her brother, being worried she will do something she shouldn’t do.
But, even after being an orphan she still had something to hold onto – Crawley itself. Everyone knows them there, she had to live by that knowledge. But here… no-one really knows them, no-one really knows anything about them.
Except Mr. Green of course, but he wasn’t a threat.
Evie almost made a grunt, remembering to the first time when they met several days ago. The way he looked at her, how uncomfortable the unwanted attention made her. How his daemon, an Indian pitta tried to greet Zander, but he hissed at it instead, clearly showing do not even try to go close to them. The cat never really hid his opinion – Zander hated to lie and Evie too, but she wasn’t as raw as her daemon. She felt like she has to be nice to the other when she makes it clear she is not interested, but Zander not. Hissing, growling, showing teeth always worked for him. Poor little bird seemed to be so confused by this reaction, flying back onto the shoulder of its owner and staying there, far away from the mountain lion. Looked like Mr. Green got the message, but Evie wasn’t 100% sure he will keep his distance.
A suitor, perfect. Because she didn’t have enough problem already.
“You seem to be… distracted.” The familiar deep and a bit sleepy voice brought her back to the Earth, making Evie to look into the olive pair of cat eyes.
“I am just…” she tried to find the perfect word for it, but Zander was faster.
“Afraid.”
“Yes, she sighed “Yes, I guess I am.”
The task ahead of them was huge, there were so many expectations, they were outnumbered, Starrick was older, more experienced and definitely smarter than two adolescence assassins, who only did minor missions. This was London, not Crawley anymore. And the fact there was no-one whom looked after them or had no moral compass to follow, Evie was deeply afraid of how their life as twins will turn out. It wasn’t really death she was afraid of, but of her own brother and her own feelings for him.