Scarlet

I blink twice in confusion at everything going on right now. Not only the changes to Belle’s appearance, but also the fae that showed up, and the kid that I’d saved not even a week ago being here.

What does he mean by ‘little brother’? Also, I feel that strange sensation in his voice that’s in yours as well…

Wait, is he a royal fae too?!

As a form of answer, Tar appears in the air between me and the others, next to the floating eagle. Or rather, the floating mini-eagle, since it’s much, much smaller than an eagle should be. And kind of adorable too. Tar then says, “Tenth Prince Artemis, long time no see.”

Guess that answers that.

The prince seems to perk up slightly at Tar’s words before slumping slightly again when he looks at me and grows surprised. Then he looks at Tar, only to find him nodding his head once with a stern look on his face.

Wait, does that mean he didn’t know about me?

“No, none of the other fae royalty know about you,” Tar says in my mind, surprising me a little. “His majesty chose to keep it that way as a sort of test for whoever might be able to find and contract with you. And he never shared information about you afterwards as a reward for my efforts.”

Interesting. Although that also means you found me without your father’s help? How?

“I’ll tell you later,” he says to me before speaking to the eagle fae again, “I wasn’t informed that you would be taking on a new partner.”

The eagle flies over to land on Belle’s head, making me frown as the competition comes to mind.

Shit. Doesn’t that mean we’ll be in the competition together?!

“You don’t necessarily have to compete directly against each other,” Tar says to me alone. “Sure your points will be compared at the end, but you can coordinate which competitions you are competing in to avoid competing in the same one as her. There are also a couple team competitions thrown in as well, so it wouldn’t hurt to get to know another proxy.”

Oh. Okay. That’s cool then.

The two princes continue talking as I focus on Belle, just taking in her changes. Her usual golden brown eyes are now just pure gold and glowing too, which while seen sometimes in Guardians isn’t that common. Meanwhile her black hair is now streaked with golden highlights.

“So I guess you contracted during this Fracture?” I ask while looking over her to make sure I don’t see any injuries. Specifically bite marks. And once I’m satisfied there aren’t any, I glance at Arthur to find him free of them as well.

“Yep,” Belle answers while adjusting her blouse slightly, which had likely gotten messed up a little while they were dealing with the zombie. Meanwhile Arthur just looks away. The boy is still staring at me though and doesn’t even notice her tucking her blouse into her pants. “I’m glad you’re here though. I don’t have any offensive skills.”

Interesting.

“I’m guessing those barriers were yours then?” I ask, making her nod her head. But right when I’m about to continue, I hear someone clearing their throat behind me, which reminds me of the others who had followed me into the room. So I turn around and begin introducing everyone.

“These two are my best friends, Belle and Arthur,” I say while pointing to the two, then I just casually wave at the kid and say, “and this is just some random kid I saved before tossing onto a bed in the last Demonic Assault.”

My comment has a rather significant reaction from them that doesn’t really make all that much sense to me. For some reason the kid is blushing incredibly hard, finally no longer staring at me anymore, whereas the others seem either surprised or amused.

“You abandoned me to that absolute demon of a woman right after saving my life!” the kid whose name I honestly don’t remember complains.

“Yeah, yeah, details shmetails,” I mutter before adding, “oh, and also, he became a Guardian soon before I saved him and left him on a random bed to deal with the knight chasing him.”

Now this comment seems to clear up the surprise on their faces for some reason.

I wonder why?

Out of nowhere, I feel Belle patting my shoulder twice and saying, “Stay just like this, Scarlet. Just like this.” Then she snickers.

I tilt my head in confusion before going over what I’d said several times over.

Eventually my eyes widen, and I feel a very faint blush crossing my face.

Oh.

Yeah, I could’ve worded that better.

I even hear Tar snickering in the back of my head.

Traitor.

“Aaanyways,” I say, changing the subject while waving at the three people in my team, “the guy with green hair is Michael, the girl with green hair is his sister, Emily, and the blonde is Denise. They’re currently a part of my team and helping me in managing this Fracture until backup arrives.”

Belle just raises an eyebrow and asks, “You? In a team?” She turns to look at the others with her eyes narrowed, “I find that hard to believe.”

I cross my arms while defending myself, “I can work with others quite well, thank you very much.”

“Like when we went camping and were supposed to work together setting up each and every tent, but you just couldn’t do that and had to go set up your own by yourself because you didn’t want to be in the crowd of orphans?” Arthur asks with a brow raised.

“That was because Belle was going through her phase of trying to get me to dress up and model clothes for her, and I wanted to avoid all contact I could with her,” I defend myself, stepping up to glare at Arthur, completely ignoring the height difference between us.

He seems to take it as a challenge and steps forward himself while saying, “And the time you decided to abandon me during class and work on the project by yourself, leaving me with having to find a group to work with?”

“Why work with others when I don’t have to?” I comment before raising a brow and adding, “And besides. You didn’t have to find a group yourself. You could’ve just worked with me or worked on your own.”

The guy scoffs, the heads of everyone around us just bobbing back and forth between us during our spat, “And subject myself to you doing all the work on your own because you don’t trust others to do it well enough?”

I gasp while putting my hand on my chest and saying, “Hurtful! I can trust others!” I turn to the team in question as I say, “Right? We all trusted each other during our time together so far!”

They hesitate for a second, making Arthur’s grin grow wider in the process before Michael speaks up, “Well, yes, but you did kind of run off to find these two without a word.”

Before I can retort to that, Belle claps her hands and says, “Enough with the drama. We’re in the middle of something here.”

Oh. Right. Fracture.