Chapter 153

YENA

I was getting so sick of hearing from Lily.

She would not shut up. It was all anxiety, all talk of Nolan and how I should go back to him.

He doesn’t want me back, I told her. I offered to go back, and he told me no.

The only way to argue against that logic was to repeat herself over and over like a lunatic.

“He does love you,” she insisted stupidly. “Go to him!”

Evan was quiet throughout the drive. I was grateful he was distracted with his own thoughts, because I needed all my focus to deal with Lily. And he didn’t seem to notice as I shook my head and rolled my eyes in frustration with her while we argued in my mind.

Each lost in our own worlds, Evan and I were both a bit startled when the car parked alongside the curb at the airport and we realized it was time to get out already. Time to fly.

Dense crowds, bright lights, and a symphony of noise swallowed us as soon as we set foot inside the airport. My stomach felt like it was full of butterflies. And that was even before people started to recognize me. Then I got really nervous.

I heard someone say my name and turned to see a family gawking at me. A little boy even had his mouth open and a finger pointing up at me. Then there were more whispers, more people turning, more phones being pulled out and pointed in my direction.

I suppose Nolan anticipated this happening better than I could have. Four Gamma warriors appeared, walking toward me and Evan and calling out our names. “Please allow us to escort you to your jet, Princess Yena,” one of them said, gesturing in the direction of a hallway that was cordoned off from the general public.

“Sounds great. Thank you.” I linked my arm into Evan’s, noticing for the first time how completely overwhelmed he was looking. “You good, Evan?” I had to guide him a little as we got moving, following two of the guards while the other two slowed their pace so they could trail behind us.

“Honestly?” Evan replied quietly. “I was just thinking that this is the scariest day of my life.”

I looked at him with wide eyes.

“I’m okay though,” he added with a little smile, and he slipped his arm around my shoulders. I leaned in and squeezed him around the waist.

Just when I thought we’d gotten clear of the crowds, a woman shouted my name. I shouldn’t have turned around, but I did.

“Princess Yena!” she cried out again. The woman looked worried. “Where are you going, Princess Yena?!”

It somehow didn’t occur to me until that moment that my departure could cause that kind of emotion in strangers. People who didn’t even know me somehow cared whether I was here or not. After so many years of thinking I was only human, and being bullied and made to feel like I didn’t belong anywhere, it still took some effort to remember that people thought I was important now.

The Gamma warriors that had been pacing behind us began stepping the woman backward, quieting her and sending a ripple of anxiety out through the entire airport lobby. Suddenly the air felt thin. The crowd fell still as everyone paused their hurried movements, turning to watch the Gamma warriors and stare question marks at me.

“Just keep walking,” Evan whispered into my ear. Now he was the one pulling me forward.

NOLAN

A Gamma warrior was standing right outside the car door, just a foot away from where Nolan was waiting on the inside.

The headset the guard was wearing crackled with radio static, then a voice came through, announcing: “All clear.”

Nolan heard this perfectly and was stepping out of the car a moment later. He helped his friend out next, lifting the old man easily and setting him into a comfortable, brand new wheelchair that he had brought along as a gift for Alaster.

Gamma warriors were everywhere. They flanked the front doors of the orphanage and stood alert outside all the building’s other doors and windows as well, guarding every point of egress.

Nolan would not permit the armed guards to enter the orphanage, though. Only a small group of them, stripped of their weapons before entering, had gone inside to check the premises before the prince’s entrance.

The corners of Nolan’s mouth tugged upward as the sliding doors on the front of the building glided open before them. The updated doors were another gift the prince had ordered this past week, and he was happy to see they’d been installed already and were working beautifully.

“Prince Nolan,” Cindy said as he entered the lobby, pushing the old man ahead of him in the wheelchair.

“Hi, Cindy. It’s been a while. And you can just call me Nolan. Please.”

Cindy blushed. She couldn’t help but perform a small half-bow, though Nolan shook his head at her as she did so.

“First time I’ve seen you like this,” she said, eyeing Nolan’s expensive suit.

He shrugged. “I’m still me. And I believe you are already acquainted with my friend Alaster here.”

The old man nodded. A small but persistent smile had been on his lips from the moment they’d entered the building.

“Of course,” Cindy said. She reached out and took the old man’s hand, shaking it gently. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, sir.”

“You as well, dear.”

The familiar screeches and laughter of children echoed through the orphanage halls, growing louder. “Brace yourself,” Cindy said, just as a big group of kids exploded into the lobby, filling the room and surrounding Alaster and Nolan on all sides.

“It’s the prince!” a little girl shouted.

Another beside her said, “Ooh!” and stared up at Nolan with eyes so round they seemed to take up half of her tiny face.

“Kids, quiet down and listen please.” Cindy had that loud but calm camp-director voice down to a science. The children obeyed as best they could and watched her for more instructions. “Now, these are some very special guests that have come to see you today. Some of you might have already recognized Prince Nolan. And he has brought his friend Alaster back to visit us again as well.”

The kids started whispering amongst each other again until Cindy put her hand up in the air, a cue they seemed to understand well. A hush fell over them once again.

Nolan saw more children, these ones shy and quiet, creeping into the lobby from the hallway or poking their heads out from around the corner. Some were looking at the prince. Others had their innocent eyes fixed on the old man, looking frightened of his skeletal body.

“The prince is a dear friend of mine,” Cindy continued. “And he also helped us build this place we all call home. Not only by giving us money when we needed it, but also by doing hard work here alongside me and the other staffers as we set up all your bedrooms and playrooms. Can you believe that?”

Some of the older kids looked up at Nolan admiringly. The smaller ones, understanding very little of what was happening around them as a general rule, answered back with a mix of “Yes,” “No” and “I don’t know,” trying to guess the right response.

Cindy paid no mind to their reaction. “Kids, can you all say thank you to Prince Nolan?”

The enthusiasm in their voices was cranked up to one hundred percent as the children recited, trying to speak in unison and mostly succeeding: “THANK YOU, PRINCE NOLAN!”

Nolan couldn’t remember the last time he had smiled so hard.