Chapter 68: Panic?

**Ughhhhh! It’s so short! It’s not even that good! It’s been, like, months!! I’m horrible. *sigh* in my defense, I’m swamped with schoolwork. And I went on a two-week vacation to Maine, so… um. Due to bad planning (sorry!) the next few chapters are all REALLY short… and weird. Sorry.**

In Darren’s Point of View:

“…but the darkness shielded her again, and she felt safe,” the Empress continued. “She watched the men run by, her breath nearly catching in her throat when one paused to peer directly at her. Then he winked, shook his head, and ran onwards, out of her life. Or so she thought…”

I held back my laughter. I had read this book earlier. The guy would come back and whisk her away to who-knows-where and they would live happily ever after. It was ridiculous.

Suddenly, shay spoke up. “U-um, Miss… Miss Empress…” I looked at where her shaking finger was pointing.

The Empress looked down too. Her face seemed to contort as she saw the water trickling down her leg. “Dear! Polly! Susie! The- the baby!” she shrieked after a long moment.

I glanced over at Shay and Calum. They looked completely terrified. I have to admit, I felt the same way. Key, on my other side, looked more calm. I didn’t feel very calm.

People came flooding in, carrying hot water, for the most part, as far as I could tell. One of the grandparents swept the children out of the room. We stood frozen and rather in the way.

I felt a hand on my arm. “Come on,” Key murmured. She tugged me out of the way. I kicked Calum, who grabbed Shay and pulled her along too. We shuffled out of the room.

I looked around at the pale faces of my friends. Not just pale because the Empress was going into labor. Actually, the brown color we all had accumulated was dirt, which had prevented us all from tanning.

“So, uh, now what?” Calum asked.

I frowned. “Well, for a start, let’s get out of the way. It looks like there’s going to be a lot of events here very shortly.”

Key started out down a hallway. It wasn’t the way to our rooms, or the bathing pool, though I wasn’t sure we wanted to go there anyway. But we followed her, because she seemed to know where she was going.

Come to think of it, that was probably why we followed Julius, too. He never actually took over as such. As far as I could tell, he was just in charge because he was Julius. But now he was gone, and for some reason I felt like I was more in charge. If I could just get the hang of ordering my friends around…

“Hey, where are we going?” Shay asked me.

I shrugged. “I’m following Key. And you guys?”

Shay stared at the smaller girl in front of us. “…following you. You’re in charge, right?”

Calum snorted. “It’s just ‘cause he’s the tallest.”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Key twitch. In two strides I caught up to her, wrapping her hand in mine. “Where are we going?” I hissed.

**I apologize again for the suckish quality. I was out of ideas. It’s not even a whole word page…. I am ashamed. Next time is: Thwarted.**