Peony

Chapter Seven

Sage quickly caught Peony in his arms before she crashed to the ground. What was he thinking? Of course she would think he was delusional. Of course she wasn't going to believe him. Why did he come to Milwaukee in the first place? That's right, he was on some fool's errand to reunite a family.

He'd seen how saddened the emperor and empress were every time his family visited them, and noticed that they seemed to be getting more lonely. Kai, Cinder and all of his parents' friends from the war were like aunts an uncles to him and Odette. He hated seeing them unhappy, so he decided to do something about it.

Thankfully, Sage had his mother's knack for hacking. It took less than twenty-four hours for him to get into Cinder's personal comms and find that she'd been talking to her old android every other month. What took the most time, was finding Peony--not even Cinder and Kai knew where Iko had taken her Almost all of the information on the androaid had been deleted a decade ago and the only thing he could get on the princess was her birth information. 

It had taken months and he was debating on giving up when the netscreen in his room finally alerted him with her location.

Sage hastily bought maglev tickets for Milwaukee using a fake account he'd set up with all the money he could possibly need. He also rented a cheap apartment within a five block radius of where she lived. Packing his portscreen and sending a comm to his mother, he left.

While on the train he studied her general schedule by hacking into the city's cameras. He monitored the emperor, empress, and princess's ports and also any comms that the Iko sent.

The other day when he talked to her in the subway station, he could tell right away that she was the princess. She was nearly a spitting image of Cinder, the only thing being her hair, which was exactly like Kai's. 

He knew he was being cryptic and probably giving her more questions than answers, but he hadn't really thought through how he was going to tell her. Sage knew he'd made a mistake when Peony told him that she was a bit afraid of him. The fact that he just made her fall unconscious was definitely not going to help her case.

He couldn't just leave her out here where she could easily get kidnapped, killed, or worse. What was he going to do?

His stomach dropped when he figured it out.

"Fuck."

How would he be able to get her back in without Iko finding him though? He began walking to the Yankee Hill Apartments with Peony in his arms. He sighed when he got to the fire escape, "I'm regretting this more than I thought I would."

It was an hour to dawn by the time he got to her floor. Sage set her down gently. He opened her window, throwing his legs through first then picked her up again and pushed himself all the way through. 

He looked around the room and smiled to himself. Everything was so simple from her white bedding to her desk to the clothes that littered the floor. That would all change when she found out who her parents were--when she found out where she belonged.

Sage placed Peony on the bed and pulled the covers over her.

"Good night, Princess. I hope you decide to trust me, until then, I'll keep an eye on you."

  ° ° ° ° ° 

Iko turned up her audio interface when she heard steps coming up the fire escape. She was sitting at the table with her eyes closed. Cinder, Kai, Captain, and Cress were right. It was Sage. She could tell by his voice--he sounded virtually the same as Thorne.

When she was sure he was gone, she went into Peony's bedroom to check on her. She wondered what the princess had found out, if anything at all while she checked her over.

Deciding Peony was perfectly safe, Iko went back to her bedroom to call Cinder again.

It only took a moment for her face to appear on the screen. 

"Kai, It's Iko!" Cinder looked at him somewhere off camera. "Is she back? Is she okay?"

"She's back. She's fine. Nothing's wrong, that I know of." Iko assured.

Kai appeared on the screen, hair as disheveled as when they talked over an hour ago. "Where did she go? What happened?"

"Cress and Captain were right. Sage is here, and she was with him." 

After saying their names, Cress and Thorne appeared behind Cinder and Kai, looking just as distraught and worried.

"Did you see him? Was he okay?" Cress asked.

"I didn't see him, but I heard him--he sounds a exactly like you Captain. Form what I could tell he carried her up the fire escape while she was sleeping." Kai opened his mouth but Iko cut him off, "I don't know why she was asleep when he brought her back, but she's perfectly uninjured and safe."

Thorne seemed to have heard enough about Peony. "Iko, do you know where Sage is now?"

"No. He said something to Peony while she was sleeping before he left. I didn't catch what it was." Iko reported.

The four parents were finally settling down, though still worried, they knew their children were safe for the time being.

Kai sighed, "Alright Iko. Thank you, please call or comm if anything comes up."

"Anything." Cinder added, "She so much as sneezes, I want to know about it."

"And keep us in the loop." Thorne spoke.

Iko nodded, "You all look exhausted, get some rest. Peony and Sage will be fine."

  ° ° ° ° °   

Peony's eyes fluttered open to take in her surroundings. Sunlight was shining through the window of her bedroom. 

My room?

She jolted off her bed. How did she get here? The last thing she remembered was sitting in the park with Sage and being angry with him for thinking she would believe such a story. Her, the princess in hiding, it was crazy, it was impossible!

A part of her wished it were true. A part of her even felt as if it could be true. 

It couldn't be though, her parents died of letumosis before they were able to get the antidote. She was an orphan taken in by her aunt. 

But she never truly believed that story, and when she heard Iko talking to her parents, it only proved her right.

The question was, if her parents weren't dead, could they be the emperor and empress? She grabbed her portscreen and found images of the royals. She had to admit, she did look a lot like them. 

It was insane!

why was she even considering this?

It was a girlish fantasy.

There was no way in the galaxy she was the daughter of Emperor Kaito and Empress Selene.

The more pictures Peony looked at, and the more she read about them, the less sure she felt about her doubt.

_________________________________________________

Hello Lunartics

It's been a really long time, I know, and I'm sorry. For those of you that read the message I posted, and for those of you that didn't, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for not giving up on me, even when I wanted to give up on myself. You readers have truly inspired me to keep moving forward, and that's what I plan on doing. I hope you like this chapter, I think this is the first time I've given a Sage POV. In other news, I finished reading Winter two days after it came out. I loved it so much! Those of you that have read it should message me so we can fangirl, and not spoil it for those who haven't.

Keep reading,
PrincessSelene04