Mark of the Empress | The Empire Saga #2

Chapter Seven

"Nile D'Busrel? I've never heard of him." Alex flipped the plain white business card back and forth, trying to get any additional information she could about Crystal's chance encounter.

Crystal finished the glass of red wine in front of her before beginning to contemplate an answer. It seemed she had been thinking about the odd meeting during her entire shift and knowing that her friend would be home with her infant daughter, she showed up on Alex's doorstep just as she had finished putting the baby to bed for the night.

"I have no idea, but I also no longer have a phone so I'm going to need to pay him a visit sooner rather than later."

"You don't think it's a little suspicious? Him walking into you out of nowhere, knocking your phone to the ground, and suddenly he's a phone repair guy who can make everything all better? You said yourself you don't believe in coincidences."

"Maybe. Maybe not. If not, I'll tell you, that's probably the best pickup method I've ever encountered."

"You're not seriously considering taking him up on his offer, are you? He doesn't even have a business address or website on this card."

"A free phone repair with a not-so-bad looking stranger in the city of Boston? I see nothing wrong with this."

"I suppose you may be right," Alex agreed as she took a sip of her own wine. "At least you believe this one has some sort of career."

"Ha. Ha. Ha." Crystal rolled her eyes.

"You know, he probably won't even know who you are when you show up, and then once you flash his business card, he'll only remember you as the moron who was too busy paying attention to her phone than the sidewalk in front of her." Alex smirked. In the years she'd known her, her friend never had good taste in decent men, but then again, Alex never cared enough to have any of her own before she met Treyan. Where Crystal would allow herself to explore the dance floor for eligible bachelors, Alex was always the one content to people-watch from the bar. On the off chance that someone actually did come talk to her, she would be polite, but would never go out of her way to make someone want to take her home, and that never went over well after midnight in a rocking bar in the city of Boston.

"Well, they do say love finds a way, don't they?"

"Who, exactly, is 'they'?"

"Who knows," Crystal continued. "He could actually be The One and then we'd have the most amazing story to tell our children. It would almost be as good as the one you'll tell yours."

Alex choked on her wine.

Crystal watched Alex with a curious glare. "You are going to tell them, aren't you?"

"Tell them what?" Alex coughed.

"Oh, I don't know. How about the whole part where their father came from a different world to steal their mother away, convinced her she was some predestined royal and then got her pregnant to lock her into a life of danger and mayhem?"

"Don't hold back, Crystal. Why don't you tell me how you really feel?" Alex asked sarcastically as she took another much-needed sip.

"Okay, I will." Crystal sat up in her chair and leaned in over the table. "How about how their parents chose to take them from a safe haven back to a world where death and destruction run rampant so that they can find the child that was stolen from them. Stolen, Alex. Why do you want to subject yourself to that kind of hell?"

"I have no choice!" Alex snapped in response.

She didn't know how this conversation had become so heated, but she wasn't about to let Crystal get the better of her. She was silently grateful that her daughter was as heavy of a sleeper as her father.