Hell Hath No Fury - Book One

I Bet

Theo had taken off in the morning before the other two had woken up. They had stayed up late the night before smoking and talking and they had said they were going to sleep in. Theo had informed them that she would most likely be waking up early and leaving for the city and that is what she did. When the sun was just barely rising in the sky, Theo woke up and packed her horse up before taking off. Theo needed to get back to regular life, she had spent far too long at The Grotto. Her ride back was peaceful and she was able to get lost in the scenery, her mind going blank.

At the first signs of the city, sporadically placed buildings, she began to slow her horse to a trot, and soon enough its hooves were echoing against the stone pavement. Theo guided her steed through the city and then back out of the city, heading up the mountain that held the large castle where the meeting was held and where Uncilo lived. It wasn't a castle, it was more like a fortress, but Theo didn't care for the semantics of it, she would continue to always call it a castle.

Once she arrived, she tied up the horse outside, greeted the guards that stood watch, and walked inside. Large wooden double doors, six times her height, opened up to grant her entry into the building. Theo walked the long winding hallways in an attempt to find Uncilo. She checked his office first, then his room, then the meeting hall. He was nowhere to be seen but the guards had assured her he was here. There were dozens of rooms in the castle and he could be in any one of them but Theo knew Uncilo well enough to know where to check. The only other room that would have made sense for him to be in was the kitchen and she was correct.

She swung open the swinging doors that led to the kitchen and Uncilo was standing over the stovetop, with a boiling kettle on it. He turned to the doors to look at who was coming in and then turned back around wordlessly. Uncilo stepped away from the stovetop and over to a cabinet where he pulled out a teacup and set it down next to one that was already out. When Uncilo was Theo's captain he would work best at night and sleep through the day, to see him up and about and not lying in bed was a surprise. She half expected to have had to go into his room and wake him up.

"You're up early," Theo commented and walked over to the counter and hopped onto it.

"I am finding myself rising with the sun more and more in my old age," Uncilo said, "I can say the same for you. I do not recall a single time where I successfully managed to wake you up in the mornings."

Theo rolled her eyes. It was an exaggeration, Theo hated waking up early but she still did it.

"Aye, I had to wake up to come to see you," Theo said, in an accusing tone, "Xyra told me that I was summoned."

"You were not summoned, I wanted to meet with you before you left. The same way I do every time you girls come to the island," Uncilo retorted and poured them some tea.

He didn't even ask how Theo took her tea because they prepared it the same way, Theo having learned how to make her tea from Uncilo. He readied the beverage and handed it to her when it was done.

"What? No liquor in this?" Theo took the cup from Uncilo with a cheeky smile.

"Theo, it is not even eight in the aftermor- You're joking," Uncilo realized and shook his head with a slight sigh but Theo could tell he was at least somewhat amused.

They sipped their tea in silence, Theo sitting on the countertop and Uncilo having taken a seat at the small table in the kitchen. Theo both wanted to get the conversation flowing and wanted to never start it at all. She wanted to both get the lecture over with and never start it all. Theo had already gone over her mistakes in her own head a hundred times, she had already gotten a talking from Xyra, and she had already had to do her own damage control. Uncilo piling on another talk was overkill, in her opinion.