Hey guys, all I can say is I'm sorry. These past two weeks have literally been the busiest of my life. I have no idea why the School of French decided that it would be a good idea to put four major deadlines within a week and a half of each other... anyway, please don't kill me...

Chapter 16

We did win the three-legged race, as predicted. Maggie and Caleb were amazing, winning three events together. The others that won only won one of the activities.

I had been stealing glances at the Council table, where much whispering was going on. I had tried to warn Maggie surreptitiously, but I wasn't sure whether I succeeded, since she made no acknowledgement of my message. I had thought her name in my head several times, until I hoped she was listening, and gave her a warning about the Council.

I think they're up to something. I don't know if you've noticed them all whispering together, but the only two who don't seem to be in on it are your gran and Luc's uncle Philippe. Just be careful- they might be plotting against you.

I hadn't turned in Maggie's direction at all so I had no idea if my warning had succeeded, but I hoped it would be enough to put her on her guard if the Council tried something.

I was distracted by the words of Damien, who came up to us with a smile. "Et pour le finale..." (and for the finale...) he said.

"What was last activity again?" I asked Luc.
"You weren't listening when Maggie was explaining it?"
"Probablement, elle pensait des autres choses..." (she was probably thinking about other things...)

"Ferme ta bouche, Damien!" (Shut up Damien!) My cheeks were very warm, because what he said was true. I was a little distracted today... but not just by last night; also by more serious matters. Now that Philippe and Winifred had joined in the games, the rest of the Council was huddled together, talking softly.

"You see those lines there?" Luc pointed to gold shimmering trails drawn across the floor. "Well, the men are charmed so that they can't see or tell their Significant from the other women; they can only tell by touch. They have to find their Significant and whoever they find becomes their partner for dinner."

"You better find me then Renou, I don't like sharing," I teased.

Luc smiled and pulled me close to him, his arms around my waist. "Your wish is my command, my lady," he whispered into my hair. "And don't worry about the Council. There's nothing we can do about it," he continued, even more softly, so no-one could hear.

Damien decided that now would be a good time to start making sicky noises and I pulled back from Luc to give him a good-natured shove. Since he wasn't imprinted, he couldn't take part in this activity, so when the men moved over to the other side of the room, he stayed with me.

"Tu sais, t'est bon pour lui," (You know, you're good for him) he remarked softly.

"Quoi? Tu veut dire Luc?" (What? You mean Luc?)

"Oui. Il est comme un frère pour moi, mais je suis sûr que tu le sais. Il était si sérieux tout le temps; il lui-même blâmait encore pour la mort de grand-père. Et il lui-même blâmait pour quitter. Il ne pouvait pas croire que nous pourrions lui pardonner. Mais puisque t'est venue, il a été… different. Mieux. Je pense qu'il a finalement appris à accepter notre pardon. Il est plus heureux, il rit et il sourit aujourd'hui- tu l'a fait plus comme le personne qu'il était avant grand-père a ruiné toutes nos vies..."

(Yes. He's like a brother to me, but I'm sure you know that. He used to be so serious the whole time; he still blamed himself for grandfather's death. And he blamed himself for leaving. He couldn't believe we could just forgive him. But since you've come, he's been... different. Better. I think he finally learned to accept our forgiveness. He's happier, he laughs and smiles now- you've made him more like the person he was before grandfather ruined all our lives...)

The last part was bitter and he had a sour look on his face. Of course- his grandfather had caused the death of his sister. I put a hand on his arm and looked seriously into his eyes.
"Damien, merci pour être là pour lui, quand j'étais pas," (Damien, thank you for being there for him, when I wasn't) I began, but Damien cut me off with his hand up.

"Non Anna; je te merci pour être là pour lui, quand personne ne pouvait," (no Anna; I thank you for being there for him, when no-one could) he smiled softly, before stepping back for the start of the last game.

The men set off blindly; it was funny watching them fumble around, trying to find someone to grab the hand of. A man approached me and reached out for my hand, but I moved away, knowing it wasn't Luc. I didn't want a dinner date that wasn't my Significant, thank you very much. A hand grabbed mine from behind, before I could pull away, and I turned around to see a man who looked vaguely familiar. On his wrist, I saw a willow tattoo, so he must be from our clan. That wasn't so bad, but I was surprised that he would mistake my hand for Marcella's, his wife, since she had the smallest hands I had ever seen. Mine, on the other hand, were quite big for my size.

Philippe removed his blindfold and smiled at me, giving me a warning stare and the tiniest of shakes of his head to indicate that I shouldn't ask questions here. I looked and saw Luc holding Marcella's hand with a slightly confused expression on his now un-blindfolded face. It seemed Marcella had sought him out. Why did Philippe need to pair with me?

"Not here," he whispered to me, flicking his eyes toward the Council table. I was now even more confused. How would the Council be able to tell what we said, half a room away and with masses of noise from everyone else?

Lucius can hear long distances; we don't want to take the chance of him overhearing us. He should be distracted enough at dinner, Luc filled me in from across the room. I didn't acknowledge his comment out loud or by turning around or even looking Luc's way- we had to maintain the appearance of cluelessness.

Fine. Just be careful. I risked a glance in Luc's direction and I saw his mask on. His mask which showed everyone nothing of what was inside his mind- the one he had removed for me. But I could see behind it, and he was worried.

Same to you.

And here I was, thinking we'd be fine in the midst of three hundred Aces, I joked weakly, smiling ruefully to myself.

No. Everything is falling apart again, just like it did when Maggie first tried to change things.

Is it really that bad?

I think it might be.

"Careful. Maggie isn't as good at masking her emotions as you two are," Philippe warned me.

"What do you mean?"

"If she can hear your thoughts, it will show on her face," he explained. I glanced over at Maggie and saw that her face was indeed worried. "I know you and Luc are better at pretending. Smile, you're looking worried," he whispered, giving me a warning glance.

Maggie, everything will be fine, you'll work it out with them, I thought into thin air, hoping she heard me. I glanced her way and saw her give me a rueful smile in return, showing she had heard my thought.

"Philippe, you said you were a human as well. How did you imprint with Marcella?" I changed the subject, hoping that any exchange wasn't noticed by the Council.

"Well, funny you should ask that. It was the day after Christmas, and my family went ice skating at the Grand Palais in the city centre. A woman, she fell over in front of me, twisting her ankle, and badly- she couldn't get up. She was alone, so I helped her off the ice and sat her down. When I took her boot off to check her ankle, I touched the skin on her foot and, well... the rest is history, as they say."

"That is so romantic, the day after Christmas, the damsel in distress..." I grinned.

"Ah, but she was still in quite a lot of pain. You see, I found her foot was broken so we had to take her to the hospital, so not exactly the romantic meeting, no?" he chuckled, smiling fondly at the memory.

I smiled secretly to myself. It was always the chance meetings, the accidental touches, the way fate seemed to inextricably draw Significants together. Without exception, all of the imprinted couples I knew, or at least all the human ones, had met in unlikely circumstances, touched by pure chance. Except nothing happened by chance. I hadn't believed that before, but I had been forced to accept that it couldn't just be accident.

"Everything is destined... nothing happens by accident," I felt his arms loop around my waist before I heard the whisper in my ear from my Significant. I smiled, agreeing completely.

"It's funny how the thing that Marcus hated and despised- imprinting, Significants, that stuff, only happened because of him," I mused. "He caused us to imprint- if he hadn't kidnapped me, we would never have met. So I feel almost like- like I have... a debt? To Marcus, for, you know, putting us together. Strange, I know, but... yeah." I shrugged. It was strange to feel indebted to someone who wanted me dead, but there we are... I was a little irrational, a word that didn't normally describe me. I guess I was changing a little. Everyone did, at some point. Not necessarily for the better or worse, just different. I was really having a lot of deep thoughts recently...

"Alors... quoi de neuf, gosses?" (so… what's up, kids?) Way to lighten the mood- just bring Damien into conversation.

"Kids?" I scoffed. He was barely a year older than me.

"Hé, les enfants aujourd'hui; pas de respect pour ses aînés! Je suis très mature!" (ah, children nowadays no respect for their elders! I am very mature!) Damien declared with a straight face.

Luc laughed, rolling his eyes. "Tu? Mature? Ces deux mots ne vont pas ensemble," (You? Mature? Those words do not go together) he teased.

"Je suis extremement mature!" (I am extremely mature!) Damien protested, grabbing luc in a headlock to prove his point. Oh wait...

"Oui, et le ciel est vert," (yes, and the sky is green,) Luc replied sarcastically from the cage Damien's very muscled arms made around his neck, pushing at them without success.

"Oui, le ciel est vert," Damien replied in a monotone voice.

"Sans doute…" (Sure…) Luc replied, looking at him weirdly, before shrugging, because it was Damien, and pulling away from him, taking my waist instead.

"T'est bizarre..." (You're weird...) was all Luc said, before pulling me towards somewhere in this massive palace.

"Where are we going?" I said breathlessly as Luc pulled me through the mass of people standing around, chatting.
"You'll see..." Luc replied, and I saw he was trying to remember all the bones in the body to keep from thinking where we were going. All I caught were the occasional flashes of rooms and corridors, which of course meant nothing to me.

We went up and up until we reached a small wooden door at the end of a tucked-away corridor. There, there was a steep spiral staircase that led up even more.

"You know, if you were looking for privacy, I'm sure our room would have been fine..." I panted as we ascended the stairs.

"Not this time," he chuckled. We finally reached the top of the stairs, which opened up into a tall room. The walls were covered with writing, the scripted letters overlapping each other. I looked in wonder at the writing, marvelling at how much there was. It was everywhere.

"What is this place?" I asked in wonder.

"Have a guess," Luc grinned.

"Is it...? Was this the Visionary's room?"

Luc nodded, smiling. "So... where do you want to start?"

"I'll take the left, you go right?" I suggested.

I stared at each piece of writing, trying to decipher the seemingly meaningless script.

If, before the... of the sun, the one who weeps... then the eclipse will not...

I couldn't read every word, and the ones I could made no sense. I tried another.

Whilst she is in her zenith... nothing could be read of the rest of that.

"Here!" Luc's exclamation made me jump, but I walked over to where he was tracing a set of words which seemed to have been written more recently, as it was clearer than the ones next to it.

"Look," he breathed. The prophesy read:
A human girl and a runaway willow will imprint. They and the one who weeps, along with her exception will rid the land of the evil that was cut back, but not destroyed, by the Visionary.

"That's us?"

"I think so," Luc replied. "The 'runaway willow' is me; the willow is our clan's tattoo, and I ran away. You were human. But I have no clue who the 'one who weeps' or her 'exception' are."

"Wait..." I frowned at it. "I read something about the one who weeps." I tried to re-find the writing, but it took me several minutes because of the sheer volume of writing.

"Here. It says 'if, before the' something 'of the sun, the one who weeps' something, 'then the eclipse will not something'." I shook my head, squinting. "I can't get half of it."

Luc peered over my shoulder to try and decipher some himself. "'If, before the'... 'rising?'... or maybe 'drifting?'... 'the one who weeps'... 'makes a'... something, 'then the eclipse will not'... 'come to pass'?" he shook his head, frustrated.

"Maybe..." I began, but never got to finish the sentence. Because several things happened almost simultaneously. First, I felt a huge pain in my heart, as if I had been stabbed, and I knew how that felt because I had been shot in the heart before. Then, Luc collapsed soundlessly next to me. I dived forward to catch him, but suddenly, my feet couldn't hold me up and I fell, just as Luc had. I dull, but somehow still stinging pain was in my neck, and my lids were suddenly unimaginably heavy. My last thought was of Luc.

Cliffhangar... mwahahaha...

Christmas holidays are upon us and I should have way more time to write stuff. Please keep commenting (and guessing what's gonna happen!), it actually helps me update faster because I don't want to disappoint you guys and when you comment, I know that there are at least some people who are reading this story.

In other news, Star Wars: the Force Awakens trailer! Cross-guards on lightsabers!? What haveyou done, Disney?! Star Wars VII + JJ Abrams = LENS FLARES!

Next update will DEFINITELY be two weeks or less. You have my full permission to stop reading this story and leave me death threats if I don't.

Until next time :)