BreeTico – As you know, I have a distinct love for snarky, sarcastic heroines. (: And of course the parent has to step in and ruin what could very well be a perfect moment! It's what they do! Haha (:
Guest (AwesomeSauce220?) – I'm assuming that this is you, AwesomeSauce220, since the sign off was the same. But you know what they say about making assumptions…. Anyway! Yes, Emily isn't clueless, she's actually a thinker, but she still tends to overanalyze things. Don't tear up! Thanks for the review. (:
supernatural94 – I love them, too!
Complete Chocoholic – Well I'm glad you liked this last chapter. As I said before, Derek's family is a little more lax on the rules (for instance, they follow the Don't Date rule, but they don't force their kids to follow the line of business, though it is highly suggested.)
The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.
6: Family Matters
I woke up feeling like I'd been run over a car. How was it possible for me to feel this way just because I wasn't in contact with my imprinted soul mate? My imprinted soul mate. Just the thought alone was enough to make me roll over and reach for my cell phone to see if he texted me. The hope of seeing him was enough to make me push through it, if not forget about it for a few seconds. Even if my mouth felt like cotton and my entire body was sore, muscles screaming just like they had been last night.
Last night. God, that was borderline awful. After I had seen Derek off, I'd returned to the living room to find my mom sitting on the couch where I'd been sitting with Derek only moments before. She had directed me to sit down, where she thoroughly questioned me about him. I tried my best to get away from her with vague answers because I couldn't explain how I'd allowed him close enough to me to let him into the house during the wee hours of the morning. And worse, I couldn't tell her his age, his birthday, or even if he had brothers and sisters. After telling her that I just didn't feel all that well, she let me retreat my bedroom with a warning that she would finish her questioning later.
I picked up my phone, hoping to see a text message from him. Knowing that he was on his way (probably) to take away my withdrawals made them a little more bearable. I didn't have any text messages, though, and I was almost sure that I felt my heart sink a little bit. Right as I was about to set it down, and I gave myself the proper moment of thinking that I truly was psychic and had somehow sensed the incoming message, the screen lit up the phone vibrated in my hand. I'M OUTSIDE. I smiled to myself before realizing that I had just woken up. My hair was bound to be a mess and I needed to brush my teeth.
Quickly, I typed back a message: GIVE ME FIVE MINUTES. It was probably a good thing that I had decided to take a shower last night after Derek left, to help calm me down. Lavender is said to have some dreamy-sleep qualities. Or did it attract men? I couldn't remember, but at least I smelled fresh. And attracting men couldn't be that bad, right? I only wanted to attract one man in particular, and I was hoping that the smell of lavender was his kryptonite.
I tossed the phone onto my bed and made myself get up, ignoring the cries of pain in my joints as I pulled on a black knee-length skirt and searched for the black camisole that had lace on the top. I knew it was around there somewhere. Finally, I found it and pulled it over my head, layering it under a white V-neck. I quickly brushed my hair out and twisted it into a messy side braid that hung over my shoulder. I reached for my foundation and powder, dabbing on a little eyeliner and mascara. I rushed to the bathroom and quickly brushed my teeth, unsure if the feeling in my stomach was hunger or withdrawals.
I slipped my ballet flats on and grabbed my purse, making sure that I had my wallet and ID. I even threw in one of my whiteboards, which barely fit, and a handful of markers. I tossed my phone into the bag and flung it over my shoulder. I started towards the stairs before realizing that, like most mornings, I went to work with my mom. My official shift was either between eight and twelve or four and eight, but I usually spent all day there. I didn't have anywhere else to go. It was the same reason my mom usually hung around when someone else wasn't working. I couldn't be there alone. Today, my shift was the evening shift, which meant that I was technically free until four this afternoon. But my mom would be waiting for me this morning, and she would be beyond livid if I wasn't waiting for her and had disappeared without explanation.
Clearly, I hadn't thought things through. I came to a complete stop a few stairs down and whirled back to my bedroom, picking up another one of the whiteboards that I kept in there. I quickly left her a note saying that I had morning plans with Derek and that I had my phone on me. I slid it onto the counter next to the coffee maker as quietly as I could. I could hear my mom in the shower in her bedroom, but I didn't bother to tell her I was leaving because she would only ask questions. This way, I could get away from her and have a little time to form my answers.
I flung open the door and saw Derek leaning against the side of a black muscle car. I couldn't really identify it; cars had never really been an interest for me. But I knew that it was old and classic. My eyes couldn't focus on the car for long. Instead, they shot to the guy leaning against it, booted feet crossed. He wore another pair of dark jeans that fit him just right and a dark hunter green long-sleeved shirt with the cuffs rolled up to his elbows. Just like yesterday, the few buttons at the top of his shirt were pulled open to reveal the smooth skin of his chest and throat. Derek had a smile on his face as his eyes drifted down from my face to my feet and back up. He uncrossed his arms and started towards me.
We met halfway on my sidewalk. His hands cupped my face, which I had figured was usual for him (and I honestly kind of liked it, with his big hands and the gentleness he just exuded.) His thumbs smoothed over my cheeks as I instinctively leaned into him. My eyes closed, and I was pretty sure that he had closed his eyes, too. After a moment of standing there in perfect relaxing peace, Derek dropped his hold on me and stepped back. His fingers reached for mine, his eyes scanning my face as if he was asking permission.
Almost immediately, I thought that I felt something press against my mind. It was a weird feeling, sort of like someone was pressing against my skull without actually touching me. It was like it was on the inside of my head instead of a touch on my hair. My first thought was to push it away, but my body reacted in an opposite direction, opening up to the force. The moment that it weaved its way in, though, I realized that it had to be Derek. I took a step back from him.
"Are you in my head?" I hissed. How did he do that? He hadn't mentioned that he would literally be in my head.
He nodded, mouthing his words to me. "We're significants. We can do things with each other that can't be done between other people. One of the things is that I can get into your head and you can get into mine. In a few days, we should be able to talk to each other in our minds."
"Seriously?" I breathed. I had accepted everything else so easily. This was just… a breach of security, in my mind. Literally, in my mind. I had readily believed that I had found the love of my life, that Derek was my soul mate, and that I couldn't live without him after only a few points of proof. But I wasn't so sure that I would have accepted the same terms if I'd known he could read my thoughts. What if he saw what was in there and didn't like it? What if he thought that his imprint with me was a huge mistake and hated me for it? I felt a little bit of panic rise in my chest. It would be just my luck to be offered something only to have it ripped away.
"Emily," he said, reaching out to me. In my mind, I said that I wanted to pull away from him. But, as had become custom for me, a part of me was on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, saying that all I wanted to do was lean into him. In any case, he dropped his hand, giving me a slightly sad look. "There are a lot of things you still don't know. And I don't know how to tell you everything at once. It's just a lot of information that I can't cover here. That's why we're meeting my family today."
I narrowed my eyes at him. I guess it wasn't really the thought of him being in my head, which I sort of liked and sort of thought was an invasion of privacy, but it was the prospect that there was more I didn't know about. I took a deep breath and was sort of embarrassed to hear that it was shaky. Derek did things to me that no one else could, from making me elated to see him to making me want him to making me beyond nervous. Derek reached out for me, his hands touching my wrists. In a move that was incredibly intimate and very pleasurable, he ran his hands up my bare arms to the sleeve of my shirt and back down to my wrists. Goose bumps erupted down my spine and my arms, and Derek gave me a tiny smile. I could easily imagined him chuckling right then.
I gave him a glare punctuated by a smile and sighed, "Okay, let's go meet your family." They promised answers. And if I was being honest with myself, I was kind of excited at the prospect of it all. It was definitely time for me to stop overanalyzing, as I was prone to doing, and just go with the flow for once in my life. I needed to step back and let fate or destiny or whatever cosmic laws that ruled the universe take care of my life, if only for a little while.
I looked down at what I was wearing and then back up to him. "Do I need to go change?" I figured that my black and white combo looked casual and cute. In retrospect, I realized that Derek and I tended to dress a little alike with dark clothes. We also looked pretty uniform together, since both of us had black hair and a slightly tanned skin tone. I couldn't help but wonder if it was in the creepy way that suggested that we were a pair made in heaven or if we were awkwardly close siblings. I could only hope for the former and try to completely erase the latter. It was not a pretty picture in the least.
"No, you look great," Derek replied, taking my arm and leading me to the car.
"What happened to your bike?" I asked him as he opened the door for me. I sat down on the long bench seat and glanced up at him. He leaned in the doorway, one hand on the roof of the car and the other on the door.
His breath was warm on my cheek as he spoke, and I focused on his lips. "It's at the house. I didn't know if you would like it or not, and it gets kind of cold on the back of one." He said. He patted the roof of the car, and even though it had been years, I still marveled at the fact that I couldn't hear it. He gave me one of his decidedly dazzling smiles and stepped back from the door, closing it behind me. I buckled myself up and watched him as he walked around the front of the car. He even had a sort of swaggering walk to him that I found attractive. And it didn't help that I blushed and barely held back a laugh at the word swagger.
He slid into the car next to me and twisted the keys which were dangling in the ignition. The car rumbled to life underneath me, and Derek paused to throw a grin in my direction. I smiled back and leaned against the seat. I sort of wanted to ask him about the car, just so I could have a reason to look at him. But any questions of mine would have to wait.
We drove for nearly thirty minutes. About halfway through our drive, my mom had texted me and said that we would have to talk when I got to work that afternoon. I wasn't sure if she was upset with me for leaving or for not telling her about my plans with Derek last night, but I didn't want to think about it just yet. So instead I leaned up against the door and watched as Chicago flew by.
We entered a nicer neighborhood and I sat up a little straighter. Derek lived here? I mean, my house wasn't awful, but this was where really rich people lived. There was even talk of making it a gated community up at the front entrance since it was so swanky. I glanced over at him with eyes the size of saucers. I didn't say anything to him, and I had the distinct feeling that he was pretending not to see me staring at him, completely agape.
Derek continued down a few streets and rolled up to a house. The front driveway had a huge wrought iron gate across it. It was a lot taller than the car, the top of it pointed and decorated with filigree lacing through the bars. The rest of the gate was just bars going straight down. All except for the middle, which was curved in a circle. In the very center of the circle was what looked to be a three-pointed flame. If I took a knife and cut it in half, it would be symmetrical on either side. I stared at it, feeling like I'd seen it before. I just couldn't pinpoint where.
Derek rolled down his window and reached out to punch a number into the keypad right next to him. He brought his arm back into the car and started rolling up the window as the gate pulled open, the entire thing moving sideways into the wall right next to it. Derek waited until the gate was completely open before nudging the car forward.
From the street, I couldn't really see the house. The gate and surrounding stone walls were too high to see over, and at the top there was a line of trees. Inside the gate, though, I could see the house perfectly. It was modernized with a hint of a cottage style. It was huge with sharp corners and big windows, painted the color of adobe. Wooden shutters hung on the either side of every window. It was at least two stories. The driveway was made out of what looked to be a bunch of orangey-yellow bricks. It led up to a garage that had three wooden doors, but there was also a path that led behind the house. Derek took the path that led away from the house.
In the distance, I could see another garage. It was long and looked more like it was housing for a family of elephants. There were three large wooden garage doors. The entire thing was built to look like a miniature copy of the house. Derek reached over to me. At least, I thought he was reaching for me. But he was just reaching for the glove compartment at my knees. He opened it up and I saw that there were around five garage door openers taped to the inside. They were all lined up and had different colored tape on them. Derek pressed one of them and the corresponding door opened up. Derek pulled the car into the garage while I gaped at the fancy car he was parking next to. It was newer than the one we were in, silver in color, and had numbers and letters to tell me what it was. Derek opened his car door, but I stayed glued to my seat.
I whispered out a few words that my mom would probably be glaring at me for. But I couldn't help it. How the heck did he live over here and have all these fancy cars in his three hundred garages? I mean, my parents had been pretty well off, but it wasn't anything like this. My mom drove a Honda that had been pre-owned, not one of the fancy BMW's or Mercedes that were bound to be in Derek's garage. And now I wasn't just panicked over the fact that they were his family, apparently going to be like my future in-laws, but they were also rich. Rich kids were always snotty. Their parents weren't much better. But if Derek wasn't like that, then that meant that I should be okay, right? But then again, I didn't know Derek all that well. And following that train of thought, what was I doing here? I was insane to agree to come to his house! What if he decided to suddenly turn around and tell me that he was a serial killer or something?
I was panicking. I needed to get a hold on my emotions. I took a deep breath just as Derek opened the door. It flung open so hard that it almost hit the fancy car right next to it. I realized that he had one hand over his heart on his chest, as if it pained him. That's when I remembered that he had told me that he had my heartbeat in his chest. It had just been another thing that I had stored in the back of my mind for reviewing later and hadn't really thought about it since. There had been too much going on at the time. But that was sort of impossible, right?
But then again, nothing was impossible with these people.
Derek reached into the car, and for a split second I thought about scooting away from him. It was just the fear talking because I really didn't want to do that. And I didn't. I didn't even move. Derek ducked his head into the open doorway, one of his knees resting on the edge of my seat. One of his hands touched my chin, forcing me to look up into his eyes before darting to his lips.
"Emily, breathe. There's nothing to worry about here." I imagined that he said them calmly, with a touch of concern and an overwhelming amount of softness. But that was only what I imagined. As if he sensed that I needed a little more than that, I could feel him nudging at the corners of my mind. This time, I consciously opened up to him. I wasn't sure how he could do it, but I figured it was just one of those things that you picked up. As if my mind knew exactly what to do on its own, I pushed back.
The feeling was completely out of this world, something that I had never felt before and had never imagined I would feel. It was completely surreal, but it was there – I was reading him. I knew the basics of what he was feeling, and if I looked in a certain direction hard enough, I could get an image of what he was thinking about. And there, underneath it all, was the feeling of another heartbeat against mine, pounding in unison, a little scared but more excited. And I knew, almost instinctively, that it wasn't mine but Derek's.
I leaned back, pulling away from him and taking a deep breath simultaneously. Derek took a slightly staggered step back, as if he was shocked by something. Then a huge smile burst across his face as he looked down at me. "You did it!" He exclaimed, like I'd just won a coveted award or something. I found myself smiling back even though my eyebrows were drawing together on their own accord. "You connected with me. Mentally, of course," he added. "You're doing great. We should be talking to each other in no time."
"Talking to each other?" I repeated. Derek took a step back, allowing me to climb out of my seat. I gripped the top of the door as I got my feet underneath me. Brushing out the front of my skirt and tugging down the hem of my shirt, I glanced around the garage. Usually, garages have stuff other than cars in them, like bikes and tools and lawn equipment. Well, there were bikes. At least, a bike; Derek's bike. It was smooth and shiny, parked on the other side of the vintage car we'd driven here. Not exactly your neighborhood Schwinn. The rest of the garage was donated to housing a series of cars. The rest of the space was immaculately clean.
He reached out and tapped a finger on my forehead. "In our minds, remember? It's something that we can do with each other." My breath caught at that. He'd mentioned it earlier, but, like I was starting to believe that I'd been every single time he was telling me new stuff, I was overwhelmed with information and my ADD brain only picked out a few things here and there. Now, I forced myself to settle on this new (well, sort of) bit of information. I would be able to hear him? Was it like being able to hear his voice? He smiled at me, as if he knew the kind of excitement that I felt at being able to hear something again, let alone him. Or maybe he really did know. "Come on, let's go inside." He said, drawing me away from the car so he could close the door behind me.
Derek led me to a door. There was another line of garage door openers, one of which he pressed before stepping outside onto what I had already mentally dubbed as The Yellow Brick Road. As we walked, he reached out and slyly took a hold of my hand. But I didn't pull away from him. I didn't even try. It just felt right as we walked up the path and back around to the front of the house.
Derek nearly sped me right up to the door, as if he couldn't wait to get me into the house. I sort of liked the fact that he was so excited to introduce me to his family. Xavier had never really forced me to meet his parents and his brother. Derek, though, absolutely insisted on it. Part of it, of course, was that they could help explain what was going on to me. But I had the distinct feeling that there was a large part of him that wanted me to meet his family and be immediately welcomed into it.
As we headed up the front steps, Derek slipped his hand from my grasp to my waist. His fingers squeezed my side as we neared the front door. Right before we reached the doorway, he paused and turned to face me, his back to the door, blocking me from it. I looked up at him, aware of the fact that he was incredibly close to me. His arm was still around my waist, pulling me against him. His free hand brushed back a chunk of hair over my ear, trailing down to my neck, stopping once he reached the collar of my shirt, his hand resting on my shoulder. Our breath mingled between us as our eyes locked.
I got the distinct feeling that he wanted to kiss me. Or maybe I was just deluding myself into thinking that so I could boost my ego. I hadn't managed to get a really good read on him unless I was trying, and I wasn't trying right then. Still, my heart thumped over it. Should I, or should I not, kiss the guy who was my imprinted soul mate? Before I could make up my mind, Derek took a step back, nearly completely unwinding himself from me. His hand remained on my side as he shook his head and reached for the door, twisting the knob.
The door swung open and Derek leaned in, as if he was expecting a bunch of people to be standing right there. Instead, the front hallway was empty. My eyes took in the modern decorations – glass tables, brightly colored flowers, and intricate picture frames. We both stood there a little awkwardly on the front stoop until the door hit the wall behind it. The moment it did, people popped out of nowhere, like freaking ghosts in a haunted house or something. Heads turned around hallways and people moved forward as if they stepped out of the wall themselves. Everyone looked thoroughly excited. And I instinctively shrunk into Derek's side. He'd said that I was going to meet his family, and I'd imagined his parents and brothers and sisters, if he had any. But instead, it looked like a family reunion had convened in his house.
Derek's arm tightened around me. I felt his breath in my hair before his lips pressed against my temple. I did my best not to let my eyes flutter at it, but I definitely felt the warmth he gave me swirling around inside me. It was absolutely amazing, something that I could have never imagined, and I didn't think that I would ever get used to it. With that, he let go of me. I panicked for a half of a second until he reached out and grabbed my hand, leading me inside the house.
Everyone looked like they were speaking, but I wasn't able to understand any of them. A few of them talked too fast, some of them didn't form their words very clearly, and it wasn't like I could look at all of them at once. I could practically feel my head swimming over all the people gathered here. I found myself hoping that they all lived here and that they hadn't all come to see me. I was in no way shy or claustrophobic. The only reason I didn't talk as much as I used to was because I couldn't hear what was going on around me. Other than that, I was a completely a schmoozer. I had loved to mingle and had a large group of friends back in the day. It wasn't the people that I was worried about. It was the fact that they would all be happy for Derek, since apparently this was something really big, and they were going to find out that I was flawed and nothing like they had imagined for him. Derek was the type of guy you would either see with a tiny blonde or a lanky girl who fit easily into the "emo" section of the world. I fit neither description. And I was completely deaf.
I figured that Derek would have already told them that I was deaf. It wasn't exactly something that you kept secret. At least, I figured it wasn't. But by the way some of the people looked at me with confused expressions, like they were waiting for me to answer, I guessed that maybe some of them hadn't gotten the memo. And that just made things all the more awkward. I blinked as I looked around the room, finally focusing on Derek. I nestled as close as I possibly could, hoping that he could just smooth things over for me. I hated to already be depending on him to fix things for me, but I was so out of it and confused that I didn't have the courage to do it on my own.
Derek held up his free hand, stopping his family from saying anything else. I felt the rumble in his chest as he spoke, probably telling them exactly what I wanted them to hear. But I couldn't be for sure because I hadn't read his lips. After a moment of what seemed to be relative silence, I opened up my mouth to say something and blurted the first thing that came to mind. "I'm deaf!" Immediately, I was embarrassed and felt a little sick. A blush crept up my neck, coloring my cheeks. I dropped my gaze to the floor, gripping onto my bag as tightly as I could.
Looking down at my bag, I reached for the whiteboard I stuffed in there and dug around for the markers. I pulled them out. The moment they were out in the open, I felt Derek chuckling. Most of the family looked like they had already knew that little tidbit of information, and they gave me the same look Derek had – that they thought it was unfortunate that I had to deal with it. But some of them seemed completely taken aback by it. I tried not to let myself linger on them and instead, I looked up at my significant, a grin plastered across my face even though I felt like this was one of the most awkward things that had ever happened to me in my entire life. And that was nineteen years of awkwardness.
I handed the board to Derek, who took the markers and started making introductions. I read the name and the person in question held up the board so I could try to match their names to their faces. I met Derek's parents, who insisted on me calling them by their given names – Victoria and Robert. I met Derek's two sisters and two brothers. In their birth order, they ran: Carissa, Zach, Derek, Jack, and Madison. After that, names went in a blur as I met aunts, uncles, cousins, and his grandparents. I couldn't begin to remember all of them. They even told me about some of their abilities. Derek's mom could converse with animals and his dad was a whiz with anything that had an engine. One of his aunts could change the color of objects, which she proclaimed was lame but I still thought was pretty awesome. I was so blown away by all of it that I couldn't even remember everything else, much less stand there and just read the board. My hands were shaking as I held it.
We had moved from Derek's front room to the living room, where I was granted a seat right next to my significant. Derek kept a hold of the whiteboard and wrote down almost everything for me, since apparently he had one of the best scripts in the family and wanted to ensure that he could explain things to me thoroughly.
Two hours later, and I had basically been given a crash course in the world of the Aces. I learned about the council that was in the process of being torn apart and being rebuilt by a girl a year younger than me who was like a queen to them. They called her the Visionary, and she belonged to basically the greatest clan, or family. I learned about their family reunion once a year in London called reunification. I learned about the basic laws of the families, the history of the Aces, and particularly the new imprints. Derek had told me that they were apparently more potent than they used to be, from abilities to strength to the tattoos on their wrists. I remembered where I had seen that flame on the front gate before. It had also been stamped onto the pendant Derek wore around his neck. Half of it was tattooed on the inside of Derek's wrist, and I would supposedly gain one later in the future, after the ascension. It was supposed to be the big moment of an imprinted couple; it was the time when the two of us would gain abilities, even me, even though I was a human.
I managed to keep my composure throughout all of it, even though it felt like my mind had been fried. Derek made sure that his arm was pressed against mine the entire time, keeping our healing bond open between us. Throughout the entire information vomit, he was holding his mind close to mine. I managed to make it through what felt like an entire year-long class on the basics of Aces, with the promises that I was going to learn even more in the future when the time came. I wondered what that was supposed to mean, but I was so tired and thrown off that I couldn't find it in me to ask about it.
I had to give up on the idea that Derek was crazy. He hadn't lied to me at all throughout all of this. The things that he had showed me had proved to be true. It would be absolutely stupid for me to believe that he was lying to me now, that he and his family had orchestrated something so big like this. And it was sort of wrong of me, too. Derek was my other half, my soul mate, and he deserved to be given every ounce of my trust. In all honesty, I think deep down I gave it to him from the very first moment, and I only forced myself to second guess him.
And even though I trusted him, I was still thrown off by the next words that were written down on the board. It was just something that I hadn't expected at all. Derek even looked nervous despite the fact that we pulled anxiety from each other as he handed me the board.
My father wants you to know one last thing. It's sort of important with the Aces. Once an imprint is made, the woman generally goes and lives with the man's family. They are usually married in a few weeks. I know that you aren't ready for marriage, you're only nineteen, and that's young in our world, too. But he wants you to know that you are always welcome to move in here, or even if you just need to crash someplace for a night or two. You are a part of our family now, Emily, and we'll always be here for you.
I swallowed hard as I read it. I'd known Derek Stanton for roughly twenty-four hours, and he was offering to let me move in. Actually, it was sort of like he was inadvertently asking me to move in. And I would be lying if I said that a part of me didn't jump at it. But that was my hopeless romantic side, saying that it was like magic to find my soul mate, and that I should go ahead and jump into our lives together since we were going to be forever anyway. But the rational part of me told me to take it down a notch. I was nineteen, yes. I was old enough to move out of my mother's house and start my life. But Derek was right – marriage was pretty much out of the question right now, and it hadn't even crossed my mind. I couldn't imagine jumping from barely knowing one another or not knowing each other at all to getting married. I had thought, initially, that it would be a thing where he and I would date first. And by what was written on the board, Derek had seemed to think that it would be the best call for both of us. The girly, whiny part of me said that maybe it was because he wasn't so sure that he liked me all that much, but the confident part of me said that he was thinking about me and my needs. And maybe, just maybe, he needed a little bit of non-marriage time, too.
"I…." I struggled to think of something to say. Derek gently took the board from my hands. He set it very carefully on the coffee table (glass, like the rest of the house) in front of us and turned to me on the couch. I had forced myself to keep both of my feet on the ground because I didn't want to put my shoes on the couch or even kick them off, but all I wanted to do was curl into Derek's side. He was promised comfort, even though a part of me said that this was so insane that I should've been dreaming.
But it's hard not to believe. Especially with the proof right in front of me.
If you hadn't noticed, I skipped a lot of dialogue when it came to explaining the rules and history of the Aces to Emily. Assuming that all of you have read all three books (the fourth comes out on December 18th, if you didn't already know) then you are well aware of the workings of the Ace world and I didn't want to linger on those things for too long. Just assume that Emily has a pretty wide knowledge on Aces by this time.
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Thank you for taking the time to read this. It really means a lot to me! It's because of you guys that I continue to write! Peace (: