Lavender & Fire

31. Rahn's POV

Rahn's POV.   12 hours earlier.

"Why can't you tell me what's going on?" Rahnn asked Butok.

"Because you don't need to know."

"How do I not need to know? You guys specifically made me accept this invitation, one that I would have gladly accepted anyway, but yet you also only let me send one short sentence and didn't want me to send anything else. That doesn't make any sense."

He just shrugged.

"And now here I am, on the day of the event and I'm just supposed to go on this date like normal? Why did you even get involved in the letter between us anyway if you weren't gonna give me any instructions or anything?"

"Like I said, you don't need to know."

"You don't need to know either." Rahn sighed.

He shrugged again. "Maybe. It doesn't matter. All that matters is that they wanted you to go, so you go."

"I would have gone anyway! Now, instead of going and enjoying myself, I'll be all anxious and wondering what in the world is going on. Don't you think that will be noticeable and will hinder whatever objective they have?"

At that, he chuckled. "Maybe just get there early then and spend a little time with your boy toy. I'm sure he can relax you."

She scoffed. "Men."

She sighed and made sure her voice spoke more calmly this time. "Seriously, Butok. Is there anything you think that I should know? We are friends, right? Am I in danger? Or anything like that?"

"Friends?" He raised a brow muscle at her. "I'm sure you will be fine. Now, go get home and get ready. You don't wanna be late for your big date."

Three hours later, Rahn was dressed and had a light amount of makeup on her face and a simple necklace on. She rarely got the opportunity to dress in anything extravagant. As she looked at herself in the mirror she decided maybe it wasn't such a terrible thing to do on occasion. Sometimes she wished she had the opportunity to do it more often. Not every day, but just special occasions. Maybe one day she would go on an actual date. When a certain male popped into her mind at the idea, she quickly squashed it down.

As she went to leave her dwelling, Huko was there waiting on her doorstep. "What now?" Rahn asked.

"We couldn't let you go without your jewelry." Huko held up the ornate earpiece Rahn had worn previously.

"It doesn't exactly match." Rahn countered and Hutok just shrugged. "Fine." Rahn took the earpiece from her and placed it in her ear before removing the necklace she had put on, since they didn't go together.

When she arrived at the Grand Hall, she let out a sigh as she spotted Thuq. The sigh was mixed with relief at finding him alone, but also anxiety that now the game would begin, and she wasn't holding all the cards. She wasn't holding any cards, in fact. She hated going in completely blind.

When Thuq saw her, she immediately put her hand up to her ear. Making sure he noted that the same earpiece, disguised as jewelry, was being worn. When Huko had showed up outside of her house as she was leaving, demanding she wear it, it took all within her not to pummel her for answers. But Lana wasn't supposed to be able to pummel anyone. She did make sure to give her a piece of her mind though, before the female took off. Of course, she didn't seem to care.

She was relieved when Thuq made it a point to lower his voice, sounding more like Kahal. She had to hand it to the man, he was able to match the way he spoke almost perfectly. She guessed that had to do with years of working directly with him.