Fuck was the word that entered my mind as I stared up at the gray-haired stranger in front of me. I am so fucked.

He looked to be a man that was in his fifties, if not a tad bit older. He had a surprising amount of hair on his head, a slight mustache to go along with it, and bushy eyebrows. He had wrinkles covering his face that revealed his true age. He was sitting on a large golden throne, with gold rings on each of his fingers. He was also wearing a piece of gold around his neck, tied by a golden chain.

I almost laughed, thinking of the hallways I had just walked through. I'd say this man is a gold addict.

Surrounding him were many, many, guards that were wearing more protective armor than the ones I had fought outside, with better weapons too.

I had a feeling that trying to fight such a largely protected group on my own, wouldn't work out in my favor.

Which meant I needed a plan.

"Evanna Leroy," my eyes narrowed at the fact that this man knew my name, "an operative for King Magnus, no doubt. One of his," his mouth snarled, "chosen ones. Yes?"

I blew the hair that had fallen in front of my eyes out of the way and made no attempt at answering. I was too busy formulating a plan to get out of this mess, while still being able to succeed in completing the given mission. Which was to kill this man.

He chuckled at me as he looked me up and down, "I've been told you have the skill of murder. That you could kill ten gifted generals with just a cold glare. Tell me, Evanna Leroy, is it true? Can you kill me with a simple look?" He raised his eyebrow at me, obviously not believing the rumors himself.

I smirked, "Would you like to find out?"'

Both of his eyebrows raised at my comment and he chuckled. "A feisty one, are we? Well, miss Leroy, I have another question for you. Are you alone on your invasion into my luxurious home?"

I rolled my eyes, "Did you see anyone else fall through the ceiling?" I lied. I didn't want them going after Raaz. Raaz was fantastic at using his power of disguise, but he wasn't the best fighter. Which just happened to give me an idea. "I have a deal that I can make with you sir."

He once again raised one of his eyebrows and smirked,"Do you now? Well, I don't wish to hear yours."

My breath caught in my throat.

"Because I have one that I'll actually agree with."

I let the air out in relief. I could work with this.

"I will let you go, if, you send a message King Magnus's way," I raised an eyebrow at him, "Tell the king that I know his secret and it will be coming out. No matter what happens to me."

Secret? I knew King Magnus had secrets, however, as his chosen ones, all of his secrets were divided up between us, which we shared with each other. Or so I thought.

"You must also leave this place peacefully, and never return," he made direct eye contact with me, "I'd recommend taking this offer miss Leroy, it's not every day I give invaders a choice to escape," he looked me up and down once more, "you have two minutes to decide."

Perfect, just the right amount of time. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I saw the words spell out in the darkness of my closed eyes. I was sending Hugo a message through the same system in my brain he had used to send me the blueprint.

A quiet ding went off in my mind, telling me the message had been received. Within seconds a different message appeared before my eyes: Done.

"Your time's up," my eyes shot open, "a decision must be made, take the deal," he smirked, "or die in this very room."

I took a deep breath, hoping everything was done in time, "I'll take it."

And then I ran out of the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I turned the corner and hastily looked around. I saw a ledge that outlined the highest part of the wall. I had somewhat noticed it the first time I had been in the room but had not deemed it important. Oh how that had changed.

I clenched my fists and felt a power wash over me as my head jerked up and the enhanced ability to jump high overwhelmed me, allowing me to jump up onto the ledge. I grunted as I landed and quickly crouched down as I saw the servant hallway door swing open and the guards from the throne room run around the corner.

Standing right in front of them was me. Well, Raaz, who had disguised himself to look like me.

Hugo had gotten the message through just in time.

"Evanna Leroy", the man yelled from inside the room I had been in moments before, "when I said to leave peacefully, I meant with guards, not on your own accord."

The guards gripped look-like-me-Raaz's arm and dragged him out of the room, leaving it empty once again.

I slid across the ledge until I was right in front of the servant hallway doors and jumped off, flipping myself around in the air and landing without a sound. I pushed my hair out of my face and quickly, but quietly, opened the heavy doors and entered the hallway.

I breathed heavily as I walked through the dimly lit hallway. There were doors on either side of me as I walked, but I didn't stop or even think of entering them until I got to the very end of the hallway where a giant door stood. I pushed the door open and smiled in triumph. The blueprints were right, the hallway led right to the kitchen.

I walked fully into the room and took note of how it was completely vacant.

There were no cooks or servants of any type in sight.

My eyebrows raised and I clenched my fists, letting the energy that surrounded me drop, searching the area for any hidden, living thing.

While I waited I took in what the kitchen looked like. Similar to most of the things I saw here, almost the entire kitchen was made of gold. It was extremely fancy for a kitchen. It had five different fridges and eight different stoves and ovens. I could only imagine it was because of how many people they had to feed, with how many guards they had and all.

I paused my looking around and breathed in deeply as the energy flung back.

There was someone else in the room.

And they had weapons.

oooooo who's hiding?

I hope y'all enjoyed chapter two of Chosen! I should be updating it more from now on bc I have more of schedule

xoxo

Sara