"What's going on here?!" Anne's voice boomed throughout the house. I quickly jumped away from Jace whose face was flushed.

   "Mum! Jake was the one that answered the call." I heard Jack defend himself while Jake said something that wasn't audible. I quickly slipped out of Jace's room and saw Anne scolding the twins. In Jake's hand was my phone and I shook my head. I quietly tip-toed to my room and closed the door behind me.

   What am I doing?

   I had a mission to worry about and there I was, a breath away from doing heaven knows what. The bed bounced as I face planted on it but sir Antonio had other plans as I felt the familiar sensation of being sucked into the mattress.

   Sir Antonio stood anxiously behind his desk and as soon as he noticed my presence, he sighed.

  "Elena.." he started, his face was laced with a nervous expression. "Have you started your mission?" He asked. I froze in my spot as the question fell out of his lips. Do I tell him that I had barely acknowledged the mission or that I avoided thinking about the mission?

   "No sir." I replied. I bowed my head in shame and waited for him to express his disappointment but his next words surprised me.

   "Thank goodness." He breathed before taking a seat. I looked at him in confusion. He.. he was relieved that I haven't done anything.

   "It slipped my mind to give you the most important tool for your mission." He said before taking out a thin rectangular box. The brown box had inscriptions all over.. it looked foreign, like something that didn't belong in the midst of angels. I had a strange feeling that i wouldn't like whatever was in the box.

   Sir Antonio opened the box but I couldn't see the content because the cover was faced to me while he looked at the content of the box. "Things would've gotten messy if you didn't stall." He finally said turning the box to my direction. Inside the slim box was an equally slim dagger. The handle was golden with ancient inscriptions.

   My eyes wandered up to the tip of the blade and I wondered how sharp it was. I wondered what I'll use the the blade for when everything became clear.

   "This is called Lucem dantis. It was used in the past to bring balance to the world. Use this to complete your mission." He said and I opened my mouth to argue against the idea of killing a human being but he raised his hand. "Whoever is stabbed with this dagger doesn't die like humans and supernatural beings do. They are wiped from existence entirely, like they were never created. They cease to exist the minute they are stabbed."

   I felt myself sinking before I gasped for air and realized that it was already morning. What felt like a few minutes with sir Antonio was hours here on Earth. I looked at the box in my hands and shiver ran through my spine.

   On the good side, I could stop worrying about having blood on my hands but that was probably the only good side there was. I had to stab Jace. The guilt of that alone was eating me up inside but I knew that my mission was more important than any human feelings that was getting in the way.
****
   I sat in the cafeteria staring at the sorry excuse of food that was staring back at me. I pushed the tray away from me feeling my appetite leave me. The whole group was at the lunch table chatting about heaven knows what. I barely paid attention to what they were saying. My mind drifted to the box sitting at the bottom of my underwear drawer.

   "Hey." Oliver called softly, taking my mind back to the table. My friends looked at me curiously wondering why I spaced out. "I called you last night but I heard two amusing voices." He said chuckling.

   "Oh." I said recalling Anne scolding the twins for picking my call. "It's the twins. They got a hold of my phone." I explain and he nodded.

   I felt someone's gaze on me and accurately enough, Jace was staring at me. He quickly looked away when he noticed I caught him and he faced his food. His ears were red and I wondered if he was ill or something.

   "So guys, I was thinking.." Cole started and we all let out sounds of surprise.

   "You can do that?!" Luke exclaimed jokingly.

  "You guys are unbelievable." He huffed, "Anyway, I was thinking... Something was off yesterday." He said successfully gaining our attention.

   Jace's sharp gaze turned to Oliver, who raised his hands in surrender and left. Cole scooted closer to the group and lowered his voice.

   "It's just off you know. Think about it, Jace barely stepped far away from the garage when he met up with me and we didn't speak for more than five minutes." Cole said, "Five minutes is too small for someone to sneak into Jace's garage, cut the brakes and sneak out." Someone gasped and Laura looked at Jace's cast with a horrified look. It was then that we realized no one told her about what happened yesterday.

   "So what you are trying to say is that someone was already inside before I arrived with the car." Jace said and Cole shrugged.

  "I'm pretty sure you didn't look around the garage when you went in." Cole said looking pointedly at Jace.

   "But whoever it was wouldn't know that Jace was going to leave the garage before the match." Luke said and I recalled Celine's suspicious actions the previous day. Even the sudden call to Jace that was purely unnecessary.. you wouldn't say..

   "What if they did?" I suddenly said. Pieces started to fall into place and I widened my eyes in realization. "Guys.." my voice was barely above a whisper and four pairs of eyes were fixed on me. "What.. what if they knew Jace would get a phonecall? What if they knew that the call would buy them time?" I asked. Cole nodded rapidly in agreement.

   "Then whoever it is knows we know.. like they know that we have an idea of what the plan was going to be. They knew that I would be with the car all through and.. and they decided to distract me." Jace exclaimed fully understanding my point.

    "Wait a second.. there's an accomplice close to us?" Laura asked and Luke nodded. I remembered one suspicious event that suddenly made sense now.

    "Jace." I called and he immediately gave me his attention. "She said the twins were messing with her face. But.. they were asleep and there was no sign of make up or anything. They were colouring on their drawing books." I said and Jace furrowed his eyebrows whilst nodding.

   "So if the twins were asleep and she chose not to make her presence known till we were done talking about the next plan." Jace said slowly. By this time, the whole group caught on what Jace and I were trying to say. The bell rang signalling the end of lunch and the few students left in the cafeteria left. My eyes were locked with that of the one person that was always there at odd times, someone whose character was always suspicious. She smiled at me and waved and I forced myself to do the same.

    "It's Celine." I whispered. She's the insider.

******
    Is it hot or is it just me?😩 Did you know it was Celine all along?

Don't forget to drop a comment and share.

~Korisa💙