LAMIAE

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE: APOLOGY

"What do we mean by that?" asked the gray-haired man standing closest to Dagmara. His tone of voice didn't resemble the old man at all, it was robust and respectable.

Alan moved forward, and the crowd had to break the circle around the girls. She couldn't tell if he did it on purpose or not, but she felt a little safer.

Nikolai came so close to Alan that their fingers were almost touching, but Alan didn't even look at him. He was paler than usual, but other than that, nothing about his appearance had changed since they last saw each other at school.

"You are in a place I have not appointed, at an hour I have not set, and you are talking to those whose arrival I did not know about. I guess that means you're not welcomed. If this happens again, I will ask you to leave and come back at, as agreed 4 p.m., and you..." he turned directly to the girls "can you explain what you're doing here?"

Unfortunately, Dagmara didn't even have a chance to answer. Nikolai helped her, although he did it completely differently than she imagined:

"Dagmara wanted to see where you live."

Alan raised his eyebrow. She hoped that he didn't believe his friend, but when she heard his reply, she reluctantly admited that he trusted Nikolai' words:

"Next time, Dagmara," he hissed. "Let me know and I'll hire a tour guide so he can show you around my..." he paused for a moment, smiling venomously "estates."

She felt embarrassed and wanted to punch this self-righteous guy in the face. Some of the men started laughing, some looked at her indulgently, and only a few of the others looked at Alan closely.

And what was she supposed to do now but leave as quickly as possible? After all, she couldn't say in front of all those gathered that she only wanted to talk to Alan about a few issues that were important to her, and not visit his house like it was a museum or gallery.

"There's nothing for us here," Arleta muttered in her ear. As Dagmara only now noticed, she was still holding her arm from the moment they left the sofa.

"I'll take them to the exit," offered Nikolai, who somehow suddenly felt the need to lead the two girls out of the crisis situation. Of course, no one present objected to his declaration, and thank them for that, because she couldn't stand another humiliation that evening.

Nikolai said goodbye to the men and showed the girls where to go first. He followed them, looking back from time to time at what was happening in the room.

Dagmara was furious. She was furious with herself and the situation that had just occurred.

If something happened to her today, it was her choice. No one ordered her to go to Alan's apartment building, it was her own decision. But Arleta... she only went there because she didn't want to let her go alone. If something happened to her, she would blame herself, just as Casper still felt responsible for Victoria's death.

"What was that?" she asked indifferently, when they were sure they were at a safe distance from the men. "That voice I heard. The pain I felt. What was that?"

"Oh Dagmara," Arleta bit her lip. "I can't tell you, believe me, I would like to, but I can't."

"Okay," she replied dryly, deliberately turning her back to the girl. "And you, Nikolai, can you tell me why don't belong to the Council but you know them?"

"How do you know I don't belong?" he replied evasively. She thought he glanced at his pocket, where his cell phone probably lay. He must have considered asking Alan how much he could explain and what he should keep quiet about.

The girl stood, covering her eyes with her hands for a moment. She couldn't do this anymore, the guilt she had put on herself since the events in the room and the Council meeting suddenly evaporated. It wasn't her fault that she was trying to find out the truth. These events, situations, circumstances didn't happen without a reason - the skills Alan had, the cat's behavior... It was like magic. The magic that Alan mentioned in September.