Alya tossed the rest of her black coffee into the trash as she stepped out of the hotel.
Why did they make it so bitter?
She had only ordered it because she had read somewhere that drinking black coffee made people look mature and authoritative.
What a lie.
Still, the coffee didn't matter.
What mattered was that she had succeeded.
She had wanted to ask Rael to keep an eye on her brother for a while now but she hadn't known how to approach it without sounding suspicious or desperate.
So when she found out his group was heading out on a mission, she joined in. Not because the mission itself was dangerous but because the location was and she couldn't allow her brother to go to such a place alone.
But her abrupt joining also gave her the perfect excuse she needed and here, away from the academy, she finally spoke to Rael and convinced him.
What she hadn't expected was how easily everything fell into place… it was almost too easy.
