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T h e H o l l o w s I n 
O U R F R E E D O M
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I yawned, tapping at the laptop that Jace had let me borrow. I was in the library once more, like I had been for the past forty-eight hours since the showdown—if you'd call it that—between Elle, Richard and I.

I still despised them for that.

I wasn't a stranger to rejection—it had just been so long since someone had underestimated me like that.

The quaint library in the nook of the, very big, house was my favourite place at the moment. Not only because I could escape the Beauforts, but because I could do extra research.

I hadn't really done much though; I think I was too caught up in what had happened forty-eight hours ago. Jace noticed this, and told me to distract myself with other matters.

So he gave me the laptop, and I was now contacting Clara, Sapphire's Guardian who had stayed at our second base, awaiting our new team. Sapphire and Jonah had brought over reports from Clara—private investigations she had done to find out who were traitors and who were not.

She had cleared the following names:

Toby Espan
Jack Storrey
Tina Bline
Kathy Scott

Only four names.
And only two were familiar.

We had Toby Espan, the scoundrel that Sky somehow befriended. I could be slightly biased on my opinion though, only because his brother was such a turd.

Then we had Jack Storrey, Jameson's closest friend since he joined the Academy. It was a weird pairing; the thriving warrior Guardian, assigned to the Special One with the highest vulnerability rate to date, and the...guy who fixes motorbikes.

Though, I must give Jack way more credit than I do—he was our escape plan, or, was meant to be. Jack's part in the plan was to provide us with the transport to leave the Academy. It was supposed to happen at 12:05—but we encountered some...problems.

We hadn't heard from the pair of them since the mission, and so I was grateful to hear of their existence.

I didn't really know, however, who the following girls were. I guess this is where we start to open our doors to people we don't know, but who are not traitors.

I recognised Tina's name from training, and so I knew she was a Guardian, I didn't however, recognise the final name.

I quickly composed a reply to Clara, telling her to bring them to our second base, ready to join our mission—roughly on the tenth of February.

That gives us a week.
That gives me a week—a week to either persuade Richard and Elle, or run away from this stupid house.

"Hey, stranger."

I didn't jump at the sudden voice, but I was acutely startled.

Okay, I jumped.
Discretely, though.

I turned in my seat, seeing Sky enter the room. She grinned at me, her heeled boots clipping against the floor as she walked.

I slowly closed the laptop screen behind me and smiled at her.

"How's my favourite Alexi?" She asked, leaning against the table.

I gasped, mocking shock, "you know more than one?" Sky laughed, shaking her head, her eyes meeting the table suddenly.

She frowned at all the documents. She was silent for a few minutes, then she sighed. "Bria told me about what happened with you, Richard and Elle. And then Richard proceeded to tell me, too." Sky cast her eyes upwards, her eyes displaying a look of torment.

I think she was torn between sides.

"Yeah, well, not everyone has a favourite Alexi." I quipped, pushing myself off the seat, walking away from the table and to the windows, where I strung up the curtains, revealing a beautiful orchard.

"Lexi, this is my plan as much as yours—I want to help."

I closed my eyes, since she could not see me, to contemplate this.

Then I sighed, opening my eyes and spinning around, jumping into my explanation.

"Okay, we knew something was wrong, and we could only guess that it wasn't an accident, but now...but now this is proof?" She asked at the end of my explanations, holding up the two documents I had given to her to show the details.

I nodded. "And we can't just sit around here and wait for the answers. That's not how anyone figures anything out. Plus, if we wait, they will find us before we find them."

Sky's expression turned grave for a few moments.

"Then we need a plan."

I opened and closed my mouth for a few seconds before I realised what she had said. "No, my love, what we need is to get out of here; we don't have time for planning."

Sky scrunched her nose up at my response. "We planned the first time around, and anything could've happened to us then—if the Academy found out we were planning to run away..."

"Okay, but look how that turned out." I responded, filling in her gaps as I referenced the fire we had all nearly perished in.

Sky rose an eyebrow, using her finger to gesture around as she said, "not our fault."

I huffed, trying to consider her idea for a few moments.

"Come on, Lexi, would you rather leave and have to camp somewhere until we find another stable place?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"As a matter of fact, Sky, we probably will end up doing that; we need to stay on the move." I watched as Sky narrowed her eyes at me, before she finally relaxed and exhaled.

"I'm getting Jameson."

"Oh, no you don't." I said, rushing after her and grabbing her arm as she went to leave. She threw an annoyed glance at me. "We don't need a man to help us make this choice! We were doing perfectly fine." I even added a smile on the end of my sentence. Alas, Sky didn't really care.

She rose an eyebrow, "right, and arguing over whether we should camp or not is 'doing perfectly fine'?"

I drew back, "that was your idea."

Sky huffed, rolling her eyes and fleeing the room before I said anything else.

Damnit.
Not only is Jameson annoying, but he actually hates me—so he's more annoying.

Soon, Sky whirled back into the room once more, her sunshine locks floating around her.

She was followed by not one, but two men.

Lord, give me strength.

I relaxed by a large margin, however, when I saw that the second man was Jace. He gave me one of those weird nods, but I saw the smile on his lips. That gorgeous–

"–Lexi."

I jolted slightly, before realising that everyone was looking at me.

"That is my name." I joked, not a stranger to attention.

I was a stranger, though, to my currently blushing cheeks, which I disguised by leaning over the table and uselessly tidying up the sheets.

Whilst I did this, Sky explained the 'problem' to Jace and Jameson. To be fair, I was glad that we were doing this right now; I feared that we would never leave.

Jameson was currently leaning over the table, palms pressed against it. He was mulling over the ideas I kept throwing at him, looking troubled.

"We just don't have enough Guardians." He said, before withdrawing from the table and swearing under his breath. As Sky tended to his anger, Jace spoke up.

"I have an idea."

We all turned to stare at him.

I didn't want to say what we were all thinking. Thankfully, Jameson did.

"No offence, but you haven't exactly had the training for this kind of stuff." He remarked, and I could tell he was trying to keep the bitterness from his voice. He didn't do a very good job, though.

Jace ignored him, and instead focused on Sky and I as he started to explain his idea. "What if we just split this team up? We have a field team and a...team that stays here."

It was a simple idea, one I had thought was too simple when I created the idea myself.

I didn't dismiss it this time, though, and became silent as I pondered the possibility of it.

"Well, it's not stupid." I commented, being the first to break the silence. I ignored Jameson's eyeroll. "If we used a bigger group we could always split it in half. And to solve your Guardian troubles, I'm pretty sure we have two on the way in ten days."

Jameson exhaled, pursing his lips and thinking about it.

"I like it." Sky commented, smiling up at Jace, who returned the favour. I tried to ignore the pang in my stomach.

"Lexi?" Jameson asked, making me tear my eyes away from Jace and Sky.

It took me a while, but I nodded silently.

Jameson frowned, probably finding it out of my character, but finally sighed.

"Okay, that's our new plan."

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Is it just me or is Jameson boss man

And Jace just actually like made a plan so babe if all my characters die IM BLAMING IT ON YOU FGS CLARKE, EVERY TIME

anyway

Jace was kinda sweet in this chapter
Idk how
Just

anyway

Lexi and Sky doing the friend thing??
Doing the arguing thing??
Doing the planning thing???
Jace and Jameson (the only two men I need in my life) ❤️❤️ ?

-lmao it's J+J (OMG THEY SHOULD START A BANNNDDD)

FABULOUS SONGS

Songs that played when I was writing this chapter (in order):
Oh My My - Ruelle
Spectrum (Say My Name) - Florence + The Machine
Halcyon - Ellie Goulding
Heart Heart Head - Meg Myers
Secrets and Lies - Ruelle
Little Dreams - Ellie Goulding
Mirror - Ellie Goulding
Wish I Stayed - Ellie Goulding
Her (Loving You) - Glades
Orion's Belt - Sabrina Claudio
East of Eden - Zella Day

END OF FABULOUS SONGS

Date written:
18/04/18
19/04/18 (sequel anniversary 😉)

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Next update: Wednesday
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CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR SPOILER:

A new mission.

A new opportunity to grasp onto freedom.