Chapter 9 - Masquerade

A group of young adults with superpowers team up to fight a villain from another world as well as other small villains. The Firlanna family throws a ball.

"Where were you?" Sasha asked sternly. She had a glare that could kill.

Amari and Azaria glanced at each other. "Just out on a mission, Aunt Sasha," Azaria explained.

"I understand that you have missions, Azaria, but why did everyone else go with you? I can't speak for Cael and Kethri, but I know that Amari isn't an assassin and therefore shouldn't be going out in the field."

Azaria hung her head as Sasha continued to lecture them, wishing that she would stop so she could go to bed but knowing that they wouldn't be hearing the end of it for some time.

The yelling went on for what seemed like hours. Kethri was reminded of a howler from Harry Potter. But finally, Sasha let them go. She was angry, but knew better than to ask where they’d been. She probably wouldn’t like the answer.

Azaria, Kethri, and Cael all went to get some sleep, but Amari wasn't tired anymore. Being told off somehow seemed to always wake her up. She wandered off to the kitchen in search of something to munch on and found Antain sitting there with a bowl of cereal.

"You're up early," she commented, going to the pantry.

Antain shrugged. "I see you survived China Doll," he said.

"China Doll?!" Amari turned around to look at him.

"Yeah...China Doll..." He said slowly. "She paid you a visit in the tree house and then you went missing." Amari gave him a confused look. "Wait," he said through a mouthful of cereal. "Do you not remember this?"

"No, and seeing as its China Doll, I'm glad I don't," she said.

Antain looked her over. "Glad to see you're alright, though. You know you had your mother worried sick," he said.

"Oh. Just my mother was worried?" Amari asked, raising an eyebrow.

"And Adamar. He was beside himself," Antain said, not quite looking her in the eyes.

Amari looked at him for a long moment. She could see right through him. "Nice to know you care, Antain," she said, patting his shoulder.

Antain smirked. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he said as he walked away.

. . . . .

The next month was spent in relatively the same way, day after day. Azaria and her brothers continued their work as assassins. Kethri and Amari went out almost every night as masked vigilantes. Cael did...whatever detective mojo Cael did. Kethri and Cael had pretty much moved in. Kethri was okay now, but Azaria hadn't kicked them out, so they just became another part of the house. As the next month came, the house started buzzing with activity. People were coming and going. The house was transforming with decorations.

"What's going on?" Kethri asked one day, pulling Antain off to the side.

Antain smirked. "Annual ball. It's a charity ball held every year here, in honor of Kayden and Aimerick."

"Kayden and Aimerick?"

Antain's face darkened. "Aimerick was one of my older brothers. Kayden was Amari's older brother."

"Was?"

"They were shipped off to war. The first ball was a going away party for them. They were killed in action before they could get a chance to come home." Antain's face brightened back up again. "It's also our only chance to get Amari and Azaria to be girls."

As if right on cue, Azaria came stomping through the foyer, glaring at everything. "What's with her?" Kethri asked.

Antain rolled his eyes. "This is Azaria's least favorite time of year. She hates being forced to wear a dress."

"Why?" Kethri asked

"Your guess is as good as ours," Amato said with a shrug, walking up behind them. "It's just the way she is."

Antain patted Amato on the shoulder. "I'm going to go taste test all the food for the party," he said, walking off towards the kitchen.

Amato looked over at Kethri and then at the ground. "Oh, yeah!" He said, as if he'd just remembered something. "I'm supposed to give this to you." He held out a piece of paper to her.

The paper was thick and off-white. It had frilly gold trim around the edges and similar gold writing. "You are cordially invited to the annual Veterans Charity Masquerade Ball, hosted by the Coreia family," Kethri read. "Coreia?"

"Firlanna is a pretty famous name," Amato explained. "We can't just brandish it around. Anything we do publicly is under Coreia."

Kethri shrugged and continued reading. "Saturday, June 10 from 8:00 pm until Midnight. A limousine will be sent to your residence to pick you up. R.S.V.P. by June 9 by calling Azaria Coreia at the number on the back." She flipped over the card and saw a phone number.

It took her a moment to process what she had just read. She stood frozen. She was going to a masquerade ball! "Eek!" She squealed. She threw her arms Amato. "Thank you!" She skipped off up the stairs to start picking out what she was going to wear. She she hadn’t picked up any ball gowns when they went shopping, but she could go online and find something. Maybe Azaria would buy her a dress. She couldn't see why not. She felt a little bad for costing so much, but then again, the Firlannas had a lot of money. And she'd have to find a mask, too. This was going to be so much fun!

Not even noticing what he was doing, Amato looked after her with a crooked smile.

"I saw that," Antain said as he passed through the room.

Amato shook his head. "What? What did you see?" He asked, chasing after Antain. "What's going on?"

. . . . .

The day of the ball couldn't come soon enough for Kethri. But finally, it did. She spent the afternoon at the mall, looking for a mask and dress. Amato had dropped her off and was supposed to pick her up later.

As she waited, she saw a limousine turn into the parking lot. It was midnight black and the windows were so tinted that you couldn't see in, and probably so dark that you couldn't see out, either. She looked at it wistfully. But who would take a limo to the mall? It was cool, but a bit excessive.

The limo rolled to a stop right in front of her. The chauffeur came around to open the door and out stepped Amato!

"Amato! What are you doing here?" Kethri asked, walking up to him.

"I came to pick you up," he said, matter-of-factly.

"Let me rephrase that - what are you doing here with a limo?

"I came to pick you up," he repeated with a laugh. "Everyone else going to the ball is getting picked up by a limo, so why not you?"

Kethri blushed a little. "Why thank you, Sir," she laughed, holding out her hand.

Amato took her hand and kissed her fingers. "Anything for you, My Lady," he grinned. Her blush deepened. He helped her into the car and then followed. The chauffeur shut the door behind them and drove off.

When they had settled in, Amato reached under his seat and pulled out a comic book. Kethri gasped. "Is that the new Deadpool comic?" She asked excitedly.

Amato looked at her, blinking. "You read comic books?" He asked.

"Yeah, totally! Whenever I can, at least." This one sentence launched them both into intense conversation that lasted the whole trip home.

When they got back to the house, they found Amari on the second floor, shouting up to Azaria on the third. "Az, get your butt down here! We only have two hours until the ball and there are a ton of preparations we still have to do. And I know you're dressed and ready because I saw my mom leave."

"Fine," Azaria huffed. She stomped down the stairs and froze when she saw Amato and Kethri, still deep in their conversation.

"What?" Amari asked, turning to see what she was looking at. "Uh oh, the nerds �" they're multiplying."

Azaria rolled her eyes. "At least now he has someone to geek out with instead of bothering me." She continued down the stairs.

Kethri broke off the conversation a while later, with the promise of returning to it as soon as possible. She really needed to get ready. Everything had to be perfect for the ball...

. . . . .

Azaria stood in the ballroom, greeting guests as they came in. She was wearing a long, sleek, lime green dress with her hair pinned back into an elegant French twist and wearing a simple, ridiculously sparkly mask, also lime green to match the gown she'd much rather not be wearing. Four guys in tuxes came out of the kitchen. "Well, don't you look dashing," she greeted them.

Antain tipped the doughnut he was holding as if it were a hat. "Thank you, ma'am." Cael, Adamar, and Amato stood across from him, looking towards him and the staircase that descended from the house. All three stood with their mouths open. "What? What's going on?" Antain asked. He turned around to see Amari and Kethri at the top of the stairs.

Amari was adorned in emerald green with a gorgeous dress that had a slit most of the way up her left leg and a flowing skirt that hung loosely around her legs until she moved. It was strapless and had a sweetheart neckline and a black broach above the slit. Half her hair was pinned up in loose flips that covered her head. The bottom fell in soft waves. She was wearing a silver mask made of wire that twisted into spirals around her eyes.

Kethri was decked out in glorious yellow. The skirt of her dress was slightly poofed out and hung from her hips. Silver edging went around the sweetheart neckline and crossed her chest. Matching edging held up another layer of her skirt that was draped from her waist and went halfway down the main part of her skirt. The top layer of her short hair was pinned back with bobby pins and she was wearing a silver and pearl flower comb that matched her mask, which was white with black flowers drawn on it and decorative off-white flowers between the eyes and on either side with pearl leaves coming out of the flowers on the right side.

The boys all looked on in awe. Antain looked like he was about to pass out. Cael cupped his mouth and wolf-whistled, causing Amato and Adamar to glare at him. Kethri and Amari posed together dramatically, showing off before descending the stairs gracefully. Kethri looked like she was gliding, which she very well could have been - the dress covered her feet. Amato walked up to Kethri and bowed. She curtseyed back, smiling. "May I have this dance, My Lady?" He asked, holding out his hand.

"Why of course, Sir," she laughed, taking it. He whisked her out onto the dance floor. Cael and Azaria followed them - he didn't even ask her, but it was implied, and he didn't give her much choice.

Antain moved to do something similar with Amari when a man came seemingly out of nowhere and snatched her hand up, bowing deeply. "Dance with me?" He asked with an obvious British accent. He came up from his bow and gave her a quick kiss on the lips.

Antain stood staring with his mouth open. He couldn't comprehend what he had just seen, so his befuddled brain turned to food for comfort. Sulking over to the snack table, he stood there, eating everything in sight. After the first dance was over, Cael walked over to Antain and put a hand on his shoulder. "That's rough buddy," he said, glancing over at Amari and the British guy, who were talking on the other side of the room while they waited for the next song to start. Antain fumed as he watched Amari only to have his anger grow when he saw and heard Amari's laughter.

"Who is that guy, anyways?" Antain asked with a scowl.

Cael shrugged. "I don't know. I've never seen him before. He's too normal to work at the circus and I haven't had a hit on him."

"Maybe you should have," Antain muttered under his breath.

"Should we start talking numbers?" Cael joked, only to have his jest go flat when Antain continued to scowl. "C'mon, man. Cheer up. Dance with somebody else to make her jealous."

At that moment, the band struck up another tune and the dancing started again. Antain's scowl deepened as he saw that the British guy had already grabbed Amari and started dancing. Cael left to grab a random girl who hadn't been asked to dance yet, leaving Antain alone with the food again.

Kethri and Amato also went back out for a second dance. A little bit in, Amato tried a fancy move that would have been amazing if it had succeeded. Instead it ended with Kethri pulling a butt-to-ground maneuver. "What was that?" She laughed.

"I was trying to be like Antonio Banderas," Amato said, blushing. He held out his hand to help her up. "I am so sorry," he apologized. He hadn’t expected her to be so light.

"It's okay," Kethri said. "I'm practically immune to falling. At least, as long as I remember to catch myself." She let Amato pull her up and they finished the dance.

The next dance, Cael went up to Azaria. "I need to show you something," he said. He grabbed her hand and pulled her out onto the dance floor and started dancing.

"What are you doing?" Azaria said accusingly.

"I knew that, if it was up to you, you wouldn't dance again. I had to make sure you did." Azaria scowled at him, refusing to answer. After a moment, Cael spoke again. "Ah, this brings back so many memories," he said. "This is where we had our first civil conversation, remember?"

Azaria rolled her eyes. "How could I forget? You crashed my party."

"That party was begging to be crashed," Cael said with a grin. "Besides, I saved your life."

"I could have handled it," Azaria protested.

"I'm sure you could have," Cael said, pulling her to a dip that effectively ended any and all kind of conversation for the rest of the dance. Cael was whirling her around too much for her to be able to answer.

Antain finally managed to get Amari for a dance a couple songs later. "So, who's the new guy?" He asked as they spun around the dance floor.

"Connor," she answered simply. Any more than that and she'd never see the poor boy ever again. Azaria and her family could be a little overzealous when it came to checking out new dates.

"And what's so special about him?" He scoffed.

Amari stopped dancing. "Now listen here. I like Connor a lot, and you are not ruining this for me. I'm dating him and that's final. So stop sulking."

"I'm not sulking!" Antain protested, his voice rising. "How come you never introduced him to us?"

"Because of this!" Amari shouted, her face red from blushing, frustration, and anger. "Because of the interrogations and the background checks. Because you don't know how to leave me alone!" With that she stormed off back towards Connor, taking his hand and kissed him deliberately. Antain stalked off in the other direction, steam almost literally pouring out his ears.

Antain stayed off by himself for the rest of the night, watching Amari and Connor darkly. Because he was watching so closely, he noticed when Connor, standing in the group of people that had gathered at the bottom of the stairs to say goodbye, knelt down in front of Amari. It looked like he was pulling something out of his pocket. "No, I refuse to let this happen," he growled. He moved silently through the crowd, drawing on his assassin training.

Seemingly, he came out of nowhere and grabbed Connor, who was kneeling down to tie his shoe, pulled him up, whirled him around, and punched him in the jaw.

The crowd was shell-shocked. Connor stumbled back, rubbing his injury, which was bright red and steadily turning purple. "What'd you do that for?" He asked.

"I am not going to let you propose to her!" Antain shouted.

"Propose to her?" Connor yelled back. "What gave you that bloody idea?"

This time it was Antain's turn to step back. "Well, that's what it looked like," he said defensively.

"Well, I wasn't. I was tying my shoe."

"What's going on here?" Azaria stepped out of the crowd.

"Your brother just came out of nowhere and punched Connor," Amari explained, her voice laced with anger.

Azaria sighed. "You...and you...out!" She pointed first at Antain, then at Connor, and then at the door. "Go cool off, both of you." Connor and Antain glared at each other, but Azaria and Amari were glaring back, and neither felt inclined to face the wrath of the two girls. The crowd dispersed and everyone went home, conversations buzzing, leaving Azaria and Amari alone in the ballroom.

Amari paced back and forth around the floor, spluttering incoherently. "Amari, calm down," Azaria said, catching her friend by the shoulders.

"How can I calm down?" Amari asked and continued pacing. Azaria threw her arms up in frustration. It was annoying her that Amari wouldn't sit down, but it was understandable after what had just transpired. On that note, what exactly had gone down? Azaria knew that her brother and Amari had liked each other for a while - everyone knew that except the couple themselves, who refused to admit it - but she hadn't expected that. Azaria was curious as to who this guy was who had started all this mess, but she decided that now was not the time to ask Amari questions unless she wanted to end up hanging upside-down from a vine or something.

The grandfather clock on the other side of the room chimed one. The party had gone later than they realized. Azaria yawned loudly in a wink-wink nudge-nudge sort of way. "We should probably get to bed," she said.

Amari rolled her eyes. "There is no way I could sleep right now."

"Try." Azaria left, going up to her room.

Amari went to follow but was stopped by Antain, who had been waiting for her in the foyer. "I don't want to talk to you right now," she said. She broke away and continued to her room.

"But I want to talk to you. I need to apologize," Antain said, running after her.

"Well apology not accepted," Amari said dryly. She continued walking.

Antain caught her elbow. "But I thought we had something," he said, his mouth now running faster than his brain. "I thought we would be together."

Amari whirled around to face him, the ground underneath him spiraling and drawing him in until he was waist deep in solid concrete. "Well you never asked me!" She shouted, her breath quickening. "You never asked so I never had a chance to say yes. I would have. I would have said yes. But you didn't ask, and Connor did, so now I'm with him. Accept it." By this time she was pacing back and forth in front of him, hand finding anything it could to punch - wall, floor, her other hand. Luckily not Antain, but she was getting closer. There were holes wherever she punched and there was a steady rumbling coming from underneath.

Azaria heard the commotion and came back down. "Amari!" She shouted, grabbing her friend again. Amari stopped reluctantly and the shaking stopped. "Let Antain go," she ordered.

"No," Amari huffed. "He deserves to stay there."

"I'm sure he does. Now let him go."

"Fine." The ground spit him out and sent him flying into the wall. He lay there, not wanting to move for fear it might be the wrong one. Amari stormed into her room and slammed the door. She threw vines across it from a plant that she kept nearby, effectively locking herself in. Alone, she slid down the wall and cried, the rollercoaster of emotions pouring out of her until she fell asleep there.