Chapter 61

CLAUDIA. My eyes go wide. A scream builds up in my throat but it gets stuck there. I open my mouth to let it all out but then everything gets held back like I’m supposed to not act outside the scene. Once again, I'm the only actor in the play that’s not participating properly. The Rogue just stares at me like it’s expecting me to comply. I swallow hard. I open my mouth to say no. But young Achilles keeps a firm grip on my hands and pulls me down on the dead grass, making me sit next to him and right in front of the Rogue like we’re supposed to listen to it and absorb some sort of nonexistent knowledge. He even as a soft smile on his face, telling me he’s in some sort of a trance. I’m not, though, and it seems that the Rogue knows that. “You’re unlike any of them,” it tells me calmly, like we’re having this strange conversation over tea. “We’ve been waiting for you. At the warehouse. Where all of us are. We have been waiting for you.” I can’t say anything. I literally can’t. Somet