Grace of a Wolf by Lenaleia

Chapter 180: Grace: Fan Club

Awkward silence reigns in the car, and there’s no way I’m breaking it. Andrew’s tension is palpable even from here, but you know what? He deserves to feel anxious and off-kilter after having the audacity to question my relationship with Caine.

He’s a Rafe loyalist. He’s the second to last person on this planet I want poking his nose into my affairs.

Well—third. Ellie exists, after all.

I pull out my phone, needing something to focus on besides my irritation. My thumb hovers over my messages app.

No new texts from Lyre.

I type out a quick message asking if she’s okay and to text back when she can.

The message changes to "Delivered", but even five minutes later it still doesn’t show "Read."

My skin crawls as I consider the strange sounds in the background. No matter how I try to convince myself I might be mistaken, they sounded distinctly... violent-against-people-y.

But Owen’s there. I’m sure he’s helping keep her in check.

Maybe.

Then again, I’m not really sure anyone can keep Lyre in check outside of Divinity Connect.

Speaking of which...

My gaze shifts to the notification I’ve been avoiding. The one about "Lyrielle’s Fan Club" on Divinity Connect.

Taking a deep breath, I tap on the app icon. The interface looks a little different today, but still says (Limited). But now there’s a new chat thread at the top of my inbox, saying "Lyrielle’s Fan Club" in bold letters.

My thumb hovers over it. Curiosity wins out, and I tap.

A notification immediately appears.

[Grace Harper has accepted the invitation to join Lyrielle’s Fan Club.]

within seconds, but not before I

Who the hell is this? Who the fuck

you in

You know that shit

the dark side,

hell kind of usernames are

you, you piece of shit? We said

[MADNESS: Wasn’t me~]

should stop

Perhaps you should take the stick

[TIME: How uncouth.]

I’ll show

you know

unease growing with every exchange. These people definitely know each other, and I have no idea who they

why isn’t she talking? Hello? I know

do they know? No; they

[TIME: Are you drunk?]

[MADNESS: Yup~]

@Lyrielle was

slam my thumb against the home button, exiting

hell is this, and who

of Lyre. And it would make sense, because who the hell else do I

with another notification. Despite my better

time, it isn’t me, little anchor. Do you miss me? I

skin crawls. He reeks of stalker

and frantically type out a text to

a chat called "Lyrielle’s Fan Club" on Divinity Connect. There are users called Wrath, Time, and Madness in there. Is Lyrielle you? Also, Chaos sent me a message and he sounds like a stalker. Should I be worried? Because I’m

wait, watching for the read receipt, but it doesn’t happen. I’m not panicking, not exactly—this doesn’t feel like the bone-deep dread from before the last storm. This is just regular (I think) human

Totally normal reaction.

what him? The storm? The invitation? But he used present tense, so he’s probably not talking about something

So, the storm. Right?