Chapter 10: Crossing the boundaries

It has been a week since Jason had Ivy on a trial internship task and ever since then, he again hasn't heard from her about her decision on his internship offer. Ivy on the other hand was busy preparing for her exams which was on the following week.

For the entire week, every student in the college was either glued to their books or attending extra lectures to master their weak subjects. Ivy was doing the same as she waited for her science extra lecture to start, she was rushing to finish her maths practices at the park alone when Marcel turned up again. The silence from Ivy for the past week had apparently made Jason impatient. She hasn't got enough time to thoroughly think about his offer in fact and she was also afraid she wouldn't be able to commit herself due to her monthly exams preparations was occupying a lot of time yet she was greedy to not want to miss such an internship opportunity.

Marcel hadn't spoken a word to her yet when he stood in front of her panicked self. The sight of him standing in front of her was enough to turn Ivy's guts feeling on an alert mode. She instantly packed her bags, ready to run away. Before she could pack everything, Marcel being quick witted, carried Ivy who was fidgeting and yelling for him to put her down, off the bench.

"Marcel! Put me down!" Ivy yelled as she was hitting on Marcel's shoulder but Marcel continued to walk towards his car.

She noticed she left her pencil case on the bench while being carried away as she fidgeted even more. "Marcel, stop! My pencil box! I need to take it back!" Marcel continued to ignore her request for fear it was a trick. Ivy had no choice but to obediently stay in the car again while he drove. This time she was so furious that she wanted to jump out of the car and ignore the consequences. Fortunately, Marcel was smart enough to put on the child lock again which sent her more frustrations.

When they arrived at the office block, she refused to walk with him into the office and stood by the side of the car trying to give Marvel a hard time. Marcel notified Jason about their arrival and that Ivy was making a fuss so it would be difficult to enter the office without making a scene. Jason proposed to Marcel to send her to the rooftop where there was a lounge suitable for their discussion.

Marcel agreed and had no choice but to carry Ivy again into the lift heading to the rooftop lounge. Ivy didn't give up without a fight while being carried. She was hitting Marcel hard to get herself loose but she was too petite for him to lose grip on her. Even her screams were to no avail as Marcel's huge palm was able to muffle her once and for all.

The sight of Jason appearing at the lounge minutes after they reached the rooftop was the cue for Marcel to leave them alone. Ivy hoped she could quickly rush back to collect the pencil box she left on the bench after meeting Jason but little did she know she would be caught up in Jason's irresistible offer again.

"Let's not waste everyone's time. You are good at organising data and I have an urgent task here." Jason complimented as he stood by the table she was sitting on. She didn't show any reaction as Jason continued.

"Compile this data in the red file into a proposal for this potential client. The details of the background of this talk event is in this blue file." Jason pointed to the file and shifted the laptop to her side." Here's a laptop." He also laid out a cheque. This time he paid her double the wage from last time.

She scolded herself for her greediness as she hesitantly agreed after peeping on the amount stated on the cheque. With the amount he was giving, she was sure that she would never have to spend anymore time doing part time jobs in the future as she had enough to pay her portion of expenses for Lance and Belinda's birthday parties.

Within a couple of hours, Ivy completed the proposal while Jason was working on his other tasks by her side. While reviewing her proposal, Jason was impressed with her soft skills as he made a couple of minor changes and taught her on parts she could have done better. Ivy, no doubt had learned a lot from Jason's session each time that despite being frivolously doing it for the sake of money, Ivy was tempted to accept his offer she was still doubtful of.

Nonetheless, Ivy left without giving Jason a definite answer again which he told her it is still standing still for her to accept. By the time she reached home in the evening and recalled about her pencil box, she was feeling down. It was a gift from her late grandma which she cherished very much. She reminded herself to check it at the lost and found counter the next day before she continued with her revisions and soon dosed off on top of them.

"Princess… princess… Are you alright?" Ivy heard an echo as she tried to open her eyes slowly to a blurry silhouette of someone.

"Princess, wake up ! Hurry!" She heard the same echo again as this time her body was lifted and she had a clear view of the mysterious eyes of Phoenix under the mask he was wearing. He wasn't paying attention as he rushed her somewhere while she regained her consciousness.

"Where am I? Are you Phoenix? What happened?" Ivy mumbled as Phoenix halted his steps and looked down upon her. He let her down to stand by his side.

"Princess, you're alright! The explosion from the prism.. Oh! Fortunately, it didn't knock you off!" Phoenix echoed worriedly and patted her head.

Ivy was confused but her mind was also telling her to ask for her grandma since she was finally back in her paracosm. She recalled she overheard her grandma telling Phoenix that he was also her grandchild. She could finally make out her surroundings to be the outer house of the cottage.

"Phoenix, where is grandma? Where are the dogs of the kingdom?" Ivy questioned impatiently as Phoenix looked hesitant to explain. There were many swords noises coming from outside which alerted Phoenix that the guards could have surrounded the entire cottage.

"Phoenix! You must tell me or else I can't save any of us!" Ivy hissed noticing the danger awaiting them.

"Princess, the guards from my kingdom have found us but …" A growl startled them both as Phoenix hid with Ivy inside a cupboard by the side of the door. She sat still in Phoenix's embrace inside the empty cramped cupboard while they waited for the footsteps outside to subside.

"Go on.. What's going on? Why are you hiding from them? Aren't they here to save you? They could help you to regain your memory…" Ivy pestered as she shifted away from Phoenix's embrace when she noticed how closed they were.

"Princess, they are not here to save me. Grandma knew they were here to continue my mission of…" Phoenix felt the remorse in him to convey his king's decree to Ivy this way as he held her gaze in the semi dark cupboard. "...your assassination."

Ivy gasped in disbelief as thousands of questions ran through her mind while she blurted them out to him. "My kingdom is in danger. What happened to grandma? Why are you protecting me? How are you going to answer to your kingdom? How…" Phoenix cut her questions off as he startled her when he pulled her into his embrace.

"Princess… You have my word to protect the kingdom and yourself even if it meant giving up my life. Even if it meant when my memories are recovered and I had to be the assassin, I would trade places with you." Phoenix gently echoed.

"But why?" Ivy asked in disbelief and she tried to comprehend her entire situation. "Because you are my chosen one…" Phoenix echoed again as this time, a light glow of ember was shimmering in between them which was connected from Phoenix's wrist to Ivy's wrist.

"Is this… Is this how you knew?" Ivy asked as she reached out to the glowing shimmers.

"It's how grandma knew. Only the lineage of our origins could see this glow. Ivy, grandma was protecting you with her qi energy while locking you into a prism but her energy had depleted. I have protected her who is resting with your dogs of the kingdom in my protective shield." Phoenix echoed with his explanation as Ivy was still captivated by the glow they were connected to.

"But how? I thought you could only unlock your protective shield… You recovered your memories?" Ivy questioned eagerly. "Partially and thanks to grandma. She taught me the way to cast my protective shield but it can be stronger if we combined ours and there is only one way to do it…" Phoenix explained as his words trailed off while he lamented at his lost memories.

"What way?" Ivy pestered impatiently. "I don't remember it yet…" Phoenix echoed, sounding down as he saw the terror in Ivy's gaze. "In the meantime, I will find ways to counter the army of guards outside…" He added on.

"You don't have your memories… They will assassinate me the moment they see me. You can't defeat them yourself… you need my help…" Ivy mumbled as Phoenix sighed at his last resort.

"Princess, would you help me with a favor?" Phoenix echoed hesitantly. "Of course, anything!" Ivy answered instantly.

"Could you fake being betrothed to me? That way, the guards will show mercy on you and not go against me as I will set a stage to not recognise them and you would tell them about my memory being lost." Ivy was staring right into his gaze which was full of conviction as he explained his favor while desperately hoping she would agree to him. They shared a moment of silence looking into each other's gaze without noticing the glow connected to them was shimmering even brighter that it had pierced through the cupboard into the room and was attracting the attention of the guards surrounding the cottage.

Phoenix got back to his senses as he barged out of the cupboard when he heard the back door was being ambushed. As he appeared, the guards were shocked to see him and bowed down to him calling him their lord.

Ivy, who was still contemplating on his request, instantly got up on her feet and walked to his side as she decided to listen to her gut feeling. The guards who saw her instantly drew their sword ready to launch an attack at her while she gave Phoenix an affirmative look to accept carrying out his favor.

Phoenix raised his hand to halt the guards as he was ready to announce to them but an arrow was already on its way to Ivy's direction. Ivy watched Phoenix trying to pull her away from the arrow's direction as she too tried avoiding it only to find her legs and muscles weren't listening to her to move. She could only shut her eyes tightly hoping Phoenix saved her in the nick of time as she waited for the next impact in the dark.

As Ivy waited for the impact which seemed eternity, she tried opening her eyes to a bright light. She blinked a few times at a blurry sight of her desk's table lamp. She noticed the pink hues glowing again from her bracelet as she gazed at them before they disappeared within a minute while recalling the dream she just had. She counted her blessings for not encountering serpents or sleep paralysis side effects like many other times before checking the time which was showing seven in the morning.

She lazily dragged herself to get ready for her extra lectures and reminded herself to look out for her lost pencil box as her mind recalled the upsetting but yet minding boggling events with Jason yesterday. She sighed at being greedy for wanting the opportunity and keeping him waiting for so long. She knew she didn't have a choice as her exams were drawing near and decided to stick with her decision to push it aside till after exams' results instead.