Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Boden
“Is the Teardrop Explodes too obscure?” Callum asks from the seat next to me on the leather sofa as they build the playlist for the welcome back party.
Cal and some of the guys from the Sciathán team are hanging out in our room on the top floor of the student commons.
Well, it’s not exactly our room per se. It’s a reservable game room, but when your name’s on the building, no one stops you from claiming the best spot for yourself.
Everyone knows this room’s permanently booked.
“I don’t know, buddy,” I respond without looking up from my phone. I’m ordering enough booze to get four hundred twentysomethings blasted. “What’s a Teardrop Explodes?”
“They’re an early ’80s neo-psychedelia human band from Liverpool.” They sound incredulous.
“Cal, no.” I shake my head. Anytime we don’t book a DJ, Cal puts together a killer playlist. Though, sometimes they have to be reeled in a little bit. “Maybe just stick to magica bands from this century?”
Being on campus is a magica rite of passage.
One I’m trying my best to thoroughly enjoy.
Still, it’s never a smooth transition after our summer travel schedule.
I hate going from making an impact, where the world is my playground, to sitting in classes all day.
However, I only have one more year until things get exponentially more serious.
Consequently, we’re throwing the wildest welcome back party the institute has ever seen.
“Did we settle on a theme?” Connor asks while setting up a game of pool across the room.
“The girls are bringing ideas.” I place another bottle of vodka in the online shopping cart. “They’ll be here soon.”
“Last year the theme blew major minotaur balls,” Michi adds in between sips of beer.
“Yeah, well, Katri’s on it. You know how competitive she is.” Understatement of the year. She’s ruthless when it comes to getting what she wants. “I’m sure she’ll smash it.”
The wing captains plan the party on the fall equinox as an unofficial welcome back. I’m East Wing captain and I’m taking my duties seriously.
“No one gives a shit about the theme,” Lyam says from a lounge chair. “All anyone cares about is the drinks and the music.” Of course Lyam is concerned primarily with the drinks. He’s a vampire, and apparently, blood alcohol content impacts flavor.
I add a bottle of lakka to the order for Cal. They’ll be ecstatic if I surprise them with their favorite herbal liqueur. It’s made from cloudberries. Whatever that is, it’s very Callum.
“Everyone cares about the theme,” Connor argues. “It determines the dress code.”
He’s got a point. The theme has to reference the institute in some way, and last year, it was 1702, the year campus was founded.
It was too cerebral, and no one had any idea what to wear.
The year before though was Teacher’s Pet.
Two words: schoolgirl outfits. I had my first foursome that night. Good times.
“So there’s a Solis first year,” Michi announces to the room, leaning on the pool table and chalking up his cue stick. He smirks at Callum and me. “Do the two of you know anything about that?”
Callum and I share a look. It’s not like we aren’t allowed to talk about her.
We just made the unanimous decision, mostly at Kian’s request, that we control the narrative on campus concerning Vladlena Solis.
The fact that she was brought in as a collection is already spreading, and it seems rumors are flying.
“Yeah, it’s true,” Cal confirms. “Teariki collected her.”
“Collected her. She was running?” Lyam sneers.
Runners are rare and usually distrusted.
Sometimes they’re children and have somehow ended up being raised by humans, or they are adults who are running from responsibility.
But in very abnormal circumstances, they ran because of a power imbalance within their house or because they were the product of an unsanctioned union.
“I guess so. We don’t know much about her. He just got her yesterday.” Cal shrugs as they edit the playlist.
“Who is she?” Lyam pushes for information.
Magicae usually want to know everything about collections, and she’s, of course, particularly interesting.
I glance upward in exasperation, recalling every irritating conversation we’ve had about her since Kian returned from his solo trip to the West Coast a couple weeks ago.
“Vladlena Solis,” I tell him. “Adrik’s daughter. She was living as a human.” I try to return my focus to my phone, but I still feel the room’s attention.
“What?” Michi and Lyam ask as one.
“Why?” Michi presses with wide eyes.
“I don’t know, man.” I mean, I know a little more than that.
“She knows fuck all about the realm and the institute.” When Kian came back from his trip, he called a meeting to inform us that he’d found a powerful magica pretending to be human.
We all assumed she was likely a runaway shirking her court responsibilities.
But after he did some digging, none of the magicae reported missing fit her description.
Nik suggested we try the traitor files, making the argument that some of the traitors had families escape after the Sun Wars.
That’s when we realized we’d finally found the missing Solis girl.
When Adrik was captured at the end of the war, it was rumored one of his partners was pregnant.
But nothing was ever confirmed. But a few years later, a blurry image of his half-human teenage son was caught on a security camera carrying a toddler through a parking lot.
The Cross-Kingdom Council have been doing what they can to track her ever since, even sending a collection team twice to try and bring her and Dmitri in.
Her file’s three inches thick. Everything about her genealogy on her paternal side, yet nothing on her mother’s.
The file held little about her specifically, other than her name, several photos taken from surveillance cameras, and lists of known past locations and aliases.
I grimace before swigging the last of my beer.
I knew there was a chance Kian and Ariki were going to bring her back, but I was still irritated to see her through the plane window.
She should have turned herself in years ago.
She should be facing the consequences of her family’s actions and working to fix the damage they wrought, not hanging out in luxury hotel bars and taking joyrides on private jets.
She didn’t earn that shit. This realm may be made of monarchies, but we still believe in merit.
“What does King Amani think?” Lyam tilts his head, brown eyes narrowing.
Lyam is cunning and viciously strategic; any information he can garner, he’ll use.
I’m always careful about what I say around him—especially about Kian and the others.
It’s important for the good of the realm for us to present a united front.
“He doesn’t think much of her,” I declare. In truth, she’s about all he and the others can talk about, and mostly they think she’s hiding something.
“What’s her lineage on her mom’s side? Human?
” Michi asks. I make my way to the bar to grab another beer as I mull over that million-dollar question.
Everyone will assume she’s half human like her brother.
But both Kian and Ariki said she doesn’t feel human.
I’m fortunate that I don’t see auras like Kian or have the senses of a wolf shifter like Ariki, so I’ll take their word on it.
I select a lite beer from the top shelf.
It’s Sciathán season; I can’t drink for flavor anymore. Too many empty calories.
“Dude, I don’t know.” I lean on the bar, assuming a casual demeanor to hide my annoyance. “Do I look like an encyclopedia on all things Solis?”
“But most importantly, is she hot?” Michi smirks.
The answer is objectively yes. She’s fucking beautiful. Big eyes that complement her pink pouty lips. Luscious legs and a killer ass. But subjectively, definitely not. She’s very clearly a spoiled, ignorant girl who would rather play human than own her shit.
“Ew, bro, you’re not gonna fuck a Solis!” Connor curls his lip like he smells something disgusting. “That’s like fucking a slug or a pile of dirt.”
“Like a really cute pile of dirt,” Cal mumbles under their breath, “from a family notorious for committing war crimes.”
“I mean, it depends how hot she is.” Lyam shrugs his wide shoulders.
“How hot who is?” Katri flashes a mischievous smile as she and two of her minions saunter into the room.
“They’re debating the ethical implications of sleeping with Vladlena Solis.” Cal dismisses the conversation with a flick of their wrist, clearly just as irritated as I am by the nonstop talk of Vladlena.
“Gross.” Katri scrunches up her angelic face. “I saw her at orientation. She dresses like my great-aunt Mildred.”
I hold back a laugh. That outfit Petra had her in was pretty bad. I half think it was on purpose. Petra has just as much reason to dislike Vladlena as the rest of us.
“I’m more concerned with what she looks like without clothing.” Michi wiggles his eyebrows and gives the girls a once-over.
Camilla giggles at Michi’s attention until Katri gives her a sharp look.
“Ew,” Katri says to Michi. “Literally no girl at this school would go anywhere near your dick again if you fucked Vladlena Solis.”
Well, that will help set the boundaries when it comes to the Solis girl. “No one’s getting within ten feet of Solis, unless it’s to kick her ass in combat training,” I demand, further solidifying the rules. “No one’s talking to her. No one’s touching her. Is that understood?”
Kian already has Cal, Nik, and I on Solis babysitting duty after that fiasco of a Q you fuck with one of us, you fuck with all of us.”
They’re right of course; it’s our prerogative how we react to Solis. The five of us have had so much, too much, stolen from us.
“And, Bo-Bear,” they add, calling me by my secret childhood nickname, “as the Convalescere Prince of Light, it’s up to you more than anyone else to decide those consequences.”
Yeah, it’s up to me, but we still make all important decisions together. We’re not technically family, but we might as well be. We stick together, no matter what. But since Vladlena’s a member of the Convalescere Kingdom, decisions about her will likely come down to Kian and me.
“Besides, it’s not like Michi and Lyam couldn’t use a lesson or two in respecting boundaries.” They shrug as we approach the steps of Havard Hall.
“Thanks, Sprout.” I sigh, ruffling their hair. It’s always been easy between Callum and me. We’re close and less than a year apart in age. We had our first kisses the same summer, our magic came in around the same time, and, hell, we both got our first pube the same week.
They brush me off but add, “You know the others are here for you, too, just as much as you are for us.”
I do know that. Cal, Kian, Nik, Ariki, and I are in this bullshit together. We’re bonded for life, and nothing could ever break that.
“Should we go cuddle now?” I tease, ruffling their hair again.
Cal hits me with their tote bag. “Shut up.”