Chapter 29 #2
I hide my knowing smirk. “Let’s get you back home.
” I help stabilize her ripped dress, using my earth magic to fashion her some straps out of vines, before walking her back to Havard Hall.
She was so adorable tonight in her little fox outfit.
Everyone else’s costumes were decked out in magical enhancements, but she opted for simple, understated.
She didn’t need all the showiness—she shone enough without it.
It breaks my heart that her one night of fun ended this way.
Keeping my eyes on the ground and my arm around her, I walk with her through the woods. Just as we reach the campus perimeter, I find what I’m looking for, a chunk of shale about the size of a quarter.
“What are you doing?” she asks, as I break away from her, bending to pick up the small piece of shale.
“Giving you at least one good thing tonight.” I grasp the rock in my palm, closing my fingers around it.
Transforming minerals is never easy. It takes a delicate hand and a steady flow of power.
And for what I have in mind, it will require quite a lot of my magic.
The shale shifts in my palm, folding in on itself into a tighter and tighter ball.
As I funnel my magic into it, I direct it to begin metamorphosis.
It recrystallizes in my closed hand and reforms.
Lena’s breath catches as I open my palm to a nickel-sized polished garnet in the shape of an open rose.
“One good thing.” I place the gemstone rose in her hand.
“Cal… It’s beautiful. Thank you.” She looks up at me, tears welling in the corner of her eyes.
Wrapping my arm around her again, I continue our trek to Havard Hall. I escort her up to her room, which is up way too many fucking stairs. The board decided to separate her from other students, but did the institute really have to go this far out of its way to make it difficult on her?
When we reach her door, she turns back to me. “I didn’t mean what I said to you.”
“Which part?” I flash her a smug grin. “About your supposed humiliation kink?”
“No.” Her narrowed eyes glint with sarcasm. “When I told you I hope your future children shit in your soup.”
“When did you say that?!” I question, as I think back on our conversation. “Ah, that’s what you said in Russian.”
Her cheeks, pink with the slightest hint of rosy blush, bring attention to her wintery rose scent.
“Thank you. For helping me, talking with me, for the stone,” she whispers, before standing on her toes and brushing the sweetest kiss to my cheek.
I have an urge to pull her in tight and never let her go.
But before I act on any silly ideas, she turns on her heels and closes her door.
As it shuts, I think I hear her mumble words that sound an awful lot like “Two good things.”
I’m left staring at her closed door. My stomach turns at the sight of slurs and threats graffitied across the antique wood. I audibly sigh and run my hands down my face. We have not done right by her—I have not done right by her.
Back in my room on the third floor, I remember the very active group chat I have yet to check in with.
Kian has rejoined the chat
Kian: Callum, what part of being on babysitting duty do you not understand?
Of course, let’s blame the nanny and not the assholes who caused this mess. Also, let’s not examine our own behavior at all. I continue reading the texts.
Teariki: What happened?
Nik: There’s another video of Lena suffering a daymare. And in this one, she’s nude.
Teariki: FUCK!
Boden: It’s not Callum’s fault.
Teariki: Nik I’m coming to your cabin, let me see it.
Boden: I’m fixing it.
Kian: How?
Boden: Doing the best I can. I already told everyone to delete their videos. No one gets to leave until I have seen their phone.
It’s honestly the least he could do since he allowed Katri and Connor to run amok. Connor falls under Nik’s responsibility, but Boden is like a god at this school. He can control everyone. Well, except for Vladlena Solis.
Not that getting the videos taken down will keep the events of tonight from becoming gossip.
Almost everyone was there in person. We all assumed the attention foisted upon Lena would die down enough for her to fade into the background.
But I don’t think that girl has ever faded into anything.
She’s too sparkly, too captivating, too interesting.
Teariki: How on the Moon’s green earth did this happen?
Boden: Apparently a strategically timed piercing potion.
Nik: Shit.
Kian: Where’s Callum?
Boden: They went after her, she ran off.
Kian: You understand this looks worse on you and Callum than it does on her? You both look cruel.
Boden: I didn’t mean for this to happen.
Nik: You okayed this?
Boden: Of course not. But I should have prevented it.
Once the guilt starts crashing down, I’m sure Boden will beat himself up for this. I settle into my bed and skim the rest of the chat. Lena and I were in the woods for over an hour.
Callum: I’m here. Her ego’s bruised but she’s okay. I just tucked her into bed.
Teariki: She’s okay?
Callum: Yeah, Big Guy. She’s tough, a fighter.
Nik: I want to reconsider our approach. This isn’t working.
Kian: I’ll deal with it.
Callum: Good. She knows she’s from a royal line.
Boden: How?
Callum: My guess is she set foot in the fucking library that’s named after her great-grandmother.
Nik’s right. Our plan to keep her at arm’s length and yet under the realm’s thumb isn’t panning out.
While I originally agreed with the strategy of keeping our knowledge to ourselves, that was only a precaution until we learned whether Lena can be trusted.
Because she is still hiding her own secrets, what Lena has shown us of herself won’t be enough to convince Kian and Boden that she’s trustworthy.
But to me, it’s evident that keeping important pieces of who she is from her only serves to make things more difficult.
Especially with some members of the Cross-kingdom Council breathing down our necks.
Kian assumed since we got to her first, we could set the narrative and be able to keep her on our side.
Additionally, if she was contractually obligated to serve one of the courts in exchange for her education, she could be controlled even if she posed a threat to Boden’s throne.
Hard to make a challenge when you’re already contracted in a service role.
However, Kian seems almost unsure when it comes to Lena.
He’s asked us to learn about her but keep our distance, help her integrate but ensure she remains in the dark, protect her but don’t interfere with her relationships with her peers and professors.
Kian and Nik can dig for her secrets and rifle through her past all they want, but I’m done with trying to maintain my emotional distance.