Chapter 15 #2
There’s no point denying it. “I had… a special someone. He’s no longer special, though. We’re… not anything.” I want to change the subject. “And you two? Have you been here before?”
Celine shakes her head. “Not before the academy. I didn’t really go anywhere.”
She sounds so sad that I almost want to ask her why, but then Nelly says, “I lived far, so I never came here either.”
“It’s magnificent,” I say. “During the day, too. I used to come here to bathe in the ocean.”
“Those waves look mean.” Nelly scrunches her nose.
I smile. “They feel good, like a massage. The ocean clears your mind.”
Nelly snorts. “I’m pretty sure I can clear my mind in the bushes, thank you.”
Celine and I laugh. We pass a third bonfire, then walk toward the last one. Four guards stand around its perimeter, a sure sign this party is sanctioned by the academy or Sky Guard officials. When we approach, a guard asks for a password.
“Starlight,” Celine whispers, and the guard gives each of us a wooden cup.
We enter a circle where the light of the fire reaches us, with some people standing, others sitting on logs or round rocks. I barely recognize any second-year recruits, maybe because no one is wearing a uniform, or because I’ve only seen them briefly during meals.
Two cauldrons lie on small wooden tables with large ladles for serving.
I grip my cup and turn to Celine. “Are they both star nectar?”
“I assume so.” She shrugs. “It’s why we’re here.”
“I guess I’ll just be thirsty, then.” A sigh escapes my lips, and I don’t know if it’s relief or annoyance.
Celine opens her purse. “I have a flask with water, if you want.”
“It’s fine.” I shake my head.
She nods, then whispers, “And golden oil too.”
“I have my own,” Nelly says.
Their words surprise me. While Celine mentioned potentially tumbling on the sand with someone, I didn’t think she meant it.
I say, “Well, I intend to remain thirsty in more than one way.”
The girls chuckle, then approach a cauldron and fill their cups.
I watch the recruits sitting around the fire, until my heart skips a beat.
Alayel is there, with his friend Flavio, and they’re talking to a beautiful brunette woman. I wonder if he’s going to ignore me again, like he did at the ball. Is this some game for him, or hasn’t he seen me yet? Why does he make me so flustered? So jealous? We’re not anything.
The brief kiss he gave me comes to mind, and then I recall that he stepped between me and Auranius. We traveled to the Kingdom of the Riders and risked our lives together, then spent a night in a cave, his body keeping me warm.
And yet I don’t know if he’ll ignore me. I stare at my cup, wishing I could drink something just to keep my hands busy, or maybe to calm down the jitters coming to me.
Celine and Nelly return and we find a log to sit on, far from Alayel. He still hasn’t acknowledged me, but he might not have seen me. Perhaps I should get up and greet him, but I’m not sure how he’ll react.
A girl sits beside Celine, her hair cropped short, her expression serious other than a subtle smile on her face.
“Cynthia didn’t fly,” she says. “She’s alive.”
Cynthia. Our other roommate. I barely know her, and still, my chest feels lighter. Beside me, Celine’s body seems to unwind and relax all at once.
“Thank you,” she says.
The girl pats Celine’s arm, then nods to us, a warm smile on her face. “Hi, I’m Sheila.”
Nelly and I greet her, then she leaves us to join a group of people standing.
Soon after, two second-year male recruits join our log.
One, a blond with an overeager smile, tries to chat with me over Celine’s shoulder, but quickly gives up and leaves.
The other is immediately captivated by Nelly.
After a few minutes of low, intense conversation, she gives us a quick glance and they get up, disappearing from the firelight toward some darker place on the beach.
It strikes me that while the men were focused on me and Nelly, no one even glanced at Celine. She’s pretty, but perhaps too shy, and unnoticed by the other recruits, male or female.
“Who invited you?” I ask, as I assume someone here must know her.
“Cynthia.”
I nod, wondering if we’re in a party where we shouldn’t be, and then I’m thinking why Alayel didn’t invite me.
Maybe what I need to do is stop stressing out. I raise my empty cup. “Shall we get some?”
“Changed your mind?”
“Yes. I mean, everyone’s acting normal. I fear you might have oversold the effects of this nectar.”
She smiles. “I didn’t. It makes you feel good. Now, it’s not going to make you do anything you don’t want.”
We get up, fill our cups, then sit again, and I take a sip. The taste is slightly bitter, but subtle, like an extremely diluted juice, maybe a little rotten, but not enough to taste disgusting.
“It’s… refreshing,” I say.
“Told you.” She shrugs.
I sip my cup slowly, and, so far, I don’t feel anything odd or strange or good or even relaxing.
Perhaps it’s just water with some drops of bitter juice and they scam people by giving it a fancy name, but I don’t want to say that to Celine, since she seems to like it so much.
I take another long sip of the star nectar, getting used to the odd taste—and smell, even if it’s subtle.
My nose is awakening, as I can recognize different odors; the ocean, the algae, the sand, the vegetation, the fire, and even people.
Celine has a particular scent I never noticed before.
Alayel is too far for me to catch his, and then there’s all the smoke. Still, I feel like myself again.
Maybe I needed the fresh evening air to decongest my nose, to clear my mind. It’s when a person’s familiar smell hits me, a smell I should have forgotten.
Marcus approaches the circle. Instead of ignoring me, or maybe nodding as a way of greeting, he glares.
Again. As if I had done something wrong.
Doesn’t the location bring him some good memories?
Or did he decide our moments on this beach were terrible after all?
I can still remember his body over mine, the way he kissed me, the sweet words he told me. And now he’s glaring at me.
“What?” Celine asks.
I don’t want to tell her everything, especially if Marcus is now involved with the princess, but I give her some of the truth. “I knew him. Marcus. He used to deliver to our restaurant. And now he’s… It’s like he’s angry or something, and I don’t understand why.”
She glances at him. “People are odd sometimes. Maybe he thinks he’s too good to be your friend, now that he’s close to the princess.”
“He wasn’t like that, though.” The Marcus I knew was kind and thoughtful.
Celine clicks her tongue. “People change, Mayara.”
“I guess.” I raise my empty cup. “Are we allowed to get more, or is there a limit?”
“Sure!” She laughs. “I mean, I think if you take more than ten cups, someone might complain, but I’ve never seen that.”
We get up and fill our cups again. This time, I drink mine in one sip, then get some more. Alayel still hasn’t seen me, or maybe he’s pretending to ignore me. I almost walk to him to say hi, but I’d rather he at least looked at me first.
Meanwhile, someone else is looking at me. Marcus is standing with a friend, still glaring.
And I’ve had enough.
I walk to him and ask, “Is there a problem?”
“No.” Marcus grimaces. “Why should there be?”
“We were friends. Acquaintances, at least. Were we not?”
He turns to the male recruit beside him. “Can you give us a moment?”
My stomach turns cold, realizing he’s about to say something serious, or maybe accuse me of a crime I didn’t commit.
I glance back and see Celine sitting, raising a glass and smiling at me, as if to tell me she’s fine, then I take a few steps away from the circle with the man I once thought I could love.
The only man I ever kissed. The only man who’s ever touched me.
And when I consider that, of course it hurts that he hates me for some reason.
When we’re out of most people’s earshot, I say, “I don’t…
I know we’re over, but I don’t understand why you look at me as if you hate me.
I wish we could say hi, maybe you could even tell me what it’s like to be in the second year of the academy.
We don’t need to become best friends, or even friends, but… ” I look down, unsure what to say.
His chest moves up and down slowly. “I’m sorry I gave you the impression I hated you. I just don’t feel anything, that’s all.”
“I understand that. You got here, your life changed, and you forgot about me. You have someone new.”
“I do not.” He raises a finger, a spark of anger in his eyes. That sudden burst of passion is something I never saw in him and betrays his feelings for the princess more than if he had confirmed he was involved with her.
“Sorry. Either way, I’m not hoping we’ll get back together. But you don’t need to be an ass, that’s all.”
“I’m an ass?” He snorts. “Do you even hear yourself?”
“I’m not glaring at you every time I see you, Marcus.”
He sighs. “Apologies. The glare was unintended. I… don’t wish we were together either. All I wanted was at least some tiny, tiny courtesy. You no longer wanted to see me, you could have let me know.”
“How? You never showed up.”
His eyes narrow, and he looks behind me.
Another familiar scent is nearby. I turn and see Alayel, who wraps his arms around my waist and smirks at Marcus. “Well, hello, if it isn’t my future brother-in-law.”
Marcus glances at Alayel’s hands around me, then sneers at him. “Dare say that again, and I’ll wipe that smile from your face.”
Alayel laughs. “You really think you can scare me?”
“Enjoy your night.” Marcus waves a hand and walks away.
I turn and glare at Alayel. “Finally saw me?”
He nuzzles my neck. “I saw you from the moment you stepped on the sand out of the tunnel far away, more brilliant than all the algae in the ocean.”
“And yet you didn’t greet me.”
“I was waiting for you.” He faces me, then gestures at Marcus. “Were you his betrothed, then? The most beautiful woman in Dracolius City, he said. We joked that he was making that up. Now I realize it was true.”