Chapter 32
“I s Levi aware you’re still searching for clues?” Yasmine peered over my phone at the music scores. “And shouldn’t you study for exams?”
I sighed, shutting down my phone and laying it on the chapel’s wooden table. “I’m certain Lucie wrote a violin cadenza, and a violin cadenza never goes unnoticed.”
By combining Lucie’s two music sheets, I noticed a moment when the piano fell silent, allowing one of the hardest violin passages I’d played to take the stage. That had to be it.
“You know what else goes unnoticed? The fact you’re sleeping with your music scores.” Yasmine pointed her fork at my half-finished food. “What’s a cadenza anyway?”
“Well, at the time, a cadenza wasn’t written; it was the opportunity for the violinist to showcase their creativity and skills. So there’s definitely something inside, but I’ve tried everything—Morse code, the alphabet, geocaching, phone numbers. It gives me an incoherent sequence.” I let out a groan of frustration before calming myself with a deep breath, a period cramp kicking, my hormones boiling. “But I’ll get to the bottom of it, I swear to the apostle Simon Pierre. Your turn.”
With exams approaching, Yas and I had come up with a tradition. For five minutes a day, we’d vent our frustrations before moving on—it was our therapy.
“At least you don’t wake up in the middle of the night thinking Jack the Ripper teamed up with your sister to kill you, and let me tell you, he always succeeds and never once falls in love with me to spare my life.” Yasmine gestured wildly.
“Speaking of Tara, what happened the night of Levi’s party?”
“She has the responsibility to hold the family together. Every time something goes wrong, it’s her fault. They expect perfection from her, while they expect constant disappointment from me. She probably got sick of it. She actually confessed I was her less painful sister to handle and that her eyes didn’t burn at the sight of me, which is some sort of compliment coming from her.”
I smiled, trying to avoid Levi’s burning stare from the other table. While his friends laughed and joked around, he remained fixated, unaffected by the bustling cafeteria noise.
Yasmine pivoted in her seat, making no attempt to be discreet as she scanned the area. “He’s always eye-fucking you so intensely every time, it’s like he’s afraid if he stops eye contact, you’ll vanish. Very morally gray if you ask me.”
“And what do you think about this?” I lowered my voice. “Levi and me?”
“Well, does he make you happy?”
I pondered that for a moment. “I think there’s still a lot of work to do to create something on the normal spectrum because he’s Levi—hard to read, and my dad would never allow it. But then, he doesn’t have to know, right? With him, I kinda feel free and like myself. He understands me. But I’ve never had a real relationship before, Yas.”
“You’re allowed to make mistakes and see how it evolves day by day. Plus, you—”
Levi had separated from his friends, and his tray was now on our table. He acknowledged Yasmine with a nod as he sat next to me.
“What were you discussing?” Levi’s lips curled.
“Eagles,” Yasmine blurted out in panic. “Menacing predatory eagles.”
He hummed, his deep resonance filling the air, and turned to me. “Why don’t you ever sit with me at lunch?”
“Because you have ten people sitting around you, all of them being Tacticians, and I’m loyal to the Unifiers gang. Plus, we’re small committee kind of girls,” I said.
Levi and his friends occupied a center table where everyone aimed to be in their good graces, with Kay serving as the group’s entertainer. Yas and I sat at the bottom of the corner table.
“So I have to be the disloyal one to spend time with you.” He smirked, handing Yasmine a rare edition book, and her eyes gleamed with excitement. “The one you were searching for at the library last time.”
“Oh my god, you found it!” she exclaimed, snatching the book and diving into its pages. “I’m definitely pleading your case next time!”
I shot him a warning glare; paying off my friend wasn’t cool.
Levi shared with a sly grin, “We had a talk a few days ago. She said if I were to break your heart, she’d murder me in my sleep.” He then leaned in to whisper in my ear, “What are you doing after classes? I won’t mind watching you while you’re studying.”
“I forgot you don’t have to study like the rest of us mortals.”
“I could pretend to,” he replied. “Plus, the first of each class gets points for the house. I can’t afford to finish second. Tacticians will win this year, so I’ll have to go through my classes once.”
I beamed. “No, Unifiers will.”
“You’re wrong, princess.”
“Still trying to find nicknames? We’ll win, Levi.”
“We definitely will,” Yasmine added, already consumed by the pages.
“Want to bet? We know how this ended up last time,” he mused, and my cheeks reddened.
“I hate you,” I whispered, laying a hand on my stomach, another cramp kicking in. Sometimes being a girl sucked.
“Are you okay?”
“Period cramp,” I said, too quickly, as if he was Yasmine and not a boy. Dad always freaked out when I mentioned my period.
Levi’s brows furrowed. “Should I go down on you to make you feel better?”
“You’re crazy,” I shushed him, my eyes traveling to Yasmine who was right next to us.
“What? I don’t mind.”
“I do,” I retorted, readjusting my tweed Unifier blazer.
“She’s in a mood because there’s no chocolate cake today, the one she loves. They were out of it,” Yasmine chimed in.
“I’ll be right back.” Levi rose from his chair and disappeared.
“Oh, and yes, I heard all of that.” Yasmine winked at me. “I’m reading, but I’m not deaf. If someone like Levi could be smitten, maybe there’s hope in humanity for the rest of us.”
Sylas barged in front of us. His tie hung loose. The collar of his shirt, peeking from beneath his green pullover, was askew. Dark circles had formed under his eyes as if he hadn’t slept all night. “Hi, both of you.”
I straightened my spine, forgetting about my cramps. “What’s wrong?”
“You’re not going to like this.”
“What?” I prompted.
He glanced at Yasmine, then at me, his hand idly grazing over his hair.
Levi returned to my side with two chocolate cakes, one for me and one for Yas. “Here.”
“How?” Yas asked, snapping her book shut.
“I have my ways.”
“Did you threaten someone?” I quipped.
“Are we about to go into this right now, where you give me a moral lecture about how my methods are wrong and corrupted until I shut you up with—”
“Okay, fine—”
“My father is going to Pantheon for the opening day,” Sylas dropped, and we all looked up at him. “It’s not for me, though. It’s a political thing. He’s giving a speech about his counterterrorism initiative since, you know, Pantheon’s attack ten years ago.”
My heart sank; I’d completely forgotten about this. Levi and I shared a glance. I hadn’t had another nightmare since last time, but at any mere shrieking sound or any silence too long, they were back in my brain.
“And I guess a nice happy family post with his son on social media wouldn’t hurt,” Sylas continued, placing a hand on his forehead and sighing. “And you know my father is in deep acquaintance with yours, and both of them think we… have a special bond.”
“Oh no,” I muttered, sensing where this was headed.
“My father may have jumped the gun a bit and suggested he was looking forward to meeting my…” Sylas’s gaze landed on Levi. “Girlfriend or girlfriend to be—”
“Like fuck,” Levi interjected. “If you’re too much of a coward to tell your father the truth, then maybe I should do it for you.”
“You knew?” I screamed at Levi.
“Long before you.” Levi brushed me off.
“Okay, so everyone knows whatever is going on, but I’m lost here.” Yas’s gaze swept over each of us.
“Long story short, I like men, and my father is a jerk,” Sylas explained bluntly, his voice strained as he crumpled into a seat beside her.
Yas’s jaw dropped, and I sympathized with her with a smile.
“I don’t want this either,” Sylas said. “But I can’t tell him no. Maybe he’ll be easier to talk to after the re-elections, but if I do something wrong, he’ll never forgive me. It’s not the right time to come out to him. That speech is a reminder of his failure facing Los Calaveras, so he’s already super tense.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, my heart leaping to my throat at the mention of their names.
“It’s been ten years since Pantheon’s attack. He was assigned to catch them and never could. My dad dislikes failure; he was a Pioneer back in the day. He’s obsessed with them.” Sylas’s stare drifted between Levi and me. “All I’m asking is for you to be there for me as a friend that day, please. After that, I’ll talk to him in private during the holidays. I’ll even plead your case to your father and say that Levi is the right man for you if that’s what you want. I’ll owe you both.”
Laughter erupted behind us. Kay . He swaggered toward Sylas, a grin plastered on his face.
“Still the same coward,” Kay taunted, leaning provocatively on the table. “Levi, let me help you with your tray.”
With a swift motion, he seized Levi’s tray and purposely hurled the plate of food at Sylas. “Oops, well, my bad. I didn’t see you there. Levi, come join us when you’re done entertaining this clown. Don’t forget where your allegiances lie.”
“I don’t get it,” Yasmine whispered to me.
“They love each other,” I whispered back.
Her jaw fell open again.
Sylas attempted to rid himself of the spaghetti on his lap and lifted his eyes to the ceiling, clenching his jaw. “He gave me a second chance, and I screwed up again.”
I exchanged a glance with Levi. Sylas didn’t deserve that. Kay may feel rejected, but he couldn’t understand the pressure Sylas was under. He was protecting Kay from his own father; he was no coward.
“I’m going to help Sylas,” I said. “This isn’t about me or you.”
“I know, you’ll be the type to save all the birds who fall from their nests,” Levi’s cruel tone chilled me to the bones. “Without even noticing you’re that same bird too.”
It was easy for him to say. He didn’t care about anything and was free with no family expectations. For us, it was different.
His narrowed eyes fell on me. “Speaking of which, isn’t it weird that your father isn’t coming too?”
“He couldn’t,” I confessed. He had been silent the past couple of days. Grandma said he was still busy with his contract and that was why he never replied to me .
“Fine, but if you think that would be enough to make me go away, you’re wrong.” The corners of his lips lifted slowly in one of his weaponized smiles. “I’ll be watching.”
“Thank you, Levi,” Sylas said, a hint of nervousness tainting his voice. “I promise it’s just a one-time thing.”
His choice of words hung awkwardly in the air, and he gulped while Yas bit down a chuckle.
Levi lifted himself from his seat and stopped at Sylas’s height, a glint of steel in his eyes as he cast a shadow on him, the air around thickening with an unspoken menace.
“Kay may be an annoying asshole sometimes, but he’s my best friend, and he’s hurt because of you. Dalia may help you again because she fears her father as much as yours, but I won’t give you a free pass next time.”