17. Ivy
IVY
H ours pass, hunger comes and goes, and I still can’t bring myself to leave my dorm. I’ve reached my limit of my fated mates for the day, and the fear of running into one of them again, or worse, a third or fourth, has me holed up in here.
The sun is an explosion of dusk through my window, reminding me that the power outage still hasn’t been resolved, and darkness will be coming for us all soon.
My stomach grumbles as I roll onto my back, splayed out across my bed, pleading with me to do something about it, but I’ve held off with the hopes of Ember returning so I can figure out exactly how to have food delivered to my room.
Not before I’ve given her a piece of my mind, though.
She sold me out for Clay. What’s that about?
A knock rattles my dorm room door, tearing me from my thoughts, but I don’t immediately move. The only person I want it to be is Ember, and she wouldn’t need to knock. A split second later, another knock comes, only this time it has a familiar rhythm.
Knock.
Knock. Knock.
Knock.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
My chest hollows out as I dart to my feet, scurrying across the floor faster than my feet can take me. I almost trip over myself.
Swinging the door open, my chest heaves as my gaze snaps to familiar eyes standing on the other side of the threshold.
“Hugo,” I breathe, and he smiles at me, the carefree, easy kind that feels like home.
I launch myself at him, a ball of emotion weighing heavily on my chest as I squeeze him. Clinging to him as if my life depends on it, I sag into him when he holds me just as tight, our embrace saying more than words can.
With my face buried in his neck, I breathe him in, the familiar scent of home grounding me until I can steady my breathing. Exhaling slowly, I untangle myself from him, and he slowly lowers me to my feet.
Taking a step back, I peer up at him and swing.
My palm collides with his cheek with ease, the sting tingling through my fingertips as he continues to smile at me. I purse my lips, slightly frustrated when he rubs at his jaw, but continues to look at ease.
“I deserved that,” he admits, and I scoff, planting my hands on my hips as I glare at him.
“Suit up, and I’ll show you exactly what you deserve.” It’s a promise, but also hope, a need deep in my gut that needs remedying.
Unfortunately, he brushes past me, ignoring my request as he glances over my room.
“Did you get accepted into fencing?” he asks, frustrating me even more, acting like everything is fine when it’s far from it. Huffing, I slam my door shut behind me.
“Of all the things we have to talk about, you want to start with that?” He cocks an eyebrow at me, and I scoff, folding my arms over my chest. “I didn’t even sign up to try out.”
He smirks. “You’re cute when you lie, Vee.”
“Funny, I can’t say the same,” I snap back, and to his credit, he dips his head.
“I’m sorry, Vee.” His eyes meet mine, sincerity reflecting back at me. “Do you forgive me?” he adds, and it’s my turn to give him a pointed look.
“Do you even know me?”
He sighs, but amusement crinkles the corners of his eyes. “Go ahead, quiz me. The quicker you get it all out of your system, the quicker I can go back to being your favorite brother.”
“Only because I don’t have any other brothers. Unless there’s another secret I’m unaware of.”
He rolls his eyes. “Fire away, Vee.”
“Get comfortable,” I reply with a huff as he takes a seat in my desk chair.
Rubbing my lips together, my mind swirls in every direction, but I find a starting point and begin ticking off my mental list.
“Mom and Dad?” I ask, and he grimaces.
“What about them?”
“Don’t play dumb, Hugo. What is their reaction to… all of this?” I ask, throwing my hands out wide as I take in my room, but more than that, where it is and what it actually means.
Hugo folds his hands together in his lap. “Daddy Dearest is furious about being undercut, and Mom is honestly walking the manor aimlessly without purpose.”
I should feel a level of guilt that gnaws at my gut, but it doesn’t come. For the first time, I’m feeling selfish without consequences.
“But they know Heaven’s Ridge isn’t my home anymore… right?”
My brother’s lips set in a thin line, offering enough of an answer, but he proceeds. “Dad is in full Mayor mode. From what I can gather, he’s feeling a loss of control, total imbalance among the kingdom, and eternally stressed over what the public view is of him.”
I huff. Of course, my father has a way of making it all about him. “But he’s not coming for me, is he?”
“He wants to, I’m sure. Bringing this all to an end and regaining control is classic Mayor Hayworth, whether it’s regarding his daughter or not. But he hasn’t figured a solution out just yet, so there’s nothing to worry about,” he insists, and I gnaw at my bottom lip.
“I’m supposed to just take your word for it?”
“It’s all I’ve got right now.” Honesty is thick in his tone, and I take it since there’s nothing else.
“Okay, then let’s move on to my fated mates. You know, the four who rejected me two years ago,” I grumble, and he has enough sense to glance away for a moment before he nods. “You played a part in all of this, in them.” Another nod. “Did you know they were going to be at the altar?”
His eyebrows crinkle. “Technically, no. But I had hoped. Really, I’d hoped they would have swooped in prior to that, but better on the verge of desperation than not at all.”
“Hugo, do you hear yourself?”
“It sounds worse than it is,” he insists, and I scoff.
“It can’t possibly sound better,” I retort, nostrils flaring with frustration as he wipes a hand down his face.
“They’re good people, Vee.” He says it so confidently, so sweetly, that it makes my teeth ache.
“I’m struggling to see how.” It’s on the tip of my tongue to reel off all of the crap I’ve dealt with from them so far, but I slam my lips together at the last second.
“Trust me?” It’s a question more than anything, and I shake my head.
“I thought I did, but it seems you didn’t trust me in return. I heave a sigh, and he rises from my desk chair, approaching me cautiously, as if I might detonate at any given moment.
“This is exactly where you need to be, Vee.”
“It doesn’t feel like it when it’s draped in secrets.” My arms tighten around my middle as he draws closer, but he stops by the post of my bed, leaning against it as he looks at me softly.
“It was to protect you. Everything I do is to protect you.”
I know that’s true, deep, deep down in my soul. Hugo is and always has been my person. He’s seen me when I was simply a prop for my parents, or a silly little girl no one listened to, but surely I should have been a little more privy to this entire situation.
“When did it begin?” I ask, and he shakes his head. “When?” I repeat as he scrubs at the back of his neck nervously.
“The night they rejected you.”
The full scope of his deceit has rage flooding through my veins, but I bottle it up. I asked, he answered. We always promised never to get mad when the other person is being honest, but look at us now.
“How am I supposed to just be okay with this?”
“Because we understand the bigger picture,” he says with a soft, soothing tone, and it drives me insane.
“I don’t.”
“You will.”
“I won’t if you don’t tell me.”
“Patience, Vee.” My arms sag at my side, defeat getting the better of me.
“What else has been happening without my knowledge?” I push on, hoping for any sort of insight, despite all the secrets, and he snickers.
“How long is a piece of string?”
“That doesn’t make sense,” I grumble, and he grins.
“Exactly.”
“Where do the lying and secrets end?”
He holds his palms up in surrender again. “No more lies.”
“And the secrets?”
“Technically, they’re not secrets; they’re just pieces of information you’re not able to know. Yet .”
My eyes turn to slits as I glower at him.
“Do you not see how ridiculous this all is? Why haven’t I had a say in any of it?”
“I thought you wanted nothing more than to attend Neverbound?” he pushes back, cocking a brow at me, and I shake my head in frustration.
“You seemed pretty content to leave me where I was for the past two years. When did you decide to have a change of heart?” My chest tightens with anticipation as he parts his lips.
“When you agreed to marry some fool you’d never met.”
His words hit my stomach like a lead punch, threatening to knock the wind out of me.
“That’s fair. Desperate times call for desperate measures and all that.
But this still leaves me feeling helpless and powerless in my own life.
And that guy is dead, let’s not forget that.
” My truth sucks the rest of the wind from my lungs as my body aches, spent and drained, ready to curl up in a ball. “How could you do that to me?”
“For you, Vee. I did it for you. Not the dead guy, but all of this,” he insists, and I snicker, but the sound is hollow.
“Just because that’s what you tell yourself doesn’t make it true.
Make it make sense to me,” I snap back, and in two strides, he’s in front of me, arms around my back as he pins me to his chest, keeping me on my feet as I sway in his hold.
“When will you see that the one thing I longed for my entire life, eager to get out from under Dad’s control, has only happened because someone else is controlling me instead? ”
“I’m sorry, Vee. I’m sorry,” he rasps, holding me tighter as I press my face against his chest.
We sway back and forth for what feels like hours, days, weeks, until my breathing calms down and I lean back.
Staring at my big brother, I still feel a sense of betrayal from him, which isn’t going to change anytime soon, but I can either push him away or take advantage of him as my safe space in a new place.
Blinking at him, I exhale slowly. “When did you find out your powers?”
He smiles again. “It will reveal itself when it’s ready. Focus on classes for now,” he insists, brushing my hair over my shoulder as I groan.
“But where do I even begin? I don’t know what I can do yet, and it’s driving me insane.” My fingers curl into his sweater. “Focusing on classes would have been far easier without a two-year deficit. Add that to the fact that there’s a piece of me that I don’t know yet, and it’s killing me.”
He curls both of his hands around my upper arms as he looks deep into my eyes. “Vee, it’s been what, three? Four days? You have to give this time. Besides, Sax told me he’s helping you.”
I whip the back of my hand against his chest, and he grunts. “If I find out you’re ignoring me again while talking to the enemy, I’m not going to be so kind,” I snap, watching as his eyebrows rise, but he nods slowly.
“I’m sorry.”
“And I don’t want there to ever be a reason for those two words to leave your lips toward me ever again. Am I clear?”
“Crystal.” Silence drapes over us as I exhale all of my emotions while Hugo runs his thumb back and forth across my upper arm, soothing me as he speaks. “Where do we go from here?”
“I don’t know,” I admit with a grimace, a look he matches with one of his own.
“That bad?”
“Up there with the worst.”
He pins me to his chest for a brief moment again before stepping back. “I promise, everything is for the good of the kingdom.”
“And what about me?”
“You too, Vee. I swear it. Now, I have to go. Walk me out?” My nose crinkles with distaste before he speaks again. “I have Lucky with me.”
“You should have started with that,” I grumble, slipping past him to grab my shoes before I race to the door.
Side by side, we head downstairs and out into the late evening air. I was so locked in on my emotions with Hugo, I hadn’t realized how dark it was getting, but now it’s abundantly clear that the power outage is still a thing.
Hugo drapes his arm around my shoulder, just like he’s done a thousand times, but for the first time, I consider slipping out from under it. Yet there’s a part of the act, the part of his embrace that feels like home, that I can’t let go of.
“This doesn’t mean you’re forgiven,” I mutter, and he snickers.
“I would never assume,” he retorts as we make our way past the main academy building, where four familiar faces stand huddled together.
I’m hopeful we’re going to breeze past them unnoticed, but Teddy locks eyes with us first. His lips barely move, but it’s clear enough to know what he said since three pairs of eyes track us in the next breath.
Thankfully, they don’t attempt to approach us, but that doesn’t stop them from watching our every move as we head toward the clifftops. A shudder runs down my spine as I’m reminded of the last time I was here, and it makes Hugo pull me in tighter.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just a little cold,” I lie, like the giant hypocrite that I am.
When we make it out to the open meadow, Hugo stops in the center, pulling me in for another hug before pressing a kiss to my forehead.
With one loud and sharp whistle, the heavy whoosh of wings vibrates around us, and a moment later, familiar orange scales head our way. It’s like they shine in the dark. The tendrils of sunset and first glimmers of moonlight illuminate her as my heart lurches, and I watch with wonder.
I’m sure my eyes are going to bug out of my head as Lucky lands a few meters away, a huff emitting smoke from her nose as she immediately lowers his head, bumping me with his scales.
A giggle parts my lips, the most genuine, happy sound I feel like I’ve made in a long time. “She’s just like a dog,” I snicker as she nuzzles against me like she’s not fifty times the size of me.
Running my hands along her scales, my smile spreads so wide my cheeks ache. “Oh, have you missed me, big girl?” I tease, and her insanely long tail swipes along the grass.
“Lucky is one of the fiercest dragons the kingdom has, yet here you are, turning her into some lovesick puppy,” Hugo muses, and I grin.
“That’s probably what you get for not calling her something strong and mighty to match his appearance,” I muse, bright-yellow dragon eyes staring deep into mine as she presses her head against me.
“Come on, big girl, we need to go,” Hugo states, and Lucky huffs, the wind almost knocking me off my feet. “We’ll be back to see her soon, I promise.”
I like the sound of that promise too.
Reluctantly, Lucky moves away, giving Hugo enough space to embrace me once more, his lips parting one last time before he makes a run for it.
“Teddy is an excellent fencer.”