Chapter 10 #2
It should feel ridiculous. It should feel like two people I can't possibly balance between—the friend who has loved me through every powerless year and the boy who has hated me for all the reasons the world taught him to value.
Instead, for one strange moment, walking between them feels like having shields on both sides.
Different shields. Seren is warmth with teeth. Valerius is darkness with a blade.
The academy corridors fill around us as classes shift, but people move aside when they see him. Whispers follow, louder than before. Valerius Draven. Valentina Starling. The Flame pair. The cracked relic. The ward incident. Magistra Voss.
My wrist burns beneath my sleeve. Halfway to the dean's office, a group of Aether students steps into the corridor ahead. Mira Ardent stands at their center.
Her eyes light when she sees us. Not with happiness. With opportunity. "Well," she says. "The little shadow entourage arrives."
Seren mutters, "I am going to end her bloodline."
Valerius doesn't slow. Mira steps directly into our path. "Careful," she says, smiling at me. "People might start thinking you actually belong beside him."
The words are meant to humiliate me. They do but before the shame can take root, Valerius stops. The entire corridor seems to stop with him. Mira's smile falters. He looks at her. That is all...Just looks but whatever she sees in his face drains the color from hers.
"You're in her way," he says.
Her lips part. "I—"
His voice lowers. "Move."
Mira steps aside. Immediately. I stare ahead, refusing to show how hard my heart is beating. Valerius begins walking again. The corridor parts. No one speaks until we pass. Then the whispers rush back, frantic and hungry.
Seren leans close to me. "I hate to admit it, but that was satisfying."
I say nothing because my throat is tight. Valerius didn't say my partner. Didn't say the dean's daughter. Didn't say the Flame's mistake. He said her. You're in her way.
At the end of the corridor, my mother's office doors stand open. Voices carry from inside. My mother's. Magistra Voss's. My father's.
I stop.
The bond mark pulses. Valerius stops beside me. Seren takes my hand.
Inside the office, Magistra Voss says, "With all due respect, Dean Starling, the council has a right to examine any bond that demonstrates abnormal magical behavior."
My mother's voice is cold enough to frost glass. "You have a right to observe academy procedures. Not interrogate my daughter."
"Your daughter," my father says, voice tight, "is now publicly bound to the most dangerous student in this academy. Perhaps answers would benefit all of us."
The words cut. Not because he is wrong, because he sounds more concerned with danger than with me. Valerius shifts beside me. His shoulder brushes mine. The contact is brief. The mark warms.
Inside, Magistra Voss speaks again. "The question is not whether Valentina Starling is in danger." A pause. "The question is whether she is becoming one."
My blood goes cold. Seren's fingers tighten around mine. Valerius goes utterly still.
Then his voice, low and lethal beside me, says, "No."
Before I can stop him, he steps through the open doors. Every person inside turns. My mother behind her desk. My father near the window. Magistra Voss standing like a blade in the center of the room, and Valerius Draven, entering like a shadow that has finally decided to take shape.
I follow because I can't let him face a room speaking about me without me. Seren stays close behind. Magistra Voss's gaze sharpens when she sees us together.
"How convenient," she says. "The bonded pair."
Valerius's eyes don't leave hers. "She is not becoming a danger," he says.
My father's gaze cuts to him. "You don't get to decide that."
Valerius turns his head slowly. "No," he says. "I decide what happens from now on to Valentina."
The room goes silent. My father stiffens. "Careful, boy."
Shadows curl faintly at Valerius's feet. My heart slams. My mother stands. "Enough."
Valerius isn't looking at her. He is looking at my father and his voice is soft when he speaks. "If you had recognized danger sooner, she wouldn't have been alone in hallways with council vultures asking how her skin feels when ancient fire touches it."
The office freezes. Magistra Voss's face goes blank. My mother's eyes flare. My father looks at me sharply. And me? Once again I can barely breathe.
My father's mouth tightens. "This isn't your concern."
The bond mark burns. Valerius steps forward. "It became my concern," he says, "when the Flame put my mark on her wrist."
His mark. My pulse stops. Magistra Voss smiles slowly. My mother goes pale. Valerius realizes his mistake too late. I feel it through the bond. A sharp, dark flash of frustration but the words are already in the room. His mark. Not the bond. Not the Flame's mark. His.
I look at him. He doesn't look back because if he does, maybe we will both understand too much.
Magistra Voss tilts her head. "Possessive of your assignment indeed."
Valerius's expression turns deadly. Before he can answer, I step forward. "No." Every eye turns to me. My voice shakes, but I don't stop. "No more speaking about me like I'm not standing here. No more deciding whether I'm dangerous, weak, protected, examined, or assigned."
My wrist burns. The room seems to tilt toward it. I pull my sleeve back. The gold circle glows. Gasps die before they become sound. Valerius turns sharply toward me. Warning in his eyes. Fear too. I ignore it. The shadow ring is there, faint but visible now, circling the gold.
Magistra Voss's eyes sharpen with triumph.
My mother whispers, "Valentina."
I lift my chin even as terror crawls through me.
"You want to know how the bond feels?" I ask.
Magistra Voss takes one step closer. Valerius moves at the same time.
So does my mother. I stay where I am. "It feels like everyone wants to name it before I understand it," I say.
"It feels like every person in this room is afraid of something they refuse to explain. It feels like the Flame chose me, and all of you are angry because for once, magic did something no one expected."
The mark flares brighter. Valerius's sigils darken. My mother grips the edge of her desk. My father stares at my wrist with an expression I can't bear to read. "And if that makes me dangerous," I whisper, "then maybe you should all stop cornering me."
Silence.
Then the window behind my father cracks. A single line splits the glass from top to bottom. No one moves. No one breathes. I stare at it, frozen. I didn't touch it. I didn't do anything. Did I? The bond mark burns hot enough to ache.
Valerius steps in front of me so fast his body blocks my wrist from view. "Her bond is reacting to stress," he says. His voice is calm. Too calm. "She needs to leave."
Magistra Voss's eyes glitter. "On the contrary. She needs to be examined immediately."
Black flame flickers at Valerius's fingertips.
My mother's voice cuts like steel. "No." The room shakes with the force of that word. Dean Amara Vale Starling stands behind her desk, eyes bright and furious, every inch of her the woman who commands Arcana Academy. "No one examines my daughter without my consent."
Magistra Voss smiles. "The council may overrule parental sentiment."
"Try."
My father turns to my mother. "Amara—"
"Not another word, Alaric." He goes silent.
I have never heard her speak to him like that. Neither has he, judging by his face. For one long moment, mother and Magistra Voss stare at each other across the office, two kinds of power dressed in silk and restraint.
Then Magistra Voss inclines her head. "Very well. For now." The words are a promise. She looks at me around Valerius's shoulder. "We will speak again."
Valerius's flame darkens. "No," he says. Magistra Voss's gaze shifts to him. He stands between us, broad shoulders tense, black fire barely restrained at his hand. "She won't be alone with you again," he says.
The room goes still. My heart hits my ribs so hard it hurts. Magistra Voss smiles like he has given her exactly what she wanted. "We shall see." She walks past us toward the door. As she passes me, the black stones at her chest flicker faintly. My mark burns in answer.
I gasp.
Valerius turns instantly. "What?"
Magistra Voss pauses. I clutch my wrist. The heat vanishes. "I'm fine," I say quickly. Valerius looks at me like he knows I am lying, because he does.
Magistra Voss's smile widens. Then she leaves. The office remains silent after her.
My father looks at me, then the cracked window, then Valerius standing in front of me as if he belongs there. Something hardens in his face. "This has gone far enough," he says.
I almost laugh. Far enough. We are so far beyond enough I can't see the beginning anymore. My mother comes around the desk. "Valentina, come with me."
I step back before she reaches me. Pain flashes across her face. I hate that I caused it. I hate that I can't trust her answers. "I can't," I whisper.
"Valentina." She say with pain in her voice.
"Not right now." I say. I look at Valerius.
Valerius glances at me. For once, he doesn't speak. Maybe he understands. Maybe he is simply waiting to see what I do.
I look back at my mother, and my heart aches so badly I can barely stand it. "I love you," I say softly. "But I don't know when you're protecting me and when you're hiding me."
Her face breaks. Enough to make my own eyes burn. Then I turn and walk out.
Seren follows immediately. Valerius follows too. I don't ask him to. He doesn't ask permission and somehow, after everything, I don't tell him to stop. We make it halfway down the corridor before my knees weaken.
Seren catches my arm. "Val."
"I'm fine." I lie.
"You are aggressively not fine." She says.
Valerius steps close. "Sit down."
"I don't need—"
He stops me. "Sit." His voice snaps with enough force that I obey out of pure shock, dropping onto the stone bench built into the corridor wall.