Chapter 40
Remarkably, I make it to the dining hall. Rich smells fill the air, pooling saliva in my mouth as my stomach grumbles. I imagine I look like Pip scarfing down the mountain of food on my plate. I take a break to breathe, peering up to see the rest of my Zenith needling me with their glares.
“What?” I mumble over a mouth full of food. I swear, Pip moves to grab food off my plate, my eyes darting down at my arm, but nothing’s amiss.
“Aside from the fact that you just ate dinner like a feral dog… Where the fuck was S?las today?” Kissa snips.
“How am I supposed to know where the shadow prick is? I’m not his keeper.” I huff, shoving another helping of food into my mouth. I can’t remember the last time I was this hungry.
“Ha! Shadow prick. I’m going to call him that from now on.” Eko cackles, landing him an elbow to the gut from Seraph.
“I could smell him all over you this morning in class. So don’t act like you weren’t the last one to see him,” Kissa hisses under her breath, clearly trying to keep it quiet. But from the look on everyone’s face, she’s failed miserably.
I shrug in response. “Ask Seraph. She’s his best friend.”
“Oh no. Fuck that. Don’t look at me! He’s been too busy with your Bloodline pairing to get up to trouble with me the last few days.” Seraph smirks as she takes a sip of her drink.
“Of course he would be your Bloodline pairing.” Cinder’s amber eyes roll.
“You should be able to sense him along the tether of your bond,” Kivi hums, as if it were just a matter of fact, like she is just discussing the Celestials be dimmed weather. I don’t even know how she knows about that. Since I didn’t tell her, it must have been S?las.
Everyone’s jaw drops at the table, even Cinder’s. Atlas keeps his composure; clearly, he knew. Seraph’s guzzling her drink now, also telling me she knew, which isn’t that surprising being his best friend.
“Not a bond between us,” I snap. “I think what Kivi meant to say”—I narrow my eyes on her for not including the part about it being our dragon’s bond while she tends to the mushrooms on her arms, unfazed by my glare—“is that our dragons are a mated pair. Their bond tethers us.”
Seraph is now choking on her drink while Atlas taps his fingers nervously, and Kivi continues to tend to her fungi, as if she hadn’t been the one to even bring up this whole cursed thing.
I’m not sure I like any of their reactions to this.
Clearly, they know more than they are letting on.
Just another reason I need to speak with the shadow prick himself.
“How unusual. We haven’t had a mated, bonded pair since Gildora and Raeya.” Gearin readjusts his spectacles before curling his white mustache in contemplation.
“Except my great-great-great-great-great-grandparents were the last-known Fated mate pair in Cascara, since the end of the Celestials reign of Elyndor,” Fenwick pips, a radiant smile on her face as always.
Everyone’s mouth falls open, except for Juniper—her best friend—and Atlas—our Savant, who seems to know everything. I guess it’s not that surprising that Fenwick, the most powerful Radiant since Raeya, is her descendent.
“Putting all that aside… it still doesn’t explain why S?las wasn’t there for flight maneuvers today.
” Now it’s Kissa’s chartreuse eyes narrowing on me.
I try not to crumble under the weight of her fierce feline stare.
I avoid her by taking a long sip of my soothing frostflower tea.
Her whiskers glimmer under her forming scowl.
My nervousness failing to slide by unnoticed.
“Did something happen between you two?” Kissa eyes me suspiciously.
I shrug, trying not to let her cutting scrutiny unravel my mask of indifference. The last thing I want is the messy slew of feelings between me and S?las being dissected by my team in the public setting of the dining hall.
“We were training in the Warded Hallow. He helped me make progress controlling my Chaos Magic. Then he smiled, gave me a look, and in typical fashion, he vanished,” I admit, leaving out the part where I loudly thought, he’s mine.
Since there’s no way he could have known that, and there’s no way in Emberhell I’m bringing it to the dinner table for group discussion.
“Did he give you his classic smirk and a look or a real smile?” Eko chimes in, and I’m not certain I like where he’s going with the little bit of information I did reveal.
“Does it matter?” I shrug, hoping to brush it off.
“Of course it matters.” Orion’s candy-red eyes pin me to the spot. I don’t know why I thought I could get away with this, given she can literally read Auras.
“He gave me a genuine smile and a look,” I mumble in defeat.
The table erupts in murmurs as if I just revealed the most scandalous fact of the evening. I grumble, seeing Seraphina has managed to sneak off in the kerfuffle. She’s exceptionally good at that. Fucking sly Spycraft abilities. I imagine she wants to avoid any further questioning on the matter.
I try to sneak off too, but I’m not as lucky. Kissa grabs me by the shoulder, shoving me right back into my seat.
“Not so fast. Why was he smiling at you, and why can’t you reach S?las through your dragons’ mated bond?”
An exasperated sigh whittles my ribs.
“He was smiling because he was proud that he was right and his lesson helped me hit all the right targets in the Warded Hollow. I’m sure I only made his ego bigger. And I can’t reach him because he’s shielding against the bond. Scáil is, too. Clearly, they don’t want to be reached.”
Eko and Orion are both shaking their heads. Evidently, that’s not a good enough reason for S?las to have a genuine smile. Kivi mumbles something under her breath about a bond as spores swirl around her fingers.
So I add, “Again, I hit every red target, guys. Maybe he’s happy I won’t be murdering you all on the battlefield when I use my powers.”
“I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen that male genuinely smile. And I grew up with him.” Eko holds up a fist.
A twinge of sadness tugs at my heart, knowing the world is missing such a beautiful smile. Then I think about how him disappearing afterward is all the more suspicious. He’s never been one to shy away from his chaotic emotions.
“You need to let us know immediately if you sense anything concerning down the tether. Let’s table this discussion for tonight.
I expect you both to report to me and Gearin tomorrow after classes.
We’ll need to see if this tether will interfere with your Rune Tech communication ring.
We can’t have you two arguing in your heads and missing important information being relayed regarding the battle. Celestials Blessings to you all.”
Atlas stands up with Kivi, and they bow in synch before taking leave. Thank the Celestials for Atlas’ decision.
I can’t get up fast enough to leave when Kissa stops me, yet again.
“Want me to walk you back to your room?”
“No, I’m good. Calais said I need to meet her after dinner. Don’t worry, I don’t think Chet will try anything with her so close by.”
She crosses her arms, giving me a wary look. “I wouldn’t put it past him. It’s really no problem, Savaé.”
I shake my head in response and will my exhausted body to move again.
Once I am out of the dining hall, I reach out to Calais to confirm where I’m meeting her. “Northern or Southern field?”
“Northern.”