Chapter 11
After I’m out of the shower and getting dressed, Marsh jumps in.
While he’s getting cleaned up I go looking for Malise, following the sound of rock music to her bedroom.
The door is open so I can see that her room is set up pretty much the same as mine, everything is just on the opposite side.
She’s sitting on her bed with her laptop, smiling when she sees me.
“Hey! Come on in!” She closes her laptop and lays it on the nightstand as I walk over, noticing her room is almost a mix of mine and Marsh's when it comes to coloring. Her floor is a darker wood, and the walls are a light blue, but it’s pretty and feels almost airy.
“How do you like the dorm?” I ask, sitting at the foot of her king bed.
“It’s stunning, like I knew it would be; my mother went here, but her telling me about it and seeing it for myself are so different.
Granted, all I’ve seen so far is some of the Manor House, and what I could see walking from there to here.
How about you? Marsh said you got here ten days ago…
so what do you think?” she asks, standing up.
“I'm going to grab some water. Want one?”
I stand with her, “Sure, we can sit in the kitchen and wait on Marsh.” I sit at the island, while she goes to the fridge and gets two waters out and comes around to sit next to me.
“It's been nice, actually. It’s beautiful here, especially since the weather is so much cooler than back home. The food in the dinning hall is fucking bomb, but I haven’t really interacted much with the other students.
Most started showing up yesterday and the day before, so we've been stressed getting ready for our power assessment, instead of socializing.”
She nods understandingly. Her reply is so rushed, it's hard to keep up with her rapid-fire pace. “I can’t wait to try the food! I’ve heard it’s amazing.
My assessment is tomorrow, and I’m super nervous.
My mom is an air witch, and my dads are fire and water witches.
What were you?” She gasps suddenly, her hand flying to her heart as though startled.
“I’m sorry, that was rude of me to ask!”
I panic slightly, not sure how much I should reveal, since Marsh and I didn’t discuss what we would tell people. I pick up my water and take a slow sip while I reach out to Marsh through our link.
Marsh! Are we telling people what kind of witches we are? We didn’t plan on it, but Malise just asked.
Well, the professor said that all the other instructors and staff would know, so I suppose there isn’t any point in hiding it. I’ll be there in a second.
“I’m really sorry if that came out wrong. I swear I wasn’t trying to offend you,” Malise says sheepishly. “I’ve been told I talk without thinking most of the time.”
Marsh comes around the corner towel drying his hair. “You didn’t offend us, we just weren’t sure what to tell people. Just so you’re prepared for the aftermath, your results don’t stay private, unfortunately for us. To answer your question, we are Nexus witches.”
Her face goes slack with disbelief. “Are you serious? Like the old queen of Astrexus?”
“You know about Astrexus?” I ask, surprised.
She nods. “Yeah, my grandparents live next to us, and they are from Astrexus and came here a couple years after the war. My uncle was a baby and was too small to travel to the gate when the fighting first started, so they had to wait till he was older.”
“Do you know much about what happened?” Marsh asks, pulling out the chair to my left.
“According to my nanny and paps, the queen of Astrexus, Lillianna, was an amazing leader before the war broke out. She was fair, kind, and truly did her best to take care of all the people of her realm. In the royal line, each generation has twins, and one of the twins is picked to be king or queen while the other is chosen to be high priest or priestess. The twin not chosen as the ruler is next in line to rule if anything happens, until another set of twins is born. It doesn’t matter which sibling the twins come from, or how many older siblings there are.
” She pauses and takes a drink of her water, giving us a minute to process everything.
This is crazy. What are the chances of us being twins given the lore she’s revealing about the royal family?
Fuck, I hope we are just some distant cousins.
She sets her water down. “Sorry, my allergies are kicking my ass. I’m from Maine and all the pollen here has my throat dry as hell.
As I was saying, no matter what, of the next set of twins born to either the ruling twin or the high priest, one is always chosen by the gods as the next Queen or King.
Well Queen Lillianna’s twin brother Logan wasn’t happy being sidelined, but he knew he couldn’t outright murder his sister, so he slowly started making waves amongst the people.
He would do little things to make Queen Lilly look like she was going crazy.
I’m sure you both know that a lot of witches have more than one partner.
Some get lucky and find their true circle members, others find the person or people that just fit, but aren't a true match.
The queen had the most members of any known circle with five, but it's super rare to have so many. Most circles have the core and at least three. Logan only had two, which my nanny said was a huge reason he was so jealous.”
This is the craziest shit I’ve ever heard. My mind is racing; I can barely follow along with the impromptu history lesson. Through our bond I can feel the confusion and horror coming from Marsh, too.
“After a couple decades of the back and forth of Logan trying to make her people lose faith, followed by Queen Lilly trying to fix the damage, something happened to make him lose his mind, until he snapped. He began to think that if something happened to her, then he would end up king, since he was the heir. At that point, no one had seen the queen in months; everyone was told she was traveling the realm, or some other excuse to explain her absence, so when there was a grand ball announced, everyone was thrilled to finally see her again. There was a big declaration that Queen Lilly was supposed to make, except she never got the chance. After the dinner when she was walking up to her throne to make the announcement, Logan-who was walking next to her since his seat was on the dais below hers-took out a knife and stabbed her through the heart. One of her circle members was a powerful healer, but even he couldn't save her. While everyone in attendance was standing there in shock and confusion, Logan went and sat on her throne, declaring himself King. Fifteen minutes to the second after he killed his sister, he died just as suddenly. My paps said Logan’s chest started bleeding in the same exact spot that he’d stabbed his sister.
According to him, there is a prophecy about the twins in the royal family and if one was to harm the other they would suffer the same fate.
What's really crazy is Logan was exactly fifteen minutes younger than Queen Lilly.”
Well, fuck me. What kind of crazy shit is this? Royal twins? One killing the other? A prophecy?