Chapter 16 Wrong Place, Wrong Time
The courtyard was drenched in late Sunday light, shadows of the ancient sequoias stretching long from the King Forest that wrapped Elarion Academy like a living wall. Their trunks, wide as towers, glowed copper-red where the sun touched them.
Shakari, Soehl, and the twins had claimed one of the benches at the edge of the courtyard, carved straight from a fallen sequoia, its wood so dark and smooth it gleamed like polished stone.
Our plates of dinner balanced on our knees, but none of us was eating anymore.
The breeze shifted, rustling through the branches, and the glow of the setting sun spilled between them in fractured beams, painting everything gold.
Me, Shakari, Soehl, and the twins, Rowan and Tran. My core. My family was here, whether I admit it aloud or not.
But the dream still clung to me, heavy as ash in my lungs.
The screams. The fire. The female’s voice curling in my ear, screams I couldn’t forget.
Words that felt less like a dream and more like a warning.
I couldn’t shake the fear that it wasn’t about what might happen, but about what I might do. What I already was. Dangerous.
Once, I whispered the truth to Shakari between classes. Soehl was left out until last night, my screams woke her. The twins, Rowan and Tran, had stood by me through bruises and drills holding me upright, pushing me forward. After all they'd given, didn’t they deserve honesty? I owed them this.
My throat cinched tight, and my fingers dug restless patterns against my knees. “I need to tell you something,” I said, quieter than I intended, but the words still sliced the air.
Four pairs of eyes locked on me.
So I let it spill, the fire in the village, the screams, the Siren’s warning: that Solenharts had not always belonged to Emberkeep.
The confession left me raw, exposed, as if I’d peeled my skin back and set my heart in their hands.
For a moment, no one spoke. Even the forest seemed to hush.
The twins, usually the loudest, shared a glance. Rowan snorted, elbowed my arm, and grinned. “Dreams, secrets, sirens. It is never dull with you, Thea. We got you,” he said.
Relief came sharp and sudden, like a breath after drowning. The knot in my chest loosened, and a shaky laugh escaped me. For the first time since I’d arrived, I didn’t feel like I was carrying it all alone.
“I’ll help with the research,” Soehl said, bright as ever. “I’m in the library anyway.”
“But enough of my drama,” I said, forcing a smile. “Tell me everything about yesterday in Wolventon. I need a distraction. I’ve never been to that town, and I doubt I’ll ever get to if I don’t start winning fights.”
That set them all off at once, the mood shifting just enough to pull us out of our worries and into raucous stories. Laughter echoed, carrying us from confessions to the cheerful chaos of their night in Wolventon.
“That bar’s a ten. I get why people fight to leave the academy for it. It’s the best for blowing off steam,” Shakari said, nodding appreciatively.
“Speak for Dragontail. Emberkeep and Auroric visit Wolventon all the time, we make half the potions you drink,” Soehl replied, smirking at Shakari.
Auroric students learned more than chants and gestures.
Their training bent toward potions, healing, and the fragile lattice of spells that kept the veils intact.
Emberkeep buried itself in strategy and politics, Dragontail in steel and combat, but Auroric hands stirred vials that could coax peace into a restless mind or pull the truth from a liar’s throat.
Yet potion craft was fickle; even among Aurorics, few truly mastered it.
“Like the calming potion you drank, spent the whole night slow dancing with Jan Radke. Not even to slow music,” Tran teased.
“He is a really good slow dancer,” Soehl said, her cheeks flushing pink. That only made them laugh harder. I was happy for them.
“There were potions for everything, aphrodisiac, exaltation, relaxation. I took the exaltation one. It lasted all night,” Rowan said, grinning.
“And I don’t know which potion Rory had, maybe the aphrodisiac, but they were dancing with a lot of guys from town, and Lorik was not there watching any of it,” Shakari said, a gleam of mischief in her eyes as she held the sharpest secret in the room.
“I heard he refrains from going to those places,” Tran muttered.
“Aphrodisiac potions just amplify attraction, they don’t create it. If she weren’t interested, the potion wouldn’t do anything,” Soehl said, slipping into lecture mode.
We all cracked up. She sounded like she was defending an academy thesis.
“Maybe she’s just addicted to males,” I said flatly. “Honestly, wouldn’t surprise me.” “She’s hilarious, too,” Rowan said. “You’d never guess it from the papers.”
“Never trust the papers,” I said, brushing it off.
“Anyways, I really hope I get to go soon. I need win in the Hall of Mirrors. Then I’ll get to go myself, grab a potion, loosen up.
Maybe even dance. Couldn’t do that in the Glass Castle.
The only time I tried one potion was when Shakari smuggled me out to the Golden City. ”
“You’ll win,” Shakari said, her voice turning serious now. Like it mattered more to her than any training session.
“You’ll live like a real Dragontail,” Tran added. “We’ll make sure of it.”
“Yes, look at you, Dragontail life, chasing after that noble Emberkeep in your class. What’s her name again?” Rowan snorted, turning to Tran.
“Camelia Aric,” Tran muttered quietly.
I arched a brow. “Good luck,” I said dryly.
Shakari laughed. “Stick to Dragontail females, Tran. No Emberkeep will marry you,” she teased.
“Stupid rules,” he grumbled. “She was radiant and I swear she was into me.” Rowan raised his glass. “Maybe, but Emberkeep might flirt with us, not marry us.”
Their bickering made Shakari double over laughing, and even Soehl hid her smile behind her hand. It was loud and messy and ridiculous, and for a while, I let myself laugh too. The ache in my chest eased as I joined my friends’ laughter.
We lingered until the courtyard began to empty, the noise thinning to quiet between bursts of laughter. Night pressed in, and the group drifted to tired goodbyes. I waited, letting those last echoes slip away before following the lantern-lit path out of the courtyard.
Finally, they drifted off toward the dorms, still teasing one another, their footsteps and laughter trailing away into the dark. I lingered at the edge of the courtyard, reluctant to let the warmth of it go. The lanterns flickered low as the day surrendered to night.
And in that hush, called by a need for solitude I couldn't ignore, my feet carried me along the walkway behind Solphire Tower, toward the waiting hush of the trees.
The Sequoia Trail opened before me like a cathedral. Towering red trunks rose on either side, roots twisting over the path like veins. The air cooled the deeper I walked, heavy with moss and pine, the faint rush of the river pulling me forward.
The trees thinned at last, breaking open into a meadow awash with yellow flowers, a sunlit clearing cradled by ancient trunks.
I stepped forward slowly, as though intruding upon something sacred, each breath catching on the stillness.
Then I let myself fall into the flowers, their soft petals closing over me until I was hidden, face lifted to the fading sun as if to be blessed by its final light.
I used to do this with my father before he passed.
Before the crown and the weight of expectation.
He would take me riding into the castle woods, and when we found a clearing, we would sit in silence, shoulder to shoulder, watching the sun sink.
He said that regardless of which faction you were, the nature would not recharge your magic, but it would recharge your spirit.
But here, now, with the light spilling across my skin, I felt the loosening, the ache turning soft. For a moment, I could almost imagine him beside me again, quiet, steady, watching the sky burn itself out.
I stayed until the shadows stretched long and the ache dulled, then finally turned back toward the trail.
That was when I heard them.
Sharp voices, cutting across the hush of the forest.
I pressed myself against the gnarled trunk of an ancient tree, heart thudding. I felt them close, and I recognized those voices anywhere.
“Did you have fun yesterday?” Marla Yung said.
“Yes,” Rory Rey replied, her voice low and edged. “A bit of potions, some laughing and dancing, and no Solenhart for once.”
Of course, they were friends, not sure why I didn’t expect it. They might have been from different factions, but friendship across factions was not extremely uncommon. Despicable people are always drawn together.
“Tell me about it. She’s everywhere lately. Her being in Dragontail was never part of the plan. Now I have to see her all the time.” Marla’s voice purred, thick with smugness.
Rory answered. “Ugo says I overdid it with the princess on the mat; he even pulled me away at the end. But I had to. After what her family did…”
Marla scoffed. “Yes, they forget who she is. I don’t understand what Thalen sees in her. He even made a whole jealousy scene in the arena.”
“Forget about Thalen Barret,” Rory said flatly. “You need to stop wasting time on him. Stop drooling.”
Then other footsteps. Two of them and a honey-jasmine scent I knew instantly. Lorik Draventh.
“Rory is right, Marla. Thalen Barret is an entitled prick who thinks he’s above everyone else,” Lorik said, his voice dry as sand.
And he wasn’t wrong. Thalen had always carried himself like a noble raised above the commoners, always certain he deserved more, even when he tried to pretend otherwise.
“Look who honors us with his presence,” Rory joked. “We missed you yesterday.” “You know bars and potions aren’t really my thing,” Lorik said.
“Our lives are stressful enough. A little fun helps,” Marla chimed.
“Your eyes, Rory,” Ugo said quietly. “Did you drink potions yesterday? You need to...” “I can do it by the river. We are late,” Rory said with a kind, soft voice I barely recognized. Their footsteps cracked the underbrush, fading into the forest.
I waited, still as stone, until silence crept back in and the river’s roar filled the space where voices had been. But the moment I stepped from my hiding place, Lorik Draventh was already there, waiting.
He shoved me back, pinning me against the wide base of the sequoia. His eyes burned as he loomed over me, close enough to feel the heat rolling off him.
“So, you do like to lurk and follow me,” he said with an edge of amusement.
“I could say the same about you,” I snapped, fury rising in my chest. “I was here first. Now move away.”
I tried to push him, but it didn't help.
“I asked what you were doing here.” He commanded.
“Fine!” I said, giving up the fight. “I was recharging my spirit with nature. Happy? I was not trying to spy on you.”
He lifted a frown with curiosity. A face I hadn’t seen wear before.
“Interesting choice of words.”
“Are you done? Let me go,” I demanded.
I pulled fire into my hands out of my uncontrolled range, and fear mingled together. I pushed fire into him, but without a doubt, he pulled a wall of shadows around him to block the flames.
Lorik still didn’t flinch.
My fire was extinguished as quickly as it came from my hands.
“Now that is how you channel your emotions to combat,” Lorik said, almost impressed, stepping back to let me walk away.
“Stop pretending you care about mentoring me. I will tell Professor Hog to remove me from your mentees.” I chastised him while walking to the trail again, as fast as I could, without looking desperate.
“Good luck with that.”
“You forget, I’m the heir of Solenhart. Privilege follows me whether I want it or not,” I said, letting the sarcasm cut sharply.
I turned without waiting for a response and walked quickly, not wanting to feel like I was fleeing. By the time I reached my room, the corridors had gone still. Soehl wasn’t there, probably buried in the library again, which left me alone with the silence.
Alone with thoughts I couldn’t outrun.