41. Chapter 41
Brix
The paper trembles between my fingers before I crumple it into my fist hard enough to wrinkle the red ink slashed across the top.
Not technically failing according to Professor Vale’s generous grading scale, but close enough that the comments underneath the score still feel like a punch to the throat.
‘You can do better.’
Around me, students scrape chairs across the stone floor and shove books into bags as the lecture hall empties. Their conversations blend into a dull roar that makes my headache worse. I flatten the paper and stare at the grade again, feeling like a huge disappointment.
I haven’t scored below 90% in over a year.
“Okay,” Sly says beside me, leaning back in his chair as he watches me shove the exam into my bag, “either you’re secretly sneaking out of our room every night to play a vigilante or you finally got hit in the head hard enough during magic frisbee to cause permanent brain damage.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’ve said that fourteen times this week.”
“Maybe because you’ve asked fourteen times,” I respond, annoyed.
“Maybe because you look like you’re about fourteen seconds away from stabbing someone with a pencil,” he says back gently.
I sling my bag over my shoulder harder than necessary and head for the door before he can keep digging.
The academy corridors bustle with students changing classes, the noise bouncing off the high stone arches overhead.
Pride students drift through the center of the hall like they own the academy, while Wrath students barrel through crowds without bothering to apologize.
Somewhere nearby, a cluster of Lusters laugh loudly enough to turn heads.
Everything looks normal.
The entire academy keeps moving like nothing has changed while my life implodes around me.
Sly catches up and falls into step beside me. “You gonna tell me what’s up with you yet?”
“No.”
“Cool. Emotional repression. The classic Wrath approach. Internalize until combustion.”
I shoot him a glare, but he only lifts both hands innocently. “Hey, I just thought that since you have to listen to me bitch several hours a day about how infuriating Holly is being, I owe you some ear time.”
Sly is a great roommate, but he also catches onto everything. He notices I haven’t been sleeping, that my grades are slipping, that I spend half of our meals hanging on to Arwen’s every word.
And he definitely notices how often I look at her. Which is constantly.
We round the western corridor and, like my eyes were already searching for her before I even realize it, I spot Arwen leaning against the wall outside one classroom with her phone in hand.
Her red hair spills over one shoulder while Tabby gestures dramatically beside her, talking fast enough that even from here I can tell she’s ranting about something.
Then Arwen laughs.
The sound lands somewhere behind my ribs.
Universe, this is torture.
A week ago she sat cross-legged on her dorm floor and admitted to all of us that her power apparently only works around Maddox. That somehow the bond feeds it.
I haven’t slept properly since hearing it… information like that is worth everything.
Safety for my sisters… they’d have warm beds and full bellies. No more waking up in the middle of the night in a panic, wondering if it’s time for my mom to be called away. They’d have a future.
All I have to do is report it.
Councilor Drow didn’t ask me to hurt Arwen. He only asked me to observe her. But people like him don’t collect dangerous information without using it, and a girl whose terrifying new power disappears when separated from one specific person is the kind of weakness powerful men exploit.
The thought makes my stomach turn.
Arwen glances up, and our eyes lock across the corridor. For one awkward second, something soft flickers across her face before the weird tension that’s existed between us crashes down all over again.
Ever since she hugged me after I gave her Sadie’s letter, everything between us has felt painfully fragile. Not bad. Just… strained.
She has a bonded now along with her other four complicated bonds. Despite all of it, I still search for her every time I walk into a room.
Tabby notices me staring and immediately smirks like the universe itself has handed her blackmail material.
I flip her off. She looks delighted.
Arwen snorts softly and looks away first, and the stupid ache in my chest only deepens.
“Ah,” Sly says beside me. “So that’s what has you messed up.”
“Don’t.”
“You’re in love with your best friend.”
“I said don’t,” I bite back.
“And she’s got a bond with half the nation.”
I shove him into the wall hard enough that his shoulder slams against the stone, but he just bursts out laughing.
Fucking Wraths. We’re all psychopaths.
“You are unbelievably annoying.”
“And yet,” he says, straightening with a grin, “you can’t deny it.”
I leave before he can say anything worse.
***
The burner phone buzzes in my pocket three hours later while I sit alone in one of the abandoned training fields set away from the academy. Every muscle in my body tightens.
UNKNOWN CALLER flashes across the screen. Right on schedule.
I stare at it for a long moment before answering on the third ring.
“Yes?”
Static crackles through the speaker before the distorted voice responds.
“This is Jessie, aide to Councilor Drow, calling for your report.”
I lean forward, resting my forearms on my knees as I stare out across the empty field. The ground is now overgrown with weeds and brambles. In the distance, I can hear students sparring, metal clashing and instructors barking corrections.
Life keeps moving.
I think about Arwen laughing in the hallway earlier. I picture the panic on her face last week when she admitted her power wasn’t working. The words sit on the tip of my tongue. One sentence is all it would take to change my sisters’ lives forever.
My jaw tightens hard enough to hurt.
“She attends classes,” I say, keeping my voice flat. “Mostly spends time with the same people as last year.”
Silence hums through the line.
“And her power?”
“She hasn’t mentioned it. Said the Dean advised her to keep quiet about what she can do.”
A frustrated sigh sounds across the line.
“Anything else?”
I stare at the cracked stone beneath my boots while guilt claws through my stomach.
“She’s annoyed about the rumors spreading around the academy,” I continue carefully. “People stare at her constantly. She hasn’t confirmed if anything is true.”
Another long pause follows.
“He instructed you to observe carefully.”
“I am.” I close my eyes.
“The Councilor will be disappointed,” the voice says at last. Then the line goes dead.
I lower the phone, dread settling into my chest. The thought of protecting her should provide me with some relief. Instead, all I can think about is what happens when powerful people realize you’re keeping secrets from them.