52. Chapter 52
Arwen
Iskip my next class.
Normally I’d feel guilty about it. Professor Lennox already looks at me like I’m a disappointing science experiment half the time, and the academy has become aggressive about attendance since the lockdown.
But right now, I couldn’t care less. There’s only one thing on my mind.
Alexi’s words have been rattling around in my skull ever since he threw them at me in the hallway.
Tell me, have you ever wondered why your friendship with Brix crumbled so spectacularly? Maybe you should ask him.
The problem is that Alexi shouldn’t know anything about that. How would he?
I told myself that Brix and I simply drifted apart after everything that happened last year.
His face flashes in my mind. The memory of when I’d gone to him after learning the truth about Ryker. Spiraling and scared. I’d already dumped problem after problem into his lap for months. He shut me out, unable to take the burden of more problems from me.
It was heartbreaking but understandable. My friendship comes with a lot of baggage.
At the time, I’d accepted it. What else was I supposed to do?
The hurt never really went away, though. Brix had been one of my best friends. One of the people I’d built myself around at the academy. Losing him that suddenly had felt like losing a wall I hadn’t known I was leaning on.
I desperately miss the boy with the warm chocolate brown eyes, who would always tell dumb jokes to lift my spirits when I was upset. The one who never seemed embarrassed to be seen with me when almost everyone else treated me like a disease.
This year has been different. He’s felt distant and maybe even a little broken. Quiet and withdrawn. The Brix I knew doesn’t seem there anymore. I wanted to check in, I really did. But I’ve been telling myself not to pry. When he’s ready, he’ll come to me.
That ends now.
I make it to the Wrath male dormitory on autopilot, barely registering the walk over. I stop outside his door and stare at it for a second, memories of rejection returning from that night. But I’m not that same scared person anymore.
Please be here.
I knock, and a few moments later the door swings open. Brix freezes at the sight of me, eyes wide.
“Arwen?”
For a second, he just stares at me. Then his eyes cut sideways down the hallway—a quick, involuntary flicker—before coming back to my face. His grip on the door shifts, and he pulls it slightly toward himself, like he’s already thinking about closing it. Something is very wrong.
“What are you doing here?”
“We need to talk.” My voice comes out steadier than I feel. My arms cross over my chest, a barrier against the tremor in my hands.
His expression tightens. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. I’m pretty busy with homework and I’m already behind in—”
Irritation flares as I step closer, refusing to let him shut me out. “I know something is wrong, Brix.”
His jaw clenches as his hand grips tighter on the door.
“What’s going on with Ryker?”
His entire body goes rigid as the color drains from his face.
“I ran into Alexi, who told me to ask you about Ryker. Why would Alexi know anything about my friendship with you? Why would he tell me to ask about Ryker? What is going on?”
Brix looks away, and my heart sinks. Because that means he knows exactly what I’m referring to. Something has been going on behind my back. He swallows hard.
“Brix. Please. Talk to me.”
For several seconds he just stands there. Then something in his expression breaks. Like a dam giving way. “Come in.”
I walk in, keeping my attention on his face.
I sit on the edge of his bed while Brix paces the room.
Neither of us speak for several minutes until he stops and his shoulders slump.
Whatever weight he has been carrying is taking a toll.
I can see it in the lines of his face and the bags under his eyes.
“I don’t even know where to start.”
“The beginning would be best.”
A humorless laugh escapes him. He drags a hand through his curly hair, ruffling it.
“Okay. Well then, we need to go way back. You probably know how the Wrath housing system works for orphans or most kids whose parents have been deployed?”
I nod. I know how it works. Sadie’s family took me in, but if you have no one and no money for a governess, you go to the housing system.
Officially for care. In reality, overcrowded and neglected.
Kids get thrown in with violent older teens just trying to survive.
I’ve heard the stories. Brix stares at the floor, and his voice makes my stomach drop.
“Dylan was my best friend. He got sent to one when we were ten and he didn’t make it out.”
Silence fills the room, and I close my eyes, feeling the hurt in his voice vibrating through my body, carving a hole in my heart.
“Brix...”
His voice cracks. “He kept coming to school with injuries. He said he was fine, but clearly no one in charge was stopping anything. Nobody cared.”
Brix sinks into the chair across from me. “My mom could be called back into active service at any time.”
I nod slowly.
“If that happens...” He swallows hard. “My sisters don’t have anyone.”
Everything clicks into place. His obsessive effort to be the best in school. Every moment Brix pushed himself until he looked ready to collapse.
“I worked my ass off to get into this academy,” he says quietly. “I’m not special. I don’t have a unique power. My ability is common at best.”
His laugh is harsh. I hate hearing him talk about himself that way. It’s not just about the power; it’s the way you use it. Everything from this past year has taught me that, and Brix has proved it time and time again.
“But I made it to the academy. And if I do well, I can get a suitable position when I graduate and all the perks that come with it. It would be enough to keep my little sisters safe.”
His eyes meet mine. “They won’t end up like Dylan.”
The certainty in his voice hurts. This isn’t ambition; it’s desperation. I open my mouth, but he cuts me off.
“There’s more.”
The words come out strangled.
“Last year… Ryker threatened me. He saw us out and getting closer while we were pretending to date to get back at Atticus. And… well, he didn’t like it.”
White hot rage unfurls in my chest.
“He said if I didn’t back off, it would be very easy for someone like me to lose my place here. Arwen, he’s a Councilor’s son,” he says desperately. “You’ve seen the political favoritism play out with Professors. There is no doubt he could carry out that threat."
He’s right. Ryker could have done it.
“That’s why you turned me away when I came to you that night. That’s why you looked so torn about it.”
His face crumples, a raw, unguarded fracture in his usual composure, and in that moment, I see the full weight of every sleepless night.
“You should’ve told me.” I say adamantly.
“I know.” He exhales hard. “I was a coward. I knew if he found out that I told you, I’d be in the next car home.”
Two feelings hit at once, neither of them simple. Months of chances to tell me, and he didn’t take a single one. But then I think about him sitting with all of it by himself, and the anger loses some of its footing.
Before I can say any of that, he speaks again.
“There is one more thing.” His eyes mist over. “Councilor Drow asked me to spy on you.”
My heart stops. “What?”
Brix nods and hides his face in his hands. “It happened during summer break. He said that if I provided information about you...” His voice breaks. “That my sisters would be provided for. He knew so much, Arwen… all of my weak spots.”
My chest tightens. Has Brix really been betraying my secrets this whole time? No. No way.
“He just wanted reports on who you were talking to. What you were doing. What was happening with your power. Whether you were becoming a threat.”
He looks up, and a single tear breaks over the edge and falls down his face. My heart feels like it’s going to pound out of my chest. Does the Council know how vulnerable I am?
I stare at him. “Brix... Does he know about my power dependency?”
His words pour out with urgency. “I didn’t tell him anything. The reports I gave him were all standard bull shit, that you were attending classes, hanging out with the same friends. I told him you wouldn’t talk about your power.”
His eyes are red and desperate. “I swear to you.”
“I believe you.”
The statement leaves my mouth without question. I know with this, Brix is a person I can trust. Brix kept his word even when it cost him.
“I haven’t slept properly in months. My grades are dropping. I can’t focus on anything anymore and I feel all my friends drifting away,” he admits.
His laugh shakes, and he wipes at his face.
“I don’t know why I just told you that; I’m not the victim here. I keep screwing everything up.”
The sight of him breaking, multiple tears falling down his face, shatters whatever distance I’ve been maintaining. I stand, cross the room and wrap my arms around him.
For a second, he freezes.
Then he breaks completely. His shoulders shake beneath my hands. Months of guilt and fear all spilling out at once. I hold on tighter.
“It’s not your fault.” My voice is firm.
“You should’ve told me. You should’ve trusted me enough to let me help, but it’s not your fault. If anyone understands keeping secrets and trust issues, it’s me.
That finally earns a weak huff of laughter.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t help you that night. I swear, I’m haunted by the moment I shut the door in your face.”
It’s haunted me as well.
For a while neither of us say anything more.
I just sit beside him while he gets himself back under control.
As the silence stretches, a realization settles in my chest. Just like Maddox with his violent sibling rivalry, Atticus’s manipulative father, Chloe being blackmailed to work for a gang. Everyone is trapped.
We may have different cages. Different chains.
But we’re in the same prison. Everyone is trying to survive something. And it always ties back to those in power.
Brix wipes his face and looks at me. “I don’t deserve your friendship.”
I shake my head. “You know that’s not true. I forgive you. But trust isn’t a switch, Brix. We’re not going back to normal tomorrow, but we can work toward it.”
His shoulders sag but determination flickers in his eyes.
“You’re giving me more than I should get.
” His voice is raw, stripped bare. “I won’t—I can’t—betray you again, Arwen.
You mean… so much to me.” He swallows, the sound thick in the quiet room.
“This distance has been killing me. I’ll earn your trust back.
I’ll tell you everything. But I won’t promise to stop doing everything that I can to protect my sisters. I can’t.”
I squeeze his shoulder. “We’ll figure something out. We won’t let your sisters end up in the system.”
Something releases in him—I can feel it, the way his entire body changes under my arms. I don’t move.
I stay there until his breathing steadies.
By the time it does, something has already hardened in me.
His sisters won’t end up like Dylan. I’ll make sure of it.
I’m going to figure out a way to protect my friends. At all costs.