Chapter 41
It was a Wednesday afternoon, but it was far from a normal day—Kiara was joining today’s training session.
Zion and I had spent an hour arguing about bringing her. He wanted to and I didn’t, but Zion, as always, ended up winning the argument, saying she was getting bitter from being alone at home and needed to socialize with more people. He wasn’t wrong.
When the two of them materialized at the entrance, the whole class panicked.
Lorena, who was near the apparition, screamed as if the devil himself had materialized in the gym, so the boys ran over to see what all the commotion was about, and soon chaos ensued.
Zion had to shout over the chatter and explained with all the patience in the world what a chimera was, introducing her as if she were one of us.
For a good part of the training, the students stayed scared and avoided getting too close to the creature, veering away when they saw her nearby.
But I knew it was only a matter of time before she won their hearts.
Kiara was even behaving well, running with the class across the field and having fun with the circuit.
At the end of training, my hands were sweating as I held the bow and arrows.
Breno, Aish, Hiro, and I were positioning ourselves to start the archery competition.
Breno laid out the rules: we’d shoot ten arrows, and the first to miss the target would be eliminated.
Then we’d move the target back each round until we had an undefeated winner.
Aish was the first one out and didn’t seem happy about it at all, spouting Amperian curse words we’d never heard in our lives.
The three of us laughed while she cursed and went to the targets to position them ten meters farther away. Finally, she came back to us.
“Ready!” she shouted, sounding like a general. We grabbed our arrows, positioning them on the bow.
“Aim!” We pulled back the bowstring with the arrow nocked, aiming at the center of the target.
“Fire!”
We shot. The three arrows cut through the air together, hitting the colored circles. Hiro’s was the most centered.
“Ready!” Aish shouted again. “Aim! Fire!”
And this repeated until Breno was finally disqualified. Beside me, Hiro flashed me an ambitious smile.
“Where did you learn to shoot like that?” he asked.
“A little from Cauê, a little from Zion, and now in my dreams.”
He laughed, probably thinking it was a joke. While Aish and Breno positioned the target ten meters farther away, I saw Zion watching us from the other side of the field. Around him, some students were also watching, entertained.
“And you? Where did you learn to shoot?”
“Ready!” Aish shouted, raising a hand.
“My mother taught me when I was little.”
“Was she good?”
“Aim!”
He aimed with concentration and I did the same.
“She was more than good. She was Drutes. She used to say the Goddess of War walked beside us. So we never miss.”
My whole skin broke out in goosebumps.
“Fire!”
We finished tied, all ten arrows lodged in the center of the target.
By the time we finally went to put away the weapons, the sun had already set and most of the students had left.
Breno and Aish had left earlier since they’d made plans to marathon some old movie they liked.
Hiro, meanwhile, seemed happy and distracted, listening to music through his red earbuds while throwing a stick for Kiara to fetch.
I sat down at the archery bay table to watch the two of them having fun.
“Hiro?” I called, while he smiled watching Kiara’s playful gait as she ran to fetch the stick from among the trees. Hiro was the only one who had gotten close enough to Kiara to touch her, and now she followed him everywhere, her eyes happy and bright from having made a new friend.
“Yeah?” he replied, lowering his headphones to his neck.
“Why only now?”
He looked at me and frowned, seeming confused.
“You’re going to have to be more specific. I can’t even remember what I had for lunch.” He gave me a restrained smile. Dimples marked his cheeks.
“We studied together for four years. You had the chance to talk to me that whole time and never even bothered to learn my name. Then Aish showed up and here we are. Why now?”
He turned to me, this time ignoring Kiara, who dropped the stick at his feet and waited expectantly.
“It’s complicated for me, Kyller.”
He crossed his arms and looked around, visibly uncomfortable.
“Complicated how? I don’t want to be annoying or anything. It’s just that I’ve been thinking about it. You’re also part descendant and you ignored me all those years.”
His eyes met mine with a serious look. A look I’d never seen on Hiro.
“Do you know what my last name is?” he asked, picking up the stick and throwing it into the air again. The muscles in his arms tensed, straining the shirt that was already tight in that area.
“Zois,” I murmured, trying to understand where he was going with this.
“Do you know anyone else with that last name, besides me?” he asked, following Kiara as she ran toward the horizon, now almost covered by darkness.
“No, you’re the only one I know.”
“And Voluz? Do you know anyone else with that name?”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Zion and I. We're the only ones I know.”
I thought about mentioning Serguei, but quickly realized it wasn't a good idea since people didn't know he was Zion's father. Serguei didn't need a last name to be feared—his first name alone was enough.
“Exactly. You're a descendant with a powerful last name, Kyller.
Anyone who hears your last name will think twice before doing anything against you.
But for me, it's different. Zois means nothing in Interion, and there's no one to protect me but myself.
I know you've been attacked at the academy because of your genetics, but believe me, that's nothing compared to life outside.
Beyond the inner walls, things get rough.
I didn't approach you because I've managed to fly under the radar—I was lucky enough to look more Interian than Drutes.
But if I'd become your friend when you were still a target, your attackers would've turned on me, and I don't know how bad things would've gotten.
Probably very bad. And I don't want to end up like my parents.”
“What happened to them?” I asked right away.
“My mother was a Drutes half-breed and my father was Interian. They both died when I was nine, during an anti-Drutes attack. They were closing up the market where they worked when it happened. My father died defending her.”
“I'm sorry, Hiro.” I stared at my hands, feeling awful after hearing that.
“After they died, my grandparents took care of me—they were already elderly and frail. Our family was never rich. We lost everything in the old purges and ended up living in a shack near the outer wall.” He paused and took a deep breath, as if trying to collect his thoughts.
“Anyway, you don't need to know the whole story.
What I'm trying to say is that we're poor, Kyller.
“Even though they could barely manage, they raised me in poverty.
When I turned twelve, I started working at a human bakery—it was the only place that would take me.
I chop wood at dawn to feed the ovens and wake up early to bake bread and keep the place running.
Now I can afford a house for them in the human neighborhood, and we're accepted there, even though I have descendant features.
I'm the family's sole provider, and if I get into trouble, I'll lose my job or my scholarship at the academy—and then they'll have nothing.
I can't afford to get into trouble. If I get expelled from the academy for fighting, my grandparents end up in poverty.
If I die, they end up in poverty. If I get marked somehow and can't land a decent salary after graduation, guess what?
They end up in poverty! And you? You've always smelled like trouble to me.
Call me a coward if you want—I don't care, as long as my grandparents have food in their stomachs every day.”
Now I felt bad for questioning him. Hiro's reasons were solid, and I understood. Breno had gotten into more scrapes than I could count on my fingers because of me, but his last name always saved him. The Lutieve lineage carried the future of Interion's blockers. But Zois? Hiro was absolutely right.
“I understand. When you put it that way, you shouldn't even be talking to me right now.”
“I know,” he said, a dimple appearing as a half-smile tugged at his cheek. “After Aish showed up, some things changed. I heard Amperian women don't like cowardly men.”
I stared at him in horror, and still not quite believing the absurdity coming out of his mouth, I raised my hand. Without thinking, I smacked the back of his head. Hiro burst out laughing and backed away, rubbing the sore spot.
“For a Drutes, you don't hit very hard,” he said, laughing.
“What is going through your head?” I asked, circling him while Kiara watched us in confusion. “You're risking your life and your family's lives over a woman?” I shouted.
Luckily, there were only two students nearby, and they were busy with a sword match.
“She's not just a woman. She's the woman!” he joked, raising his hands to defend himself.
“I thought there was a limit to stupidity, but congratulations, Hiro!”