Chapter Twenty-One
TWENTY-ONE
‘Oh,’ I grimace. ‘You really think there are things in there from his time? That was almost a millennium ago.’
‘Achātēs was the Star of knowledge, Aria,’ Tilly says. ‘I have no doubt he found some way to preserve his history down there.’
In the grand scheme of things, I realise that I know very little about Achātēs.
Other than he and his celestial siblings helped create our world and the academy we stand within today.
I know of the battle that raged between the Stars.
How three of them came together to defeat the youngest and most menacing Star, while being led by Achātēs, the oldest of them all.
They chased their sibling all the way back to the tip of the continent where they eventually killed him.
I know upon his death a monumental force of magic burst from him, dredging up the blackest of dark magic possible and creating a veil from the place where he fell to his knees and beyond.
When I think about Achātēs and his siblings once walking the very ground we do, it makes me feel entirely insignificant to this world. Makes me remember how little time we get to spend here before we’re just more ashes and bones in the ground.
Tilly and I proceeded to riddle Xavier with questions about Agate’s library as we dodged hanging webs and jumped at every shadow lurking around corners.
Until eventually, Xavier and I found an aisle that was a lot tidier than the ones we previously walked through.
The books didn’t leave a dusty outline when we pulled them from the shelves and didn’t make me feel like I’d inhaled the ashes of someone’s bones when I flipped through the pages.
Xavier and I each checked out a book on sympathetic magic and amplification, while Tilly found one that delved into Divination.
Before we parted ways after lunch, because Xavier had a Ceremonial Magic class he needed to get to, he promised he’d have a look tonight in the library beneath his unit for anything else that could help us with our mutual problem.
I wanted to press him about the restricted section, thinking again about the door inside Bartollo’s office.
I couldn’t help but wonder if those two things were connected.
Did that door lead to his restricted section?
I needed to know. But at what cost? If Xavier were to help me and land himself in trouble, would I be able to forgive myself? I decided to leave it for now.
For the next few hours, Tilly and I read our books out by cliffs, curled up against a tree.
It was nice to sit there in companionable silence, listening to the waves crash and the scratchy pages flipping as we sank into our own little bubbles.
Every now and then she’d share something she found interesting with me, and I’d do the same, smiling inwardly to myself at how comfortable I felt.
I learn that if someone wants to amplify their element of fire, it helps to wear or carry red garnet or amber.
For water, the book recommended a moonstone or amethyst. For air, there was blue lace agate, celestite and fluorite.
Beneath these three elements were jade, carnelian and smoky quartz, listed under the heading Earth Magic.
Someone had crossed the entire paragraph out in black ink, making it impossible to read any other information than the stones that amplify the elemental magic that no longer exists within our world.
I file that information away for later.
I’m also hoping to ask Professor Kroff in my next Sympathetic Magic class if students can get access to certain stones. Not that I particularly want to talk to him right now, after the way he spoke to me this morning, but he’s my best bet in learning more about amplification.
I sigh. If only I could get in contact with Corvin, I’m sure the sneaky shit would smuggle a crystal or two my way if I asked him.
Stars, I miss him. I miss our easy banter; the comfortable silence and way we moved around each other that only comes from knowing someone half of your life.
I wish I could confide in him now. I wish I could tell him about Sebastian.
‘I never liked that big fuck,’ he’d say.
God, just imagining his voice has my throat swelling.
Tilly and I read together until the sun begins to set, then we eat dinner together, choosing a corner of the dining hall where the least number of students can stare at me. We part ways with plans to meet tomorrow morning for breakfast.
I’ve been so preoccupied all day, that I forgot about one specific problem.
Sebastian. I step into the Grand Hall and spot him leaning against the wall beside the Malachite gate.
Arms crossed over his chest, dark hair messy like he’s just come from training, and wearing his signature ‘I’m an asshole’ scowl.
Blowing a stray strand of hair off my face in frustration, I step into the alcove with an irritated huff. ‘What are you doing out here?’ I ask, not bothering to hide my annoyance.
‘I was waiting for you,’ he replies, barely blinking.
‘How nice. If I knew that, I would have taken longer.’
‘I have no doubt,’ he responds flatly then steps back to give me space to pass him. His hand stretches out and slaps on the gate, flames engulfing his fingers.
I don’t spare him another glance or thank him. I slip through the gate wanting to head straight for the stairs and get this over with.
There are several students scattered around the common room, lounging on sofas, soft chatter bouncing between them.
Two of them are practically dry humping one another on the rug in front of the fireplace, lips locked, hands roaming shamelessly.
And not a single person is watching them or reacting, as if this is a normal thing.
First the baths, now this? Stars.
‘Haven’t you heard that staring is rude?’ Sebastian mutters darkly behind me.
I whirl around, fixing him with a look. ‘Haven’t you heard of a shower? You smell like shit.’ I bite back and pivot on my heel, heading for the staircase.
I’m not even around the first bend when I hear booted footsteps behind me.
He catches up quickly until he’s right at my heels.
The air grows thick with unspoken words as we climb the stairs in a heavy silence; the only sound between us is our breaths and the thud of our shoes on the stone steps.
When we reach the third level, I expect Sebastian to follow, but when I hear him continue up the stairs I turn back.
‘Are you not coming?’
He halts, one foot on a higher step than the other and looks over his shoulder with a raised brow.
‘Don’t worry, darling. I’ll be home as soon as I’ve showered.
I was told I smell like shit.’ He shoots me a cocky smirk that surprises me.
It makes my stomach knot. I’m used to his sly smirks and his arrogant ones.
But that – that’s an old Sebastian smirk.
I fight to keep my knees from knocking as a wave of familiarity hits me hard.
‘I’ll make sure to lock my door,’ I threaten, not wanting to make it easy for him when he arrives.
‘Good thing unit leaders are given a skeleton key, Nocthare.’
They’re what? I feel like that’s something students should be told on arrival. Welcome to the deadly academy where you may or may not make it out alive, also, the room you thought you’d be safe in, you’re not. A unit leader can unlock your door and step in at any moment. Fucking wonderful.
The second I close the door to my room, my back falls against it and a heavy breath expels itself from my body. My head tips back against the wood and my tired eyes close for just a moment.
His smirk finds its way into my mind. I push my palms into my eyes to erase it, but it doesn’t go away.
Stars. I don’t want him reminding me of how I used to feel, I don’t want to see his smile and feel my heart race because while I may loathe the person he’s become since Lukas died, I am still a twenty-one-year-old woman with hormones.
With a frustrated sigh, I push away from the door and head to the bathroom to get ready for bed.
When I come back out, wearing my sleep shorts and a cotton long sleeve top with my hair brushed and hanging down my back, it’s to find Sebastian standing at the foot of my bed tucking a thick blanket into the corners.
His hair is damp, dark strands sticking to the nape of his neck. Thick corded muscles shift beneath the skin on his olive forearms as he lifts the mattress and shoves the corner of the bedding beneath it.
‘W-what are you doing?’ I ask hesitantly. My eyes fall to my makeshift bedding that’s now in a folded pile next to the bed. They then trail along the floor to where a foam mattress has been rolled out, with a pillow and a matching blanket to the one tucked in nicely over my bed.
‘What does it look like I’m doing?’ He tosses a thick pillow to the end of the bed where my head usually lays.
Honestly, I’m not quite sure. My brain is trying to tell me that he wouldn’t come into my room and send me to the floor, but with how nicely he’s making my bed, and how haphazardly he chucked together the one on the floor … I’m beginning to grow concerned.
‘That’s my bed,’ I say in lieu of an answer.
He stands straight and turns to me. ‘Nothing gets past you, does it,’ he deadpans.
When I don’t answer he points down at the folded towel and sweater. ‘Why didn’t you tell anyone you didn’t have bedding? It gets freezing up here at night.’
I know.
‘Who was I going to tell? The people who burnt it all in the first place?’
Sebastian’s shoulders stiffen. ‘What do you mean they burnt it?’
‘Burnt, incinerated, seared. Be. On. Fire.’ I over-enunciate each word, fighting the urge to roll my eyes. ‘Come on, Zain, these words should be in a Malachite unit leader’s vocabulary already.’
‘Would you stop being such a brat for once and give me a fucking answer,’ he snaps. ‘Who did it?’
‘I don’t know!’ I exclaim. ‘I walked in here and found my bedding burnt to a crisp and the rest of the room completely trashed. I didn’t tell anyone because having to sleep with a towel for a blanket has been the least of my concerns. Why do you even care?’
My breathing has turned ragged by the time I’m finished speaking.
It’s probably the longest sentence to him that I have said in a very long time.
I didn’t even realise it, but I also moved closer to him as I spoke.
So close that I can feel the bristling energy radiating off his body.
It hums against my skin. Our rising chests move in tandem with each other, a mere foot between us as I glare up at him, and he scowls down at me.
‘This isn’t for you,’ he scoffs, pointing at the made bed. ‘It’s for my own sanity. So, I don’t have to hear you complain how cold you are all night.’
‘I’m surprised you can hear my voice at all, over your giant ego.’
I catch the flicker in his green eyes, the way his pupils expand, the tick in his jaw.
We stare at each other for what feels like minutes, but is only actually a handful of thick, tension-filled seconds, before he shakes his head and curses beneath his breath.
The moment he turns away from me and heads for the door, I feel the pressure tugging between our bodies release with a whoosh.
‘Go to bed,’ he commands as one of his large hands grips the edge of the door so hard I fear the wood will crack from the force. ‘And lock your bloody door.’ He swings it shut behind him as he storms out, making the light of the lantern beside my bed flicker and wink out, encasing me in shadows.