Chapter 56 Masika
MASIKA
Masika Sallow, the Headmaster of Blackwood Academy, stood atop Bonestrod and took in the view.
Half of Elysium Hall was missing—blown to pieces, as if someone had taken a bite out of its side and spat out the chunks.
Blood and ash stained the grounds, fluttering in the air like fallen snow.
But that cleanup would be easy. A simple fix.
There were other broken things far more difficult to mend. Things she wasn’t quite sure ever would be mended.
Footsteps echoed behind her. Masika recognized their soul like a little pinprick in her chest. She wondered if she’d ever get used to that. The way her mind seemed to be connected to every piece of Blackwood all at once; the beating heart of the school resounding in her chest—thump, thump, thump.
“I lied.”
Masika turned to face Catherine Clarke. Her braids had come partially undone. Her face was a soot-streaked mess. But she looked beautiful. Broken and wrecked—but beautiful.
“When we spoke the other night.” Catherine stepped closer, and it suddenly felt as though they were standing at a precipice, every word tumbling out of Catherine shoving them closer to the edge. “You asked me what I see when I look at you now. Do you remember that?”
A gentle breeze ran through Masika’s curls. It felt like laughter. A familiar but lost sound.
“I do.”
“I told you I see nothing.” Catherine swallowed.
Her hands began to shake as she approached Masika.
“But that’s not true.” Silence stretched between them.
In the distance, Masika could sense the students of Blackwood Academy emerging from their dormitories to assess the damage.
Their precious souls lighting up her own like fireflies beckoning to her in the night.
“Do you want to know what I see when I look at you?” Catherine’s voice was soft, almost reverent. For a moment, it sounded like the Catherine whom Masika had once known. The one who had loved her unabashedly—the one who would have stayed. “What I’ve always seen?”
Masika nodded, and Catherine took her face in her hands.
“My future.” Masika felt the dam inside her finally break free. “When I look at you…I see my future.”
“Everything is going to be different now.” Masika’s voice wobbled with unshed tears.
“Good.” Catherine tucked a loose curl behind Masika’s ear. “I like different.”
Masika lifted her hand between them. Her ring lit up their faces in its golden sheen.
“I’ve changed.”
Catherine smiled.
“So have I.”
Masika’s heart soared. It was everything she wanted, everything she needed, yet still—a part of her faltered. It was fear. Fear of losing Catherine again. Fear of knowing she’d already lost so much.
“You can’t leave me again.”
Catherine’s thumb delicately brushed Masika’s lip.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
I’m not going anywhere. Those four words burned inside Masika, cutting through the fear, wrapping her in a warm embrace. She couldn’t do this alone—she didn’t want to. For once, Masika wanted to believe that she was meant for happiness. That she deserved it.
Masika let out a long-held sigh.
“Okay, then.”
Catherine cocked her head. A shy smile spread onto her lips.
“Yeah?”
A soft laugh tumbled out of Masika.
“Yeah.”
It was in that moment, standing among the wreckage, staring up at Catherine, that Masika realized how painfully wrong she had been. She’d always assumed that their story had come to an end long ago. That her fate had been written for her the moment she’d awoken at the gates of Blackwood Academy.
But that was the thing about fate. It wasn’t some stuck, stagnant thing. It could change.
Masika Sallow had once been destined to love Catherine Clarke and lose her.
But she’d also been destined to love her and love her and love her, forevermore.