Chapter 13
Sena
Five weeks. I haven’t seen any of my mates in five weeks. They’ve not just ignored me like they tried to do the first two weeks we were here—at least then I saw glimpses of them here and there—but now they’ve also completely blocked me out and gone out of their way to ignore me.
They were starting to come around after the first couple of weeks. I could see it in their eyes. But five weeks ago, they just up and pulled away completely. Disappeared without so much as a goodbye.
The male dorms are also directly across from the female dorms so it’s not like they’re far away. And yet I still haven’t come across them once.
I was hurt at first and then frustrated and confused. Now I’m just fucking pissed.
Who said we need men? Women last longer without them anyway. And I definitely don’t need four assholes that only care about themselves.
I’m the one that got body switched twice and found out I’m not human. Not only that, but I also discovered that I’m a lost royal and a future queen meant to lead an entire race of Shadow warriors.
I get I should have told them about the switch as soon as we grew closer, but between the War Camps and War Games and everything else going on, there wasn’t much time.
I also know they’re still here from the dozens of people talking about them. Most think the four of them are just transfers and got out before Talos went crazy. Which is technically true, but not for the same reason.
I shove them to the back of my mind and glance around the room I’ve been sharing with Remi, Maia, and Ember.
Ember walks over to the balcony, her long chestnut brown hair, pale skin with a sprinkle of freckles and green eyes lighting up when she peeks outside.
“I forgot about the party,” she says in shock and horror and Maia’s dark eyes widen.
“That’s tonight?” Maia asks but doesn’t wait for a reply as starts to scramble to get ready. She instantly searches for her hair straightener and waits for it to heat a bit before dragging it through her black and pink bob.
Remi walks out of the bathroom and takes the towel off her head revealing her wild red hair. It instantly reminds me of Robin, making my stomach churn with worry.
“Why are you all sitting around?” she asks.
“We forgot,” Ember says before heading over to her trunk and pulling out some clothes and searching through them.
“How on earth did you forget? It’s the only time we get to enjoy ourselves before our training really kicks in.”
“I know, I know,” Ember says. “But I was too focused on trying to train as much as I can for the flag competition. I want to get a trial for the royal guards this year.”
I freeze. “The royal guard? I thought there were no royals.”
Embers starts doing her makeup. Though if she were to ask my opinion, I’d tell her she doesn’t need it. Her skin is flawless.
“There’s not,” she replies. “It’s mostly to protect the Alitas.”
“We’re the ones that need protection from those prissy bitches,” Maia says with a wince before murmuring a ‘no offense,’ to me and heading into the bathroom to finish getting ready.
Apart from my little glimpse in the canteen and waking to Willow, I haven’t really met any of the other Alitas yet with the last few weeks being a whirlwind of combat training, classes and sleeping.
But from the sound of how spoiled and privileged I’ve heard they are, I doubt I’d get along with any of them.
Thank the gods for the pendant Cassius got me to conceal my energy or settling in these last few weeks would have been a lot harder than it already has been. Especially considering the Alitas aren’t exactly liked among the females here.
When I’m not in combat training or classes, I’m trying to find hidden spots out in the forest so I can learn how to use my slowly awakening powers.
I quickly learned it’s the home to many Griffins and Vims. All which luckily don’t want to eat me.
“You’re forgetting about the rumor of the hidden royal,” Remi says, and Ember rolls her eyes as every inch of my body becomes tense.
“It’s a lie,” Ember replies. “If she was still alive, she’d have been found by now.”
“Hidden… royal?” I ask, while still in shock.
“Ignore Remi,” Ember says, “She just likes to believe in fairytales.”
Remi sticks out her tongue at Ember before throwing on a purple halter top and tight black leather pants that make her ass look amazing.
Maia walks out of the bathroom in a short red dress that makes it seem like her legs go on forever. She gives us a little twirl and Ember wolf-whistles, making me laugh.
Ember just finishes her makeup when she glances over at me and frowns. She gets up without a word and drags me over to her station and pushes me into the seat she was sitting on before she searches through her makeup and picks up a brush.
She dabs it into something before moving it toward my face while Remi turns on some music and starts dancing.
I dodge backward and give her a questioning look. “What are you doing?”
“Your makeup.” She gives me a look that says it should be obvious. “You’re already stunning but I’m going to make it so every male won’t be able to take their eyes off you tonight.”
“With you three around, I doubt that.” They all look like runway models. In fact, I’m sure if they ever left this place, they would immediately be snapped up by a human agency.
“But also, I’m swearing off men. Most of them are assholes who only care about themselves anyway,” I say while thinking of four in particular and their dickish behavior.
I narrow my eyes on the storage box beside me thinking of how infuriating they are, and it moves a few feet closer to Remi before my shock has it stopping in place.
“What was that?” Maia gasps, stumbling back a step away from it.
I cringe before blanking my face and staring at her with confusion. “What was what?”
She points at the box. “The box… I saw it move.”
I squint my eyes at the box and then glance between her and it before raising a brow.
“Maybe you should stay in and get some sleep instead,” Ember says rolling her eyes at her.
I feel terrible for lying to them but there’s no way of explaining that I have new powers without opening a can of worms to everything else that’s going on with me.
When I get worked up, sometimes things move around me. As if some of my energy is seeping out and slamming into things.
I haven’t a clue how to make it stop or how to use it.
Last week I got pissed at the guys after trying to connect with each of them and finding out they all still have me blocked out and ended up trashing our dorm room by accident—it was an absolute bitch to clean up and try to remember where everything was.
Of course I didn’t get most of it right and ended up telling the girls someone was probably trying to mess with us.
Ember quickly finishes off my makeup while Maia continues to give the box a side-eye.
“I swear this place is haunted,” she mumbles. “And I am not missing this party.” She gives me a look. “And neither are you.”
I glance down at my black cargo pants and top when a black piece of material flies at me. “Wear this,” Ember says, and I lift it up in front of me.
“It’s… short.” Not to mention it will definitely reveal a whole lot more than I’m comfortable with. “I’ll also freeze my ass off.”
“You have an ass and boobs, you need everyone to know that before they get too used to seeing you in those,” she stares at my clothes in disgust. “I hate the academy uniform. It does nothing to show off my curves.”
Before I get a chance to reply, I’m yanked up and out of the chair and shoved into the bathroom. “Get dressed,” Remi says, “And then I’ll curl your hair.”
I look in the mirror and freeze. Ember said I didn’t need much makeup but whatever she did makes every feature on my face look ten times better. She gave my eyes this sultry smokey look and kept my foundation light with a natural lip color.
I glance down at the black dress with a smile. I guess I’m going dancing.
CYRUS
“Ihate this place,” Theon groans from beside me. We were moved from the prison island to Levington’s rundown barracks a couple of days ago once our monthly punishment was up.
We were all itching to go see Sena the minute we got off the island. We’ve been away from her for too long, and are agitated and restless with the need to see her.
We thought she might see us once we were back, but Levington dropped by with an update from her after passing on our messages telling us she won’t budge and doesn’t want to see us.
Even after a month of following her around in the shadows of her dreams, I still haven’t figured out why she’s blocked us all out.
Knox and Theon even wrote her letters, but she ignored them too.
We shouldn’t have left her in the office that day with Levington. We should have walked the fuck back in and talked it out instead of letting our damn pride get the better of us.
By the time we figured that out, it was already too late, and apart from the odd drop in her shields here and there, she’s stood true to her word and ignored us all.
But there’s no way in hell we’re leaving her here. We just need to figure a way to get her to talk to us and in the meantime make it seem like we’re playing by Levington’s shitty rules and stay off his radar.
Knox comes into the room and gives us all a look. “I hear there’s a party tonight for the main campus.”
“And you found this out how?” Theon asks, narrowing his eyes.
“From a little recon,” he says. “How else?”
Theon chuckles. “Either way, I’m not interested.”
“Sena might be there,” Knox says and quickly gains all our attention. “Her roommates are going, I heard she’s grown close to them. She’ll more than likely go with them.”
I share a look with the guys. “It’s been long enough. It’s about time she forgives us and at least talks to us.”
“What about Levington?” Theon says. “We’re supposed to be staying under the radar for now.”
“We will,” Knox says with an innocent expression I know all too well means we definitely won’t be. But none of us push him on it, too eager to see Sena, even if it’s from the shadows.
We quickly get changed before heading out into the forest. The sound of music soon sounds out around us and a little thrill rushes through me at the thought of talking to her and holding her. Maybe even dancing with her.
My gaze immediately picks her out in the crowd, and I freeze. My eyes trail down the short, tight black dress that clings to every damn curve she has making me instantly hard. It covers all of our true mate markings, but just barely.
I quickly stiffen when I spot the dozens of eyes staring at her like they have a fucking chance.
A guy with shitty brown hair moves closer to her and looks at her like he already owns her, and I lose it.
The soon-to-be dead-man reaches a hand out to touch her and I see red. Before I get the chance to end him, Theon’s shadows snap out and coil around his arm. The minute they touch him, he screams in agony, bringing a smile to my face.
The guys move closer to her as I move through the darkness and release my shadows into the entire clearing. They instantly knock everyone out as I step through them and move in front of my mate.
Her eyes are wide, her expression quickly flitting through a mixture of emotions before she blanks her face and gives us all a look that says she couldn’t care less about anything.
But I know that’s a lie. I caught each expression.
Each millisecond of sadness, pain, longing and love. And I’ll wait however long she needs to until she forgives us.
No matter how long it takes.