Chapter 23
Heading out of my dorm, I pause when I spot Theon standing there, waiting.
I’m about to turn back inside when my stomach grumbles, reminding me why I came outside in the first place.
As if reading my mind, Theon walks over to me and hands me a clear container full of food.
“Let’s go somewhere and talk,” he says.
“Pass.” I try to hand the food back, but he ignores my outstretched hand.
“Please,” he says softly with a look that makes me pause.
I guess going with him doesn’t mean anything other than getting answers. To things I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since they decided to ignore me.
“Fine,” I say. “But you’ll answer any and all my questions truthfully.”
Relief washes over his face. “Of course.”
I let him lead the way while I open the container and dig into the food he brought.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
“To the senior camp,” he says. His eyes don’t leave mine, making me feel things I have no right feeling.
“Why there?” I look at him. “Was it so hard to be around me that you had to all join another camp just to avoid me?”
His expression becomes crestfallen. “That’s not why…”’ he stops, releasing a harsh breath. “We had no other option. It was Levington’s punishment for us messing with the winged fuckers in your prank war. It was either that or he’d kick us out.”
I freeze and turn to him. “What?”
Theon stares at me with a frown. “You never knew?”
“I don’t talk much to Levington,” I tell him as shock slams into me. “And he’s definitely never told me anything about any of you.”
Theon comes to a stop and fully turns to me. “Nothing?” He grinds his jaw. “He told us you agreed to stay away from us after he punished us to the senior camp. That you knew how important your role would be and that you needed people by your side who were respected.”
I reel back as if I’ve just been punched in the chest. “What do you mean, stay away from you? I never agreed to stay away from any of you and I sure as hell never had any conversation about needing anyone by my side.”
Theon eyes widen and he stares at me in shock. It quickly morphs to anger. It bleeds into every feature on his face as his shadows spring out around him.
“That fucking dick!” he growls, his eyes ablaze with fury as his body shakes with rage.
He starts pacing back and forth like a caged animal while I try to process what he just told me.
Why would Levington tell them I didn’t want to see them?
“We fucked up in the start,” Theon admits, still pacing back and forth. “We should have come to you instead of acting like fucking idiots. But we never wanted to be away from you.”
“You all ignored me and blocked me out for over five weeks,” I point out.
Levington may have lied—something I will be dealing with soon—but they had plenty of time to come talk to me between then and now.
He releases a harsh breath and stops pacing to stand in front of me.
“At first, we were trying to wrap our heads around about everything you told us. Then we realized how relieved were all were that you weren’t the other Sena and wanted to kick ourselves for staying away.
But we let our pride get in the way.” He winces.
“We still followed you around for those first couple of weeks. Still stalked you at every turn. But these last few weeks…” He shakes his head.
“It wasn’t a choice to be away from you. ”
“What do you mean?” I ask just as a couple of people come into view.
Theon frowns at them before taking my free hand and moving us through the forest to a small path off the senior camps.
“How was it not a choice?” I ask again. “You all completely blocked me out.” I follow him to a small barracks that looks more like an old rotting shack. The outside is deteriorating with the steel frame peeling and rusting.
“We may have pushed you away in the start—something we all fucking regret now—but after that first couple of weeks none of us blocked you out, I swear to you.”
That’s doesn’t make any sense. I may have been blocking them out since they showed up at the party in the forest but for weeks before that I couldn’t reach them at all. No matter how hard I tried.
Even if this place is somehow messing with our bond, it still doesn’t explain why none of them even tried to come and talk to me.
I’m about to ask him when we step inside the barracks.
“Where are we?” I ask as I glance around. There are two single beds, a bunk bed, and an open door off to the side that reveals a tiny bathroom.
“Our room.”
I freeze and look at him, hoping he’s joking, but he’s too busy glancing around with a frown to notice.
There isn’t much else in the small room other than a couple of storage boxes. The beds are old, rusted steel. The mattresses thin and the duvets are basically non-existent.
From what I can see, there’s no shower or bath, just a small toilet, sink and countertop.
My stomach drops as I place the container of food on the nearest bed, not able to stomach it anymore.
I thought they were in the senior camps because they were more skilled and wanted to avoid being around me… But he said Levington placed them here as punishment. What could they have done to deserve to be left in a place like this?
“Why did Levington place you here?” I ask, and Theon sighs.
“We pissed off Levington by messing with his precious Winged Shadows and he placed us here as punishment.” He shrugs like it’s no big deal, but the fuck if it’s not. Even the War Camp tents have better facilities than this.
It doesn’t make sense. I glance around the old, battered room as if I might find an answer, but my gaze falls back on Theon and catches on something on the side of his neck.
I move closer to him without thinking and pull the neckline of his top aside to find a large scar that looks deep.
“How did you get that scar?” It’s still fresh as if it just happened a couple of weeks ago.
He pauses as if trying to come up with something.
“Don’t lie. Tell me the truth,” I say.
Theon must see something in my eyes as he nods and sighs before glancing around.
“A couple of weeks into our arrival here, we caught a group from the Shadow Academy trying to infiltrate the Volar Academy and killed them.”
He sighs. “Here, apparently it’s a big fucking deal when you kill someone.”
“It usually is in most places,” I murmur, and he gives me a little smile before continuing.
“Levington gave us the option. Stay and be punished again or leave,” he says swallowing hard. “There was no way in hell we were leaving you. So, we took our punishment. There’s a small hidden island across from here that’s shielded with a room of cells. We were placed there for a month.”
A month… Shock slams into me like freight train.
I thought they were pulling away from me. Had pulled away. But for a month they stayed in cells just so they could be near me.
That must be why I couldn’t reach them through our connection. And why I thought they blocked me out.
But why? Why would Levington go to the extreme? Why didn’t he tell me anything about this? About them?
Sadness and guilt coil around me the more I think about it. Everything I thought and believed about them was wrong.
I glance up at him, and my gaze is immediately drawn back to his scar. “Then how did you get that scar?”
From the look in his eyes, I can tell that whatever he’s about to say, I’m not going to like.
“Levington has these cuffs that stop us from using our powers…”
My heart stutters to a stop. “What?”
“The shields around the Island must not work all the time because every now and again we’d sense you,” he swallows hard, “I tried to reach out when I felt your sadness. The cuffs ensure no power is used. But it must have sensed me trying to connect to you.”
A deep ache pulses in my chest with his words as I move on autopilot around him and pull up his top. Only to freeze.
My blood instantly runs cold the moment I see his back. I stand frozen as I stare at the dozens of slashing scars across and down it.
It’s as if he’s been whipped over and over again.
Nausea churns my stomach as sadness settles over me like a heavy fog.
My eyes burn and blur as I reach a trembling hand out toward his back, “You got these because of me?”
Theon whips around with wide eyes. “No. It was my fault. I fucked up.”
My heart pounds as my mind races, searching for an answer to how everything got so messed up.
An ache forms in my jaw, and I realize it’s because I’m clenching it so hard as I think about the one person that is the cause of all of this.
Levington.
He placed them in this shack as punishment and lied to them while keeping everything from me.
He placed them in a damn cell for a month for ending what was most likely a damn threat to his academy.
And then to top it all off, he put cuffs on each of my mates that fucking whipped them when they attempted to use their powers.
Adrenaline rushes through my body as I head outside and straight for the Alita building where he more than likely is. But I barely make it across the field outside before Theon steps in front of me, blocking my path.
“Move,” I tell him. “Levington needs to pay.”
Theon sighs, it’s heavy and full of regret. “We fucked up. Technically, we deserve what we got.”
My eyes widen on the insufferable fool. “You do not deserve to be fucking whipped!”
“Even though Levington is a fucking dick for lying to us and you, he warned us about the cuffs. And technically, we killed people,” he points out and I freeze.
“You said they were infiltrating the academy,” I remind him. “You were protecting everyone here.”