42. The Celebration
THE CELEbrATION
Seraphina
“Your friends will be here any minute,” Silver murmurs, and I glance past him to see Khali and Az pushing through the crowd, getting closer by the second. “I’ll leave you to it,” he says, but he doesn’t move.
My pulse is racing, because the way he’s looking at me is not casual, far from it. He’s staring at me like he’s scared I might disappear and it feels like being pinned to the spot without being touched.
“Stay with me tonight.”
My breath catches. “Silver—”
“Not now.” His gaze drags up and down my body and heat flares, threatening to burn me up from the inside out. “Celebrate first, enjoy all this, you’ve earned it. Come to me later.”
He takes a step closer. It’s a single step and yet the whole world narrows with it.
“But when you’re done,” his voice roughens slightly. “Come to the turret.”
My heart stutters hard against my ribs.
“Stay.”
The word isn’t a command. It’s something else entirely. And unless I’m suffering from some kind of head injury, I’d say he’s nervous waiting for my answer.
I don’t have time to think. Khali and Az are almost here, I can hear them now.
“If you want to sleep,” he says, quieter now, so close I feel the brush of his breath against my cheek, “we’ll sleep. If you want to…” His gaze flicks to my mouth before returning to my eyes.
He doesn’t finish the sentence, just licks his lips briefly and swallows.
He doesn’t need to say it. The promise curls through me anyway.
“They’re coming,” I whisper.
“Then decide quickly."
“Okay.”
“Okay you’ll come?” I nod and he smiles that war starting, heart stopping smile. “Good.”
Khali breaks through the last of the crowd. “Sera!” she calls. “Seraphina Scarvo!”
The moment shatters and Silver turns smoothly to greet my friends, every trace of what just passed between us gone from his face.
Khali closes the gap between us, Az at her shoulder, both of them breathless and beaming.
Relief hits me hard enough to sting.
They made it.
“You’re…” Khali grabs my arms, her eyes scanning my face, my shoulders, my wings. “You’re okay.”
“I’m okay,” I manage.
Az looks me over once, slower, more deliberate, like he’s counting every piece. “You’ve had better days,” he says. “But you’ve definitely had worse.”
Something in my chest loosens.
I didn’t realize how much I needed to see them until now.
Khali’s gaze drags over the span of dark feathers behind me, her expression unreadable for once.
Az lets out a low breath. “Well,” he mutters. “They’re new.”
Khali nods but doesn’t say anything. Instead her gaze flicks between my wings, Silver and Az.
“What?” I ask, an uncomfortable smile pulling at my lips. “You’ve both gone quiet. That’s concerning.”
They don’t answer.
Khali looks at Az and something passes between them, a silent conversation in a secret language that I’m not part of.
“What?” I press.
Khali blinks, like she’s snapping out of it. “Nothing.”
It’s not convincing. At all.
Az scrubs a hand over his jaw, eyes flicking past me to where Silver stands. Az’s gaze sharpens, questioning. Then Silver tilts his head, the smallest movement, but I see it.
Az stills, like something’s just been confirmed, dismissed or even understood.
I frown. “Okay, now I definitely feel like I’m missing something.”
Khali steps forward, her expression smoothing into something softer. “You’re not,” she says.
A lie. I can sense it.
“You just… upgraded,” Az says lightly. “Dramatically.”
I narrow my eyes. “That’s not what that was.”
“No,” he agrees. “It wasn’t.”
Khali elbows him, but her attention drifts back to my wings again.
“Khali,” I say slowly. “What aren’t you telling me?”
She hesitates for a second before shaking her head, like she’s made a decision. “Nothing you need to worry about. Your wings are beautiful. Truly, Sera. They are stunning.”
“They are, aren’t they,” Silver agrees, his voice cool and calm as always. “Congratulations,” he says to Khali and Az.
Khali straightens slightly at that and Az inclines his head. “Thanks, Overlord. Couldn’t have done it without you.’
A warm feeling washes over me. Az has no idea how true that really is.
Silver’s gaze flicks to me, just for a second, but I don't say anything. I decided to keep his secret the moment he came clean about it.
“Enjoy the night,” Silver says, and then he’s gone.
Khali watches him disappear, then looks back at me. “Now you’re not a cadet, you should totally make a move on him.”
I choke. “What… me? And Silver?” I splutter. “Overlord Silver?!”
Az exhales. “Oh no Angel girl, maybe not if you’re going to play it that smooth.”
Before I can respond, Khali’s expression darkens, and I know exactly what’s coming. “Have you seen Reiva?” she asks. “We lost you both when Lilliana and her lot came at us.”
My stomach drops as she jerks her chin toward the edge of the courtyard. I follow the motion to find Lilliana sitting alone, a drink untouched in her hand, her gaze locked on me.
No, not on me, but rather on my wings.
She made it, but she’s alone, and a flicker of something cold moves through me.
I hate that despite everything she has done to me, to my friends, I feel sorry for her for some reason.
Brandor, Ulrik and Elijah, as much as I won’t miss them, they were all she had left of her once vast following.
Yet, as her eyes drag over my wings again, her expression is not one of happiness for surviving or sadness for those she left behind, it’s a scowl, burning and bitter.
I fight the instinct to glamour them, to hide them away from her and instead lift them slightly. Let her look. I just got them back, I’m not hiding them.
I don’t trust her though, and I can’t shake the feeling that I should have stuck around in the pit longer and taken her out.
But then I wouldn’t have been there for…
“Sera?” Khali’s grip tightens on my arm. “Where’s Reiva?”
With those two words, Lilliana is forgotten and the world narrows to just the three of us.
I look at them, at the hope still clinging there, and I hate that I’m about to take it.
“He didn’t make it,” I confess.
“What?” Khali breathes, shaking her head.
Az doesn’t move at all.
“I got to him,” I say, my voice tight. “He was already… he told me to go. He knew…”
My throat closes and Khali makes a broken sound, pulling me into her, arms locking tight around me like she can hold me together for both of us.
“No,” she whispers. “No, he can’t be dead. Not Reiva.”
Az steps in, his arm wrapping around us, steady and solid, pulling us into something that almost feels like safety.
Three instead of four.
“He wasn’t alone. I held his hand.”
“Good.” Khali’s breath shakes against my shoulder. “He should be here, though. He should be here to celebrate tonight and graduate tomorrow. He deserved it.”
I agree, but Az is quiet, too quiet.
“Az? I ask. “Are you okay?”
He steps back and crosses his forehead and chest with a hand. I can’t believe how offensive I used to find it, when now it’s one of the many things I love about my friend.
“He always said I talked too much…” Az mutters, his voice is so rough my chest aches for him. “I guess he finally found a way to shut me up.”
“He’s with Diana now,” I say, and I truly believe it.
It’s hard to imagine that there was ever a time I wouldn’t think it fathomable for a nephilim and cambion to be together on the other side, but now, I have no doubt.
Az says a prayer for our friend and promises to raise a toast, or twelve, to him later.
We step through the hellgate and spill into The Rec where there’s more music and laughter and the scrape of chairs and boots on stone.
Someone cheers as a fresh round of drinks is slammed down, liquid sloshing.
The air here is thick with that usual Iron Isle heat, but it’s mixed with sweat and relief.
Everyone is grateful to be alive and that several of us survived the game and will be graduating tomorrow.
Khali laughs beside me, dragging a hand through her dark hair, her horn piercings catching my eye as they glisten in the orblight. “Satan sired me, I’m glad to see this fucking place again.”
Az stretches his arms over her shoulders. “If I’d died, I’d have missed this place.”
A ripple of movement pulls my attention and Silver steps through the hellgate. It snaps shut at his back with a sharp, final hum and the room shifts, not quieter, but aware of his presence.
He looks across the room. “Don’t drink yourselves unconscious,” he says. “Graduation is in the morning. It would be shit for any of you to sleep through and miss it after making it this far.”
A few groan but most laugh, although he doesn’t seem to be paying any attention as his gaze finds me. And stays there.
Everything else fades for a second.
“Goodnight,” Khali says to him.
“Night, Overlord,” Az adds with a nod.
Silver doesn’t look at them. “Goodnight, Scar,” he says, making my pulse flicker.
“Goodnight,” I say, then quieter, much quieter. “I’ll… see you soon.”
His lips twitch, then he’s gone.
“He really knows how to rattle your halo, doesn’t he?” Az says.
“What?”
Khali snorts and I try to play it cool by rolling my eyes, but something is tugging at the edge of my awareness.
I glance across the room.
Lilliana is watching me. Again.
Then again, she hasn’t really stopped, not since I first saw her in the courtyard.
My wings are glamoured now but her gaze is locked on me, on where Silver had stood, and the space between us.
Her expression tightens when she catches me looking and something ugly flashes across her face.
“The face of envy.” Khali says. “She’s just jealous. Ignore her, everyone else is.”
Again I feel weirdly sorry for the evil demoness, even as I watch her stalk across The Rec, shouldering past anyone in her way and slamming the door in her wake.
“I think I’m going to head back too,” I say.
Khali looks at me. “Now?”
I nod and Az narrows his eyes on me before a faint, knowing smirk plays at his lips. “Of course you are.”
Heat rushes to my cheeks.
Khali elbows him again. “Ignore him.” She studies me for a second longer. “You’re okay?”
I nod.