42. Escalation
A eden was catching his breath. He felt ready to vomit as he leaned against a stone wall in the central courtyard.
His hands trembled as he looked at the note again.
The Sable twins were dangerous, and he had come so close to being discovered by them.
His heart broke for what he had heard them saying about Lucien, what they had done to him.
His only crime was interrupting them while they were speaking in class. That was it. Because of that, they had deemed his bloodline weak and snuffed him out like a flame on a candle. The very thought shook Aeden to his core. What if they had caught him? Would he still be here now?
“Aeden?” It was Rowan. She had spotted him as she and Cassian were walking past, and both of them stopped.
“Are you okay?” Rowan asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost. ”
Aeden tried to speak, but he couldn’t. He was still shaking too much. As much as he tried to form words, he simply couldn’t.
“Th-th-the?—”
“Woah, slow down,” Cassian said, “is everything okay? Has something happened?”
Aeden wanted to tell them. He wanted to tell them everything he had just heard, but at the same time, he didn’t want to get them involved.
Both of them were good people, and he didn’t want to put them in any unnecessary danger.
He had learned his lesson with the example Master Storme had made out of his friends.
“I’m – okay,” he lied, panting. He wanted to get out of here.
“Hey, Aeden,” Harrison shouted over from the far side of the courtyard. He was standing with Serene and Vivienne. He waved Aeden to go over.
“I’ll catch up later?” Aeden said, gathering himself. “Honestly, I will be okay, just something through the Weave I was doing with Nyra,” he lied again.
“Okay, if you’re sure,” Cassian said.
Rowan, however, gave Aeden a look as if she knew he wasn’t being truthful.
The two of them left as Aeden walked over to Harrison, Vivienne, and Serene. He kept looking over his shoulder as if he was being watched.
“Why you acting all weird?” Serene asked, eyeing Aeden suspiciously.
Aeden looked over his shoulder again. He really needed to get away from the courtyard, perhaps back to the bunkhouse with the others or even to his own quarters.
For some reason he was thinking safety in numbers right now, not that any of them would stand a chance against the Sable twins.
It did, however, bring Aeden a faint feeling of safety being with them, and for now Aeden needed to feel safe.
“You know that thing I was looking into?” Aeden said to Harrison. “Well, turns out, I was right, and I really could do with talking to you about it.” He wanted to speak in code even though he was conscious of how utterly ridiculous it made him look.
“You mean about your parents and the Battle of Weir?” Serene said.
If looks could kill, Vivienne was murdering Serene right now.
Harrison looked sheepish, shrinking into himself.
“What happened to my secret?” Aeden asked, less than impressed.
“Well, they’re in our circle, and it kind of fell out. I tell these two everything. They were on to you anyway, so in a way, it was kind of your fault for putting me in the awkward position of lying to them.”
Aeden shook his head. How had Harrison actually managed to spin this onto him? He was about to speak when Vivienne interrupted.
“Don’t be mad at him, he was only looking out for you,” she said.
“Besides, we’re your friends, and friends don’t keep secrets from one another, especially when things have been the way they are,” Serene said.
“So yeah, Serene and Vivienne know everything, so no need to tell them all the details about what we’ve been looking into, saves you a bit of time,” Harrison said .
“About that,” Aeden said. “There’s been a big discovery on that, a really big, Sable-twin-shaped one.”
“Sable twins?” Vivienne said. “What have they got to do with this?”
“They’re looking for something, or someone.” Aeden lowered his voice so only his friends could hear him. “They’re bloodline purists. No, elitists. They took Lucien away, and they killed him!”
“Killed him? Why would they do that?” Serene asked.
“I heard them when I was coming out of the archives. The archives where I found the codex with the battle report for the Battle of Weir, except the report had been torn out.”
“That’s horrible,” Serene said as she clasped her hand to her mouth.
“Lucien was a good man,” Aeden said.
“He didn’t deserve this,” echoed Vivienne.
“So you’re saying someone at the academy has torn out the battle report that you wanted to find to prove something fishy is going on, and whilst there, you heard the Sable twins talk about killing Lucien?” Harrison said.
Aeden’s thoughts were more focused on Lucien than the torn battle report at this point.
What exactly had they done to him? How would they explain this to his family?
His mind started whirling, and Aeden felt like he was about to throw up.
“That’s exactly what I’m trying to say. Not only that .
. .” He lowered his head even more. “They’re looking for someone, or should I say a bloodline.
I think so, anyway.” Aeden pulled out the student transcript from his pocket and passed it to the others.
“They tossed this on the floor from inside the room that has high-powered wards on the doors to stop unauthorised people from entering. Somehow Orion managed to disable the wards.”
“Who’re they trying to find?” Vivienne asked as she read the note. “Is it this person? Do we need to warn them?”
Aeden shook his head. “No, they tossed this one on the ground, that’s how I was able to pick it up.”
“Holy shit, that takes some serious balls – I mean, a certain amount of craziness – to do something like that in the first place,” Harrison joked, but no one laughed. This wasn’t the time or the place for quips.
“There’s more still,” Aeden said, keeping his voice as low as he could. He looked around him once again to make sure that no one else was in the vicinity.
“They referenced the Battle of Weir, referenced a bloodline being wiped out by their master. That means that I was right, that there was something more, not just to my parents’ deaths but to the deaths of everyone that died that day. This is huge, like cluster-fuck huge.”
“What do we do now?” Serene asked, speaking at a barely audible volume. “I mean, it’s not like we can go to the faculty. They’re likely in on this, especially if there were pages ripped out of the battle report.”
“There’s only one member of the faculty that I trust, and that’s Lyric,” Aeden said.
“Who’s that?” Serene asked as she frowned.
“Master Ember,” Harrison said. “You know, the hatchery master.”
“I know who Master Ember is,” Serene snapped, “I’m just not on first-name terms with him. Are you sure you can trust him?”
“I’d wage my life on it,” Aeden said .
“Well, you may have to,” Vivienne said. “I genuinely don’t know what we can do.”
“I’m more worried for Nyra,” Aeden said. “These two are elitists. They want a pure bloodline. If they get to Nyra, they’ll no doubt kill her straight away.”
“So you think they don’t know about her?” Serene asked.
“They mustn’t, there’s no way they do. The way they speak about Aer-Kin, about having pure bloodlines, one of the first places they would have gone is to her.
” Aeden knew where he needed to go right now.
There was no way he was waiting around any longer.
“I need to head to the hatchery, and I need to speak to Lyric. We need to get Nyra away from the academy somehow. It’s just not safe enough for her here, especially after the attack earlier today. ”
“Gather round!” The sound of Orion calling out sent a chill down Aeden’s spine. He contemplated leaving, but the distance between him and the next opening would make him stand out amongst the crowd, something that he didn’t want to happen.
“Fuck, what do we do?” Harrison asked.
“Try to blend in,” Serene said.
Orion was holding something in his hand, but Aeden wasn’t able to see what it was due to the raised wall and flower beds between them.
“Please, please, do not be shy, that includes all of you in the back.” Orion flicked his hair back with a wave of his hand as if he was reciting a play in the theatre. “Now, now, don’t make me ask twice.” There was a threatening tone to his voice that Aeden did not want to test.
Rosheen was standing to attention behind her brother, her hands tucked behind her back. Her cold eyes were unmoving as she eyed the growing crowd. For once she didn’t have her hand resting on her sword.
“Now, me and my sister here were just having a private conversation, away from the confines of the academy. It was a very private conversation, one that was only intended for our ears.”
Panic rose inside Aeden. They were on to him already, but how?
He was sure they couldn’t have heard him; he had been deathly quiet.
Had someone said something to them in the library?
Aeden’s mind raced even faster, the desperation to run becoming overwhelming.
That would only serve to give him away though.