by Elena Monroe
“I don’t get their beef. Caellum seems nice.”
She pretty much scoffed at me as soon as the pause created a period to my thoughts.
Luna jumped in, defending me, even after my verbal lashing.
“She doesn’t know. You can’t blame her for it.”
I smiled sweetly at her, and my poisonous arrow that I had shot before thinking felt a lot like regret instead of the anger it was born from.
Kate, on the other hand, didn’t care as she leaned forward with her snarky expression. “You can’t crush on him and not take his side, princess.”
I wanted to correct her; it was “queen”—his queen actually. She was dethroned and overruled the minute I took my seat on his lap. I was never a princess—not before Bolton and certainly not now.
I wasn’t next in line, and I wasn’t waiting for someone to crown me.
I twisted at my desk, turning to completely face her with ease. “First of all, I’m no princess. I can slay dragons too. Second, what do you plan to do about Caellum then?”
She suddenly looked confused, and I couldn’t tell by which part—how much she doubted me being a queen or not having a plan for Caellum since she claimed loyalty five minutes ago.
This is who they crowned queen before me? She didn’t even have a plan for their “enemy.”
The only thing Kate had right was her loyalty being in the correct bed, so to speak, of course. This coronation was teaching me a lot, mainly that Bolton appreciated undying and unquestioning loyalty.
I twisted back, swinging my legs under my desk again. “Meet me tonight after the bells in front of the library.”
She may have had loyalty, but she didn’t have the balls to get dirty and do what needed to be done for the king.
We waited for the last bells to ring before we even attempted to leave our room. The same bells rang every night at 8 p.m., alerting the students to the curfew that required us to be safely in our rooms.
Of course, this didn’t apply on game nights; the double standard was screaming so loud I was deaf.
Luna was in all black, borrowed from me, and I donned the same colors head to toe. I swapped out my white Doc Martens for my older black pair—the pair I normally wore when trouble disguised itself as fun, before a wrong turn was made on moral code street.
We all met outside the library with one extra body; that was the first red flag I missed.
Austin was firmly by Kate’s side, with his arms wrapped around her from behind and his face nuzzled into her neck. He wanted to be anywhere, but here, that much was obvious. He made other plans involving Kate.
No, I wasn’t jealous.
I had a crown to keep straight.
I was focused on revenge and the familiar fluttering feeling inside my stomach that I missed so much while I was swearing off trouble.
Luna and I walked together to the edge of campus, letting the love birds follow behind us. I knew I had to apologize for being a bitch, but my tongue suddenly weighed a thousand pounds. The guilt felt easier to carry.
She looked at me like she could read my mind. “Arianna, it’s okay. We all get angry and say things we don’t mean.”
I whispered in a low tone, making sure there was enough distance between the love birds and us before I spoke. “Is that like… your superpower?”
Her laugh was all genuine, pouring out of her mouth, and her fingertips rubbed her eyes in order to catch the happy tears.
What else was I supposed to call it? I was barely believing all this, and now I was asking ridiculous questions I wasn’t sure I wanted the answers to.
“I’d never heard someone call it superpowers. That is really funny.”
I looked at her with my head tilted to one side. “What do you call what you guys can do then?”
She stopped walking to stare at me very seriously to make her point. “Control, Arianna.”
I should have dropped it then, but I wanted Bolton to come up more in this conversation. What better way was there than to bring him up myself. “So what’s Bolton super power?”
She looked behind us, since Kate’s only superpower lately was busting me when things got good.
What a rent a cop.
“Major douche? Incredible asshole? Beats me.”
I looked at her with my head tilted to one side. How could they not know or care what his superpowers were? It was like living next to Harry Potter World and you simply shrug when someone asks if you want to go. It wasn't acceptable behavior.
“Excuse me? No one knows?”
She laughed, like it was shocking he held his own secrets with a firm grip. I rolled my eyes at myself for even asking.
Dumb move, Arianna.
Her hand landed on my arm just as we stopped at the opening of the mouth of the hidden path—the same one outlined by Henry Jon. This time we wouldn’t be following his ghost into the woods, but going the other direction to end up behind the boys’ locker room.
“You’re the only person he’s let close in a long time. It’s a privilege we don’t get afforded.”
Her words made me smile, and I quickly wondered if Nyx offered that on his menu of services.
I felt protective of Luna, my roommate and only ally here, and the possibility of her heart hurting made me want to launch a war the size of the battle they once had for Helen of Troy. She deserved for someone to take care of her the way she did all of us.
We all stood still, checking for anyone around us. The coast was clear, but Kate refused to set one Gucci shoe on the dirt path overgrown with vegetation.
“Austin,” she whined in her too prissy voice. “I cannot go in there.”
She stressed the word with so much emphasis I watched her face crinkle in disgust at the thought of being forced to blaze that trail. I didn’t understand her objection to adventure.
Who plans adventure? Who cares if your shoes get dirty and your hair gets messed up?
I dove into the unknown with no safety net, no back-up plan, and no fear. I wanted every day to be a mystery that I had to unravel.
Kate was the opposite: perfectly armed for every day, every ounce of fun, and planning it all was the adventure for her.
Luna, to my left, was mentally assessing everyone with her deep blue eyes, while I shined the light on the overgrown pathway leading to the boys’ locker room and taking the first steps into the wilderness. I was determined to prove my worth, with some good, old-fashioned sabotage.
Luna just wanted everyone to be happy, fed, and hydrated. She was in touch with her feelings, too much for my liking. She coddled everyone like the mother I lost too young, and ironically, I hated the reminder instead of letting her tendencies extend to me too.
I hadn’t dragged anyone out here. I was capable of riding out my own plan and enjoying the typical trouble that came right after. I didn’t need them to follow me.
I stomped out every ounce of needing anyone the further I got down the path. I looked over my shoulder slightly, not obviously, when I saw Austin following along with Luna. Kate was thrown over his shoulder and being well-preserved from the adventure.
A smile crept up to my mouth from the pit of my stomach, knowing that people followed me, without pressure or force, but because they wanted to. I knew I wasn’t a princess, but now I had two feet firmly placed under me and my crown. There wasn’t any doubt left now that I had an army.
The path was a shortcut to behind the building, and it landed us right in front of the emergency exit to the boys’ guest locker room.
The guest and home team were firmly separated by a long hallway. Even the girls’ locker room was across from the boys’, while the guests were down the hall just to create a buffer of loyalty.
Probably Bolton’s idea.
I yanked the door open, expecting an alarm that would pump the adrenaline building inside my blood, but the quiet was even more eerie. I slipped into the complete darkness, holding the door for Luna behind me. I shined my flashlight onto the surfaces, making sure
it was empty—devoid of gear and people.
I dropped my heavy duffle bag on the bench and tucked my phone into my bra strap so it could shine on and I could become hands free.
I packed shaving cream, dish soap, extra laces, even fart canisters to ruin the crisp air in here. Kate scoffed at my bag full of pranks. “That’s your sabotage plan? Do you know Caellum? He probably has one of his goons check the room before anyone enters.”
Her inability to share all this information before we planned to come here with a bag full of useless pranks would have been nice. Clearly her reign as queen wasn’t a gracious one.
“Kate, why don’t you share your plans then?”
Luna was between us, and Austin across from her, all circling the bag, as tension became a hot, sticky mess between us. My blue irises had to be dripping in resentment, and as I became all kinds of pissed off, the shade got darker. They always did get a mucky mud color when I was pissed off.
Kate’s arms were folded, and her hip popped in an obvious expression of not caring, even if she did. Neither of us were backing down or even arguing with words.
This was all glares—queen against queen.
Austin, being the sympathetic and empathic person he was, suggested we bail on the whole mission. Luna quickly agreed when she realized we still didn’t speak though our gritted teeth and pensive eyes.
Finally, I spoke, remembering queens don’t need to rule with an iron fist or lace gloves. I could be a new kind of queen. “Comprise? Whatever you’re thinking and some pranks.”
Kate popped an eyebrow to match every other part of her that was popped too. “I’m not sure you can handle what I have in mind if this is what you brought. I expected more from the troubled girl.”
The tension sitting on shoulders felt even more heavy as I kept myself from shooting any more arrows without thinking. I waited patiently for her to continue.
“You're gonna text Caellum. He doesn't know you, and we’re gonna ambush him as soon as he steps foot on campus.”
She was putting my adventure to death and resurrecting planned revenge.
“He knows who I am,” my voice was weak and almost fit into a whisper.
I shouldn't be admitting I reached out to Caellum, let alone that we had some kind of private message rapport.
Everyone looked equally shocked and displaced with their immediate anger. I forced myself to keep my gaze up and shoulders back; I wasn’t going to crumble.
“Does Bolton know? You know loyalty to him is, like, required.”
Kate didn’t say required for what exactly, but I got the point. Bolton and loyalty were synonymous. Got it. I shook my head trying to let it soak in further, down deeper, to a spot that would brand my memory.
I didn't want to justify her with a response. Of course Bolton knew, there wasn't much he didn't know.
I wasn't keen on keeping anything from him after how he reacted so similarly as Kate just had. I was actively avoiding telling him about the pages I found after he left the woods.
I knew I needed to show him before he found out on his own.
Kate ripped my phone from my hand, pulled up the app I messaged Caellum on, and bypassed all my password locks without a single hesitation. She typed exhaustively as she spoke out loud each word under her fingers.
Every time she mashed me and effort together, she came out on the other end, seeming so vexed to even be bothered.
It made me cringe.
Text: Hey, do you want to meet before the game tomorrow? Little pre-game celebration?
She smirked at my phone, almost letting her cheeks tint a slight pink, and I knew that meant he replied.
They crowded my phone like it was magic, while I pretended to be bored.
Being the new kid fourteen times really drove home the lesson of not showing people when you care. Showing you care gave you away, and in a snap, that one moment of weakness could be used against you. If I didn’t care, then no one else did either.
Win, win.
She read his response out loud: “Switching teams? I’m happy to steal anything belonging to Bolton.”
I rolled my eyes in such disappointment. He didn’t suspect anything. Bolton wouldn’t choose an opponent that wasn’t worthy, and this guy was stupid. He was thinking with his dick instead of strategy.
I needed more time to get to know our enemy, but Kate moved the timeline up to tomorrow.
She knew her castle was on fire, her crown chipped, and her reign over; that’s when moves become messy instead of calculated.
The walk back to the dorms was quiet and slow. The adrenaline was fading, and my thirst for adventure wasn’t even close to quenched.
Luna ripped off her black bulky clothes quickly and let her strawberry curls fall down from the pony tail.
She was beautiful in this innocent way, like nothing bad had ever happened to her and everything was still well intact.
She gathered her shower supplies and headed into our cozy bathroom to shower, while I carefully opened my bedside table drawer to the pages I hadn’t fully inspected yet. I hid them in plain sight, holding the tradition both Bolton and Henry Jon held, between the pages of the book it was once ripped from.
My fingers ran over the creases carefully, smoothing them down and looking over his penmanship.
Henry Jon
With Pastor Cotton, Blacksmith Samuel, and Ranger Charles, we were determined to exhaust ourselves with finding their weakness. Our days were numbered, until I had to hold up my end of the bargain. We needed a deicide, the killer of false gods. I prayed every night for guidance from the one and only true God. Right when we were defeated most, after we called upon everyone, but the Devil himself to call back his children, we were given a holy sign.
My sweet daughter would sleep walk on occasion, for this reason I strung a bell to her door handle that alerted me she was scampering off. We had gone months without her waking in the darkness, until the Devil, who lived on the edge of town, taunted her faith.
I tied my robe around my midsection and grabbed my gun, standing at attention next to my lamp. I followed behind her, far enough to not wake her, but close enough to see without a lamp. She walked into the woods, like she had known every twig, pebble, and curve of the land by heart. I stopped behind a thick tree when she stopped, peering slightly, watching her kneel down onto the thick grass.
I had never seen my sweet girl speak in tongues when she woke in the night. Her voice was smooth, like she was almost singing, when she spoke the word Ophiotaurus. She was speaking the Devil's language, and it shook my faith in my God. My pure, innocent Rosalia was being dragged deeper into the grasp of the Devil.
I waited, watching her hands feel the grass around her, like she was blind, until I heard the grass moving. I couldn’t spot the culprit of the movements, but I heard it coming as I aimed my gun to shoot right past her ear if I saw a threat. I froze when I saw a bull emerge his head from the bushes. I allowed my breath to even out as I steadied my hands again. Rosalia got up from her knees and presented sugar cubes to the animal, like it was her pet horse. I watched the bull push forward, and I saw the rest of its body was a serpent.
The door to the bathroom creeped open, scaring the shit out of me as I read along, feeling every tang of anxiety Henry Jon did.
She casually asked after glaring at the old book in my lap, “Working on your project?”
I should have been, but I was captive to Rosalia’s story. I needed to know what had happened to her like I needed to breathe.
Something inside me felt connected to her more than someone who was just relating to the character; she was changing something inside me, awakening a cosmic struggle.
I retired from my book after Luna snuggled up into bed and clearly was getting ready to sleep. Not willing to disrupt her sleep, I flicked my lamp off and closed the book with the new pages still unread.
Arianna
On game days, campus seemed less gloomy and more alive. I was the displaced dark cloud
in the perfect sky today. I had a date with revenge that didn't feel right, and it was stirring my thoughts all day.
Bolton didn't even come to class, and the loyalty branded in my mind was churning with guilt, more and more, with every class change and saunter down the hallway without him there.
Kate was giddy in French, like she couldn't wait for the moment Caellum was alone, even though I was in the dark about what was actually going to transpire after that.
I get him alone, and then what? I talk him to death? Great plan, Kate.
I leaned over my desk during our quiz to gain her attention, while I watched her pink pen glide from question to question effortlessly, especially for someone who talked instead of learning.
I was trying to decipher any of the gibberish on my quiz, having never taken French, and I had paid attention as much as I could, just to get further lost.
“We need to talk about the plan.”
She didn't even look up from her paper. “Don't worry about it. I've got it.”
I was being kept in the dark without even a lighter—a stupid little lighter that would barely illuminate anything.
Going to class, I looked for Bolton, or even Nyx. My conscience wanted me to come clean to him before I found out what Kate’s plan really was.
Something clawed its way from the bottom of my stomach to my throat, and it brought the threat to drag up breakfast with it.
Up until my last class around 3 pm, there still wasn't any Bolton, any of the boys, or even breakfast regurgitated.
The game wasn't until 7, so I had time to hide out in my room with Henry Jon’s pages.
I dragged myself up the stairs forcefully, lacking even the energy to take the next step. I was burned out, and I didn't understand why. I had stayed clear of any adventure, not for a lack of trying. Just being at Arcadia was exhausting.
I let my bag fall off my shoulder in the middle of our empty room before I crawled into bed, completely clothed in my uniform that wasn't wrinkle free before this decision, so I determined it didn't matter.
Yanking the covers up to my chin finally, a yawn forced my jaw into a stretch. I was forcing my eyes open and the wheels to turn in my mind enough to prepare for whatever Kate had up her sleeve. My eyelids, at half-mast, closed anyways, while I begged my mind to keep trying until a deep sleep snatched all of my efforts.