by Pixie James
“What the hell?” I gasp, sticking my finger in my mouth to soothe the ache. What in the heck shocked me?
Tia’s staring at me wide eyed, mouth agape. “What happened? Are you okay?” she asks, looking around trying to make sure no one saw anything. She knows the last thing I want is attention especially when I’m already weird as hell.
“I don’t know. I was in there. I saw the images, then got shocked.”
“You saw them? Really? Yay! But what in the world was that? There was some sort of spark and the glove got all warm.” She looks down at it. “Here, let me try something.” Covering it with her own hand, she frowns. “There’s nothing there. I think you broke it. Dang it, Te’Lara is going to be so pissed!”
I narrow my eyes. “Why, yes, Tia. I’m totally okay. Thanks for asking. Appreciate your concern, friend.”
“Oh, shut up. I already asked about you. Now, I’m worried about me. I have to go tell Ha’Jahn we managed to destroy a thirty-thousand-dollar piece of training equipment.”
“Ha. Just add it to my tab.” The alarm on Tia’s phone goes off and we stand together to gather our trash. “Look, I’ll go with you—”
“Did I hear something about a tab? Count me in,” Rev says from right beside me. He’s so close I nearly collide with his chest when I startle.
I shove him, playfully. “Gah, don’t you know it’s rude to sneak up on people?”
He laughs. “Well, I wasn’t exactly quiet. You two were too busy staring at that Neuris glove to notice. How’d you get one of those, anyway?”
Tia scoops up the trash and makes a point to give me a let me handle this look. “The headmaster lent it to us to practice after school hours since Cherise is so behind. We were just about to return it to him.”
“Sounds like fun…not. I’m going to have to meet you ladies in class. I was late three times last week and the headmaster’s been trying to track me down to give me a formal write up. I figure if I avoid him long enough, he might forget.”
“Ha! Good luck with that.” The second alarm on her phone goes off and she silences it. “Come on, Cherise, we have to go if we’re going to make it to his office and to class on time.”
When Rev doesn’t move out of my way, I look up to find him staring at me. “I’ll see you in second period, yeah?”
Tia comes around the table and throws and arm around my shoulder. “Yeah, you’ll see me, too. Now scoot. We’ve got to go.”
Rev takes a step back, moving just far enough away for me to get by but close enough to let me know he was doing it on purpose. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll catch you later,” he says and winks.
“Seriously, Rev? You’re incorrigible.”
He laughs and throws up his hands. “What can I say? I know what I want.” He levels his eyes with mine and I look away. Crap, my heart’s beating out of my chest. This is so awkward…
What am I even supposed to say to that? Sorry, you’re perfect but I like my guys completely uninterested in me? No matter what I do it’s a lose-lose situation. I’m nice and I lead him on, I’m mean and I hurt his feelings even more than I probably already have.
Seriously, why can’t I just be into him?
He’s literally everything I should want. Hot. Tall. Tatted. Sarcastic and cute and always knows what to say. He’s got bad boy vibes and good grades and everything logical in my brain screams that I should jump at the chance. But I can’t. And I won’t. And I have no freaking clue why. I seriously hate myself right now.
“You know, Beloved Xebulin, you just do not care to admit it.”
The twist of my own guilt leaves me irritated and anxious and Huey butting in my thoughts isn’t helping. “Isn’t there anywhere I can go where you can’t hear me? Out of my head, right now, or you’re on the floor tonight.”
There’s a noticeable grunt in my head, and then I’m left with nothing but my own thoughts. Ugh, I wish I could order those away too.
“You all right over there?” Tia asks, nudging me. “He’s laying it on pretty thick. If you’re not into it, you should probably say something.”
“Thanks for what you did back there. I totally blanked and had no clue what to say.”
She cocks a brow. “You know it’s okay to say no, right?” We turn down the long corridor that leads to the headmaster’s office. “Rev isn’t exactly attention poor. There are tons of girls who like him. Honestly, I’m surprised he’s still chasing after you.”
“Oh, stop. You’re going to make me blush.”
“I don’t mean it like that, and you know it. I just meant that when he normally goes after a girl, he gets her. So, maybe he doesn’t quite know what to think. Or maybe he really does like you a ton. Either way, it doesn’t matter. If you don’t like him it’s not a big deal. You don’t owe him anything. His fragile little ego can take it.”
“I just…”
“Wish you could like him like you do Ty’Nix?”
“No! Yes. Dang, am I that obvious?”
Tia laughs and links arms with me, resting her chin on my shoulder. “Only to me, because I know you so well.”
“Sad, huh? I never thought I’d be that girl. Pinning after the boy who’s never going to like her. There’s just something about him I can’t get out of my head.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’ll figure it out. Ty’Nix is a mystery to everyone, including me, and I’ve known him since I was a small child. There aren’t always answers for everything, Cherise. Especially when it involves you.”
She snorts and I elbow her in the side. She bursts into laughter then immediately straightens when Headmaster Ha’Jahn steps out of his office. Oh, crap. Here we go.
“Headmaster?” Tia calls out with a shaky voice. “Can we talk to you a minute?”
His hair is pulled back, cinched at the base of his neck, and he’s wearing traditional robes instead of his normal three-piece suit. Either he didn’t pick up his dry cleaning or he has something ultra-important to do.
“So’Tia, Cherise, I was just on my way out. How can I help you ladies?”
She swallows hard, setting down her bag to get the glove. Rather than watch her crumble in front of him, I pop my hand in and grab it, then toss it at him.
“So, somehow I broke it. But on the good side, I mastered level twenty so…yay for me.”
The smile drops off his face and he looks down at the glove. “Of course, you did,” he mumbles, shaking his head. “How’d you manage to do it this time? I trust So’Tia is already aware and I do not have to mince words?”
“Oh, she was wearing it. It sparked out after I got the images. She touched it after and said they’re gone.”
All the color drains from his face. “Gone?”
“Yep. The thing’s totally fried.”
He shoves the glove into one of the deep pockets at the front of his robes and sticks the key back in his door.
“Headmaster, is everything okay? I thought you were leaving?”
“I…um, forgot something in my office. You girls go to class. You are about to be late.”
As soon as his door closes, Tia collapses on the floor. “Oh, crap. I’m totally getting kicked out of school. Did you see his face? It was like you killed his puppy or something.”
“Hush. You’re fine. You may have signed for it, but I’m the one who messed it up. Besides, I blew the roof off an actual building. The glove is small potatoes compared to that. It could have just been old and malfunctioning. I’m sure that thing has been used for like a zillion touch games.”
“You’re just trying to make me feel better.” She collects herself off the floor.
“Is it working?” I ask, giving her the cheesiest smile I can muster.
“Yes. Now tell me I’m pretty and give me your other muffin. I need to eat my feelings on the way to class.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
First period passed as slow as molasses. The more I fought to keep my eyes open, the more tangents Professor Te’Ann went off on, and it to
ok half the class falling asleep for her to get back on track. She wasn’t impressed and ended up giving everyone who yawned detention.
We’re about ten minutes into Xebulin History, and things aren’t getting any better. Tia randomly started her period and had to leave to go change, and Rev’s sulking because the headmaster’s secretary tracked him down in the lounge where he was hiding and hand delivered his write-ups, lawsuit style.
He’s been staring at his phone the past ten minutes, waiting for his parents’ reaction. I didn’t realize that the headmaster personally speaks with them prior to notifying the student of whatever they did wrong, and for once in my life, I’m glad my parents are absent.
Well, not really, but I’m just going to shove that down into the little place it belongs and focus on what’s important: Not ending up some failed science experiment because I can’t pass the test to gain my citizenship. Grades are important. Mastering memory extraction, siphoning, and truth differentiation is important. Dwelling on the woman who didn’t want me or the one who sold me for crack isn’t.
Rev’s chair squeaks as he leans back and rubs his neck. We had to pick partners earlier for an upcoming presentation on Xebulin war history and with Tia gone, I had no defense against his insistence.
“Have they called you yet? Maybe, the headmaster didn’t actually get a hold of them…”
He shakes his head and sighs. “There’s no way So’Xin—Son of So’Jet—misses the chance to right the wrongs his youngest spawn has made.” I laugh at the ridiculous voice he uses to impersonate his dad and try my best to ignore the emptiness rising up.
Sure, getting in trouble sucks, but at least he has a dad to yell at him.
“Hey, I’m sure it will be fine. How many write-ups do you need before you actually get in trouble?”
“One more and I’m banned from the games this year.”
He rests his head on his hand while Professor Te’Ann lays a closed manila envelope on our desk. She continues to hand out the rest of her stack, one to each pair, then stands at the front of the class. “All right, you may now open your assigned topic for the group project due next week. Keep in mind when working on this, I expect you to share the workload fifty-fifty. Anyone found slacking will be failed and the entire credit given to their partner.”
Knowing Rev won’t be jumping into the action anytime soon, I reach in and pull out our assigned topic. The Eclipse of the Yarune.
The what of the what?
I hold up the card and cock a brow. “Eh, what is this?”
“Sweet. This is an easy one.” He grabs the card out of my hands, turns it over to read the assignment requirements on the back, then picks up his phone again. Several moments pass by and he still hasn’t elaborated.
“Care to share, partner?”
“Eclipse of the Yarune is the English translation. No one calls it that outside of the books. It’s just Yarune’se. The end of the balance between our race and the Sivralians, our natural enemies.”
He’s looking at me like I should already know what the heck he’s talking about, but like most things in my life, I have no freaking idea. Time to follow the breadcrumbs like I always do.
“Sivralians? Isn’t that the race who’s always fighting for control of the moon in between our planet and theirs?”
He taps my nose and gives me a megawatt smile. “I see you’ve been paying attention in class.” A girl in the group next to ours catches the gesture and glares. Geeze, what’s her problem? Just for good measure, I lean back slightly—reclaiming the space he’s taken by scooting in.
“Yeah, well. I don’t have much of a choice. Speaking of, we’ve got to make a good grade on this, so pay attention.”
He sighs dramatically and puts it in his back pocket. “The things I do for love…” I chuck my pen at his head and he laughs. “I know how seriously you take your studies. And unlike some people we know…” he jerks his head toward the textbook Nix threw at me on our first tutoring session. “I won’t screw you over.”
Not sure if it’s the embarrassment I feel for liking Nix the way I do, or the sting of my pride that always has me wanting to defend him—and myself, really—but I have to bite my lip to stop myself.
“Good to know. How do you want to split up the presentation? There’s no way I have time to meet with you more than once. My schedule is insane.”
“Meet me at dinner in the dining hall. We can work there…”
Here we go again.
“Rev—”
“Hear me out. You need to eat. I need to eat. We usually just sit with our own friends or go back to our dorms but we could just sit together and use that time to work. No funny business.”
The room gets a little hotter as my anxiety kicks in. It seems lately that our interactions are getting more awkward each time and this might be the worst.
“I do need to eat, and I can meet you to work, but that’s all it can be. I can’t give you anything else right now, Rev.”
“Fine by me. I’ll take what I can get. And as for the project, let’s just split it by time. I’ll talk about the three months of failed negotiations, the Sivralians’ illegal harvesting of Erkite during restricted times, and the threat against the Princess’s life, and you can do the siege and the invasion.”
“I can do that—the siege and the invasion, I mean. And as for studying over dinner, I guess I can do that, too. As long as we’re clear. I don’t want you wasting your time and effort on me when I can’t be that for you.”
“Crystal. Just so you know, no time spent with you is a waste, Cherise. And it’s a damn shame that anyone has made you think otherwise,” he says, twisting his eyebrow ring. Relaxing back into his seat, Rev checks his phone once more, then opens his textbook and sticks it between us. “Now, stop distracting me. We’ve got work to do.”
The end of Professor Te’Vrah’s practice battle sword comes down hard on the edge of the mats. “How can you expect to extract yourselves from danger if you cannot even topple your sparring partner? It is you or them! Now get up and do it again.”
I grab Tia’s clammy hand and together we struggle to pull me up.
“My arms feel like Jell-O. How many times is he going to make us do this?” she wheezes in between gulps of water. Her face is glistening with sweat and we’re both covered in marks from the floor. I swear no one cleans these mats.
“No clue, but I’m pretty sure I’ll have to eat my lunch with a straw if we go much longer.”
I jump at the feel of a cold nose on the small of my back. Huey’s lumbered over from the bleachers to bring me more water.
“Huey, I’m fine. I don’t need mothering.”
“You are not fine, Beloved Xebulin, you are withering away. Drink.” He wraps his tail around the bottle and not-so-gently presses it against my arm. When I try to move around him, he doesn’t budge. “Drink.”
After a thirty second stare off, I give in. I’m too tired to deal with his stubbornness. “Ugh, fine.” I turn to Tia who’s overly amused by our interaction. “See what I have to deal with?”
“I think it’s cute. He cares about you.”
“Cute, huh? You want him?” Huey growls and I flatten my lips. “Oh, calm down. You know I’m kidding.”
The wooden doors of the gym burst open, and Huey jerks to attention. The headmaster’s secretary comes scurrying in, runs up to Professor Te’Vrah, and starts whispering in his ear. He nods and holds out his wrist.
Great, more silent communicating.
“What’s that all about? I can’t hear anything,” Tia asks.
I shrug my shoulders. “Did you hear anything before they went silent?”
“No, Beloved Xebulin, but I will go and find out. Their energy is worrisome.”
The crowd of students parts as Huey slinks through, giving him the respect he deserves, and only Ki’Lin dares to stand in directly in his way. The smirk on her face disappears as he clips her leg with his shoulder and knocks her into her sparring partner.
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A chorus of snickers spreads across the room, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t keep a smile off my face.
“Serves her right, the brat. I swear, she’s only gotten snootier since you arrived. I really think she’s jealous of all the attention you get.”
“More like she’s mad Nix is forced to tutor me. In her head, I probably manipulated someone into arranging it. She obviously feels like it’s some sort of personal attack on her campaign to be Miss Alien Princess or whatever it is she’s aiming for.”
Professor Te’Vrah and Te’Bec are still linked. Huey hasn’t said a word, and my nerves build the longer they continue to speak. It’s obvious something’s wrong. But what?
Giving in to her sore muscles, Tia sits down like several of the others have. “What’s taking them so long? Do you think it’s something serious?”
“No clue, but Huey seems to be just as engaged in whatever they’re saying as the two of them are. If it wasn’t important, he’d have come back by now. My Raska is a lot of things, but patient isn’t one of them.”
She cocks a brow. “He waited for you didn’t he? Sounds pretty patient to me.”
I can’t help cheesing ear to ear. I really do love the big guy, even though he’s a hot mess. “Ha, I guess you’re right.”
“Beloved Xebulin, there is an emergency, and I must gather the other Raska in preparation. You will come with me.”
“No.”
Tia frowns. “No, what?”
“Crap, I said that out loud. Balls, I’m tired. Huey needs to leave and is trying to make me go with him. I’ll be lucky to make it back to our room without crawling. No way I’m climbing a bunch of stairs to where the Raska meet for formal whatevers.”
“Tia’s random fact of the day: Those whatevers are called a Trast’is. The meeting of their minds. Since they have a pack mentality, they can speak as one if Huey chooses to initiate it. I’d imagine it saves him a lot of time not having to activate the Raska phone tree.”
“They have one of those?”
She snorts. “Seriously?”