Chapter 83: What Are We? & Where Are You?

Molly

Molly ran through the thick trees, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs. It was only when she was deep within the safety of the main forest path that she violently bumped straight into Chloe. "Woah!" Chloe gasped, catching Molly by the shoulders. Chloe looked at her in complete exasperation. "Where have you been?!"

Molly threw her hands up in the air. "Where have I been?! Where have you guys been?! I’ve been looking for you everywhere! What type of teammates are you?!" Chloe rolled her eyes, sighing heavily. "Beatrice got her foot stuck on a massive wooden splinter!"

Molly blinked, her jaw dropping. "A splinter?!"

"Yeah!" Chloe defended loudly. "So we were helping her pull it out! I think you just didn’t see us when we were behind the brush helping her!"

"Yeah... obviously!" Molly huffed. Chloe opened her mouth to argue back, but her eyes suddenly dropped down to Molly’s hand, and went wide with absolute horror. She pointed a trembling finger down at the bloody steel weapon Molly was casually clutching.

"Why is there a dagger in your hand?!" Chloe shrieked in a hushed, panicked whisper. "Are you trying to get us disqualified from the whole competition, girl?!" Molly blinked, looking down at her own hand as if noticing the blade for the very first time. "Oh! I forgot about this dagger!"

"Whose is that?!" Chloe demanded, looking around nervously. "Oh, it’s... it’s some man’s!" Molly blurted out frantically. "I was helping a man!" Chloe gaped at her. "What man?!"

"Some man was stabbed out here!" Molly explained, gesturing wildly back toward the river. "I was helping him take it out!"

"And you just left him?!" Chloe yelled, horrified. "No! He said he was fine!" Molly argued back defensively. Chloe slapped her own forehead, letting out an exasperated groan. "Molly, sometimes you can be so stupid! Come on, we need to go back and take him to the infirmary!"

"Oh... yeah, okay," Molly murmured, fidgeting. "But he literally said he didn’t need it!"

"He’s a man, he has a giant ego! Of course he said he didn’t need it!" Chloe barked, grabbing Molly’s wrist. Without waiting another second, Chloe dragged Molly straight back through the woods toward the spot by the old oak tree. But when they rounded the massive trunk and arrived at the clearing, Molly completely froze. The spot was completely empty.

Chloe looked around the dry leaves, her brows pulling together into a deep frown. "Are you sure he was here? I don’t even see a single trace of blood, Molly."

"Yeah! He was here!" Molly insisted frantically, stepping over the roots. "He was really here! My senses are fine, Chloe! I can track places, my senses aren’t off!" Chloe crossed her arms, sighing softly. "Maybe he just left."

"Without leaving a trail of blood?!" Molly argued, pointing to the spotless earth. "He could have healed already! He said he was a Lycan and Wolf shifter!" Chloe let out a loud, mocking scoff. "A Lycan and Wolf shifter, girl? Come on. The chances of that are ridiculously low, you know that!"

"I know!" Molly whined, wringing her hands together. "But he said he was! Maybe he just healed really fast and couldn’t pull the dagger out himself, so once I pulled it, he healed instantly!" She paused, looking around the empty clearing in utter confusion. "Chloe... I don’t know what happened."

Chloe looked at her with concern, sighing softly. "Do you think we should report this to our professor?"

"No!" Chloe answered her instantly, glaring at the bloody steel blade in Molly’s hand. "Report what? That you had a weapon during a hunt where no weapons are allowed?! Throw that dagger away right now, Molly!"

Turning on her heel, Chloe began walking back toward the main trail.

Molly stood alone under the looming oak tree, her fingers tightening around the cold, blood-stained hilt of the dagger. She raised her hand, intending to toss it far into the thick brush, but her arm completely froze.

She just couldn’t do it. For some unexplainable, bizarre reason, she felt deeply connected to the blade, a strange pull tugging at her chest. Gulping softly, Molly pulled the dagger close, holding it tightly against her chest before quietly sliding it deep into the front pocket of her leather pants.

She stared out into the quiet, shadowy woods, her heart pounding as a single, lingering question echoed through her mind.

Where did he go?

Aina

Aina stared blankly at her reflection in the tall, full-length mirror, her fingers twitching against the stiff material of her clothes. She was clad head-to-toe in her dark leather training gear, the tight straps and rigid seams wrapping around her body like a stylish coffin. She let out a dramatic, shuddering sigh, tugging aggressively at her long leather sleeves.

"I can’t believe it," she muttered to her own pale reflection, shaking her head in sheer disbelief. "I might actually just die today. This is it. This is how I go out."

She smoothed down the front of her vest, though her mind was racing a mile a minute. At the very least, a tiny silver lining flickered in her brain. At least she hadn’t been forced to shift yesterday during the wild hunt. If she had actually participated in that chaotic, bone-crushing competition yesterday, her body would have been trampled into the mud before noon. She definitely would have died mid-shift.

"Whatever," Aina huffed, rolling her eyes at herself in the glass, trying to muster up an ounce of bravery. "Just a delayed death, really. Those princes are definitely going to kill me today. Especially after I completely skimped out on them yesterday..."

The thought of facing their collective wrath made her stomach turn into a tight, nervous knot. She reached up to adjust her hair, turning around on her heel–

And screamed at the top of her lungs. Aina clutched her hand over her pounding heart, jumping back three feet as her eyes nearly popped out of her head. Standing right in the middle of the room, completely unannounced, was Roiner. "You have got to stop doing that!" Aina squeaked, her chest heaving as she glared at him with wide, terrified eyes. "Appearing out of absolute nowhere! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?!"

Roiner tilted his head slightly, his red, mesmerizing eyes watching her frantic breathing. His posture was effortlessly elegant, not a single strand of his white hair out of place. "Well... I am not appearing out of nowhere," he corrected her smoothly, his voice dropping into that deep, silky tone that always sent a subtle shiver down her spine. "I simply came here too fast."

"Same thing!" Aina shot back, waving her hand defensively through the air. "Stop it before I actually drop dead right here! My heart can only take so much!"

Roiner blinked, a soft, almost contrite look washing over his sharp features. "Oh. Okay... I am sorry, my love." He paused, his gaze softening as he stepped a fraction closer, holding her eyes with an intensity that immediately made Aina’s pulse skip a beat for an entirely different reason. "I wanted to give you a gift."

Aina tilted her head, her defensive stance deflating into pure confusion. "A gift?" Roiner reached behind his back, and in a fluid motion, he produced a weapon that instantly captured the light.

It was a bow and a quiver of arrows, but unlike any weaponry Aina had ever seen in the academy’s armory. The bow was crafted from a sleek, polished bone that gleamed with an ethereal, ivory luster, carved with delicate, flowing runes that seemed to pulse with a faint, otherworldly luminescence. Matching bone arrows, fletched with dark, pristine feathers, rested neatly alongside it. It looked dangerously exquisite.

Aina blinked, her lips parting as she looked from the weapon back up to his face. "Oh... what is that? Other than a bone bow and arrow, I mean. I can obviously see that it’s made of bone."

A faint, fond smile tugged at the corner of Roiner’s lips. "Well, it is a very special set. It is enchanted. I retrieved it from Elim." He held it out toward her, his red eyes fixing on hers. "This bow, and these stacks of arrows... they will always land on their target. No matter where you shoot, no matter the distance or the shadow, it will never miss."

Aina’s jaw slacked slightly, her fingers twitching with genuine awe. "Wow... really?" Then, the weight of his words finally hit her brain. Her eyes widened, her head snapping up as the reality of what he just said dawned on her.

"Wait... Elim?!" Aina blurted out, her voice rising an octave. "You went to Elim?!"

Roiner nodded calmly, as if he were discussing a casual stroll through the academy gardens. "Yes. I went there yesterday."

"Elim is a month’s journey from here!" Aina gasped, throwing her hands up. "On a plane, it’s like three whole days! How on earth did you go to Elim and come back already?!" A cool, amused smirk flickered across Roiner’s breathtaking face. "Again... vampire fast. It is more like a minute."

Aina stared at him in utter, speechless awe. Her heart rattled against her ribs as she looked at this impossibly powerful being standing casually in her room. "How are vampires at the bottom of the tier when you guys are this ridiculously strong?" she whispered, genuinely baffled. "It doesn’t make any sense!"

Roiner’s smirk faded, replaced by a quiet, subtle shift in his expression. "Blood," he answered softly, his voice low and heavy. "All of this power... it is fueled on blood."

Aina winced, a tiny shudder passing through her shoulders as she shook her head. "Well... that’s disgusting." She looked back down at the breathtaking bone bow resting in his hands. A deep, stubborn wave of hesitation washed over her. She pulled her hands back, tucking them behind her leather-clad waist, and shook her head firmly. "As much as I want to accept it, Roiner... I can’t. I really can’t take this. It seems far too precious."z

"You are precious to me," Roiner said instantly, his voice slicing through the quiet room with a fierce certainty that made Aina’s breath catch in her throat. He took a single step closer, extending the weapon toward her again, his eyes locking onto hers. "Take it. It is for me, Aina. I will feel better knowing you are safe."

Aina looked up at him, her chest aching with a sudden, suffocating wave of vulnerability. The sheer weight of his devotion was overwhelming, pulling at the darkest, most insecure corners of her mind. She swallowed hard, the silence stretching between them until she couldn’t hold the terrifying question back any longer.

"Where... where does our relationship even stand?" Aina asked softly, her voice barely above a whisper, laced with a raw, fragile tremble. "Like... I know you bonded with me. I know you mated with me. But I’m just... I’m not sure about our relationship. What are we, Roiner?"