Chapter 48: _ Magnet For Trouble

We took turns using the small bath built into our dorm room, scrubbing away the lingering scent of gala wine and smoke. When it came time to dress, reality hit me.

My mother had only been able to pack me two outfits before I left Stonewick; my wardrobe consisted entirely of rough, practical rags and durable work clothes. I pulled on the cleaner of the two: a faded, shapeless tunic that wasn’t fancy in the slightest.

Back home in the outer districts, I had never cared what I wore. A shirt was a shirt as long as it kept the frost out. But after spending an entire evening surrounded by silk-draped aristocrats and being the accidental center of the entire Last Bastion’s attention, I couldn’t help staring at my reflection and wincing at how horrible I looked.

Who was I kidding? I wasn’t just feeling self-conscious because of the nobles; I was mortified because of the princes.

Why on earth should I care a single damn how arrogant royals perceived my wardrobe?

I shouldn’t... But I did.

I looked down at the dark metal band Ajax had slipped onto my wrist. It sat there like a gleaming shackle, and I suddenly felt like a prisoner awaiting execution.

Across the room, Miriel was already fully transformed. She was dressed in a lavish, ruffled gown. That was the perk of being a former aristocrat who still had a few hidden trinkets to trade. Bren stood nearby, decently dressed in a simple, cheap blouse and trousers that were at least clean and well-fitted.

We scrambled through the rest of our morning routine, rushing out the door. But the moment the door of our dorm clicked shut behind us, Miriel launched right back into her orbit.

"I still can’t believe it," Miriel squealed, clutching her cheeks as she skipped down the stone hallway. "Prince Ivar chose me. Did you see the way he looked at me? That wasn’t just a royal courtesy dance, Elira. That was love at first sight. He loves me, and honestly? I love him too."

A weird knot twisted tightly in the pit of my stomach. Hearing Miriel talk about Ivar like he was some lovesick puppy made me want to gag, though for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why it bothered me so much.

Beside me, Bren shoved her hands into her pockets, casting a sideways glance at me.

"Leave it alone, Miriel, before your romantic delusions get us all killed. Which brings us to the actual mystery. Elira. The Lion Prince chose you. Knowing you’re a dragonless nobody from the trenches, don’t you find that just a tiny bit suspicious?"

"Oh, I find it entirely terrifying," I groaned, rubbing my temples. "Trust me, I don’t think he’s harbouring a secret crush."

I pulled back the sleeve of my tunic, exposing my left wrist.

"Look."

Miriel and Bren both leaned in and saw the metal band Ajax had slipped onto me the night before.

"He asked to be my friend," I explained, my voice dropping to a paranoid whisper. "And before I could even process what was happening, he just slid this onto my wrist without asking. He told me it would summon him if I was ever in trouble."

Bren frowned, reaching out a finger to inspect the band. "What the... I’ve never seen anything like it."

"That’s not even the worst part," I muttered, shivering slightly as I traced the edge of the metal. "When he put it on me... it literally pricked me. It drew blood, and it felt like it locked itself directly into my pulse point."

The cold dawn air of the academy grounds bit at our cheeks as we hurried down the path toward the Academy security building. The sky was still purple and gray.

Because it was so early, the courtyards were largely empty... mostly just heavy-booted wardens patrolling the perimeters.

Even at this hour, though, the academy was buzzing. We could hear whispers echoing from a pair of wardens leaning against a torchlit pillar, trading gossip.

"I’m telling you, the Heartstone didn’t just malfunction," the first warden hissed. "It completely exploded. Fine crystalline dust everywhere."

I almost laughed.

Now that was the exaggeration of the century. Apparently two grown men had decided an already humiliating disaster needed a generous sprinkle of nonsense on top.

"Forget the stone," the second warden scoffed, crossing his arms. "Did you see the dance floor? The Lion Prince broke protocol and picked the same girl who cursed the stone for the waltz. The entire high-born gallery looked ready to riot."

"Not just him," the first muttered, leaning closer. "The Wolf Prince stalked straight past the debutantes to drag a former aristocrat out too, I hear. Something’s rotting at the top, man. The royals are making moves, and we’re just standing in the crossfire."

Miriel beamed, marching ahead of us with her head held high, completely unbothered by the fact that half the faculty probably wanted to dissect us.

"Prince Ajax just wanted to protect Elira, maybe," she declared airily, waving a hand toward my wrist. "Kind of like how Prince Ivar stalked me and saved me from Tobin. He fell in love with me at first sight, so maybe the Lion Prince did the same thing with you, Elira!"

Bren stopped dead in her tracks, staring at Miriel as if she had grown a second head.

"Protect her? Miriel, are you actually hearing yourself right now? Do you not find any of this even a little bit suspicious? Two royal princes falling head-over-heels in love with two first-years overnight? A disgraced fallen noble and a poor, dragonless girl from the trenches? Who just happen to be roommates? And their idea of ’romance’ is binding us with tracking magic and stalking us through dark alleys?"

Miriel tossed her hair, sniffing disdainfully. "Of course you don’t understand, Bren. You’ve probably never read a romance scroll in your life. True love defies social barriers."

"True love usually doesn’t come with a blood-prick and invisibility stalking, Miriel," I muttered, staring down at the metal band on my wrist.

I couldn’t even fathom how Miriel genuinely believed those ruthless, terrifying predators were walking around with hearts in their eyes.

"I’m telling you, that’s definitely not it," I said, quickening my pace to keep up with her. "Princes don’t fall in love with nobodies between appetizers and waltzes. There’s an angle here, and we’re missing it."

Bren’s practical mind immediately latched onto the next logical thread. "Could it be because of what happened with the Heartstone? The fact that it completely glitched and radiated every color during your turn, Elira?"

Miriel blinked, momentarily distracted from her daydreams. "Oh! Right. How did that even happen anyway? Was it because there was no beast to detect inside you?"

"It eludes me too, and honestly, it scares the hell out of me," I admitted, a cold chill washing over me despite the walking. "I guess it might have something to do with the fact that I don’t have a beast... but the look on the faculty’s faces. Something tells me there’s a lot ahead of me because of this. They probably wouldn’t let it slide."

"That ball turned out to be a whole lot more than a fancy dinner. Especially after you disgraced Prince Ivar by mistaking him for Tobin." Bren muttered, rubbing the back of her neck.

Miriel hugged herself, shaking. "Oh, poor Elira. How could you even make such a mistake? You know I warned you."

"Shut up, Miriel. We were all tense. That bastard, Tobin, messed us up." Bren fired at her.

"Well, now my Ivar won’t let that disrespect slide. I’m afraid I’m going to have to convince him to forgive you." Miriel sighed heavily. "A magnet for trouble, aren’t you?"

If my head wasn’t spinning, Miriel’s seriousness about how she genuinely believed Prince Ivar was in love with her after a round of stalking and one dance would have succeeded in making me laugh.

But then again, hearing her mention the insanity of the night suddenly triggered a flash of unwanted memory in my brain.

Raice.

His sudden, jarring madness in the service alcove, the way he claimed my touch was his "cure," the intoxicating heat of his kiss, and how quickly he had spun back into a psychotic break, blaming me for bewitching him.

A hot flush crept up my neck. I almost opened my mouth, pondering whether to tell the girls about it when the words died on my tongue.

Before I could figure out how to phrase "Hey, by the way, Raice might be entirely unhinged, kissed me against a stone wall, and then called me a leech," we rounded the final corner.

Towering ahead of us were the gates of the Academy security building.

All three of us stopped in our tracks.

The reality of how we were here to give our formal statements about Tobin and whatever dark secrets Commander Clement was pulling us into, slapped away our morning bickering.

We exchanged a heavy sigh.

This was about to get intensely complicated.