Chapter 101: The Name On The List

Chapter 101 — The Name on the List

The noticeboard outside the main hall had gathered a crowd by the time Roxanne returned with Isla and Tessa, which was never a good sign. Crowds at the noticeboard meant exam results or scandal, and exams were weeks away.

"Excuse me," Tessa said pleasantly, and the students parted with the speed of people who knew better than to argue with her.

The list for the inter-pack social evening had been updated overnight. Beside Roxanne’s name, in tidy black ink, a second line had appeared: Nominated by Elias Mercer.

Roxanne read it twice, then a third time, in case the letters might rearrange themselves into something more sensible.

"Elias invited you to a social evening?" Isla asked, once they had retreated to a quieter corner of the corridor.

"Apparently."

"Should I be worried?"

"About what?"

"That you have a secret life I don’t know about."

Roxanne gave her a flat look. "You know what I ate for breakfast."

"And yet you continue to surprise me." Isla’s eyes were bright. "He likes you. Obviously he likes you."

"Elias is my training friend."

"Those are the most dangerous kind."

Tessa, leaning against the wall with her arms folded, hadn’t joined in. "If he likes her, why didn’t he just ask her himself? Nominating someone on a public list is a strange way to start."

"Thank you," Roxanne said. "That is exactly my question." ℯ

"So ask him," Tessa said.

Roxanne intended to. The academy would invent a story for the two of them by lunchtime, and she preferred to hear the truth before it did.

She found Elias after her last class, packing his notes into a battered satchel at the edge of the training yard. He looked up and winced before she had said a word.

"You saw the board."

"Half the academy saw the board." Roxanne stopped in front of him. "You could have asked me."

"I could have."

"So why didn’t you?"

"I thought you’d say no before hearing the reason."

"You don’t know me that well."

Elias smiled, a little crooked. "That’s why I’m trying to."

She waited. He set the satchel down and spoke more seriously.

"Students from my old training territory are coming to the evening. Some of them have known me since we were children. They remember who I was before I came here, and none of them have seen me as anything but the boy who was always trying to win something." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I’d like to introduce them to someone who knows me as a person. You tell me when I’m wrong, even when it’s irritating. Especially then."

"That’s not a high bar."

"It’s rarer than you’d think."

Roxanne studied him for a moment, searching for any hint of the grand gesture she had half expected. There wasn’t one. No flowers, no speeches, no audience.

"To be clear," Elias added quickly, "this isn’t a declaration. I’m not asking for anything except your company."

Something in her chest loosened. "Thank you for saying that plainly."

"I’m told I should do it more often."

"You should." She considered it a moment longer. "Fine. I’ll come. As your guest, not your date."

"As my guest," he agreed, looking visibly relieved.

By the next morning, the academy had decided what it thought.

It spread through the dining hall in murmurs and glances. Roxanne Silver had accepted Elias Mercer’s invitation. Some students called him brave for approaching someone so closely tied to the Moonstone brothers, as though he had walked into a den with a plate of meat. Others whispered that Roxanne was doing it on purpose, to make the brothers jealous.

Roxanne ate her porridge and said nothing. She had no intention of defending herself against rumours with no basis in reality. Arguing with them only gave them somewhere to live.

Arabella heard every word. She sat three tables away with her usual circle, and several people watched her, waiting for a reaction. She didn’t give them one. She finished her tea, rose gracefully, and crossed the hall to where a group of older students were arguing over decorations and seating plans for the social evening.

"Perhaps I can help," she said, smiling. "I’ve organised a few of these before."

Within minutes she had been handed a list.

The news reached the brothers separately, and each took it in his own way.

Liam found her in the corridor and clutched his chest with both hands. "Is it true? You’re abandoning me for a rival training partner?"

"Elias isn’t a rival. He’s a friend."

"That’s what they all say." His wounded expression was so extravagant that she laughed before she could stop herself, and he looked immensely pleased with himself.

Lucien was calmer. He caught her after the library, hands clasped behind his back. "Has Elias treated you respectfully?"

"Always."

He nodded once. "Then I hope you enjoy the evening." He asked nothing else, and somehow that meant more than a lecture would have.

Roshan simply watched her across the practice yard, head tilted. "You look pleased," he said.

"I am. Somebody invited me somewhere because they wanted me there. Not because of who I’m standing next to."

Something flickered across his face, then settled into a quiet smile. "Good," was all he said, and he went back to his drills without turning the moment into anything about himself.

Kai was the quietest of them. He fell into step beside her at the end of the day, hands in his pockets, eyes fixed ahead.

"Do you want me to walk you back to the dormitory after class?"

"I can walk alone," Roxanne said.

"I know."

They went a few paces in silence. She could have left it there. Instead she shifted slightly closer and said, "But you can come anyway."

Kai didn’t question the invitation, or the other one. He only nodded, and neither of them said what hung between them as they walked.

On the evening before the social, Isla and Tessa invaded Roxanne’s room and emptied her wardrobe onto the bed.

"This one," Isla said, holding up a deep green dress. "This one says mysterious and tragic."

"I don’t want mysterious and tragic. I want to eat the good pastries and talk to people who aren’t from this academy."

"Fair," Tessa said, and tossed the dress aside. "Comfortable, then. Something you’d actually enjoy wearing."

Roxanne chose a dark blue jacket and simple trousers, with the silver pin her mother had given her. When she looked in the mirror, she saw herself, not a statement. For once nobody in the conversation had said a brother’s name.

Afterwards she sent Elias a note confirming the time. You will introduce me properly to your friends. I expect names and context.

His answer came back within minutes. Of course. Be warned, they’ll have questions about the Moonstones.

Roxanne groaned. "I knew there would be a catch."

She was crossing the courtyard toward the dormitory when she heard Elias’s name.

Two visiting students stood beneath the archway, their voices low but not low enough. She slowed, pretending to adjust her satchel strap.

"He actually invited her?" one said. "After what happened last time?"

"Be quiet," the other hissed. "Someone will hear."

Roxanne stopped.

Elias had a past. Everyone did, and she had never pressed him for his. But he had never mentioned anything serious enough to make an ordinary invitation sound shocking.

She turned. "What did you mean?"

Both students went rigid.

"Nothing," the first said quickly. "We were just talking."

"About Elias."

"It’s nothing," the second repeated, a little too firmly.

But the first one was looking at her now, and the concern in his face was unmistakable. It wasn’t mockery or curiosity. It was the look of someone who wanted to say more and had been told he mustn’t.

They left before she could ask again.

Roxanne stood alone beneath the archway as the lamps flickered on across the courtyard. Whatever had happened to Elias before he came to Moonstone Academy, his old friends seemed certain that inviting Roxanne into his life was a mistake.