Chapter 60: Caught

Astrid

The music died completely, and everyone turned toward the entrance at once. Aldrich stood there, unmoving, a few academy officials arranged behind him.

For one full second, nobody moved at all.

Then someone screamed, "RUN!"

Chaos broke loose instantly. Students scattered in every direction. I didn’t know where I was even supposed to go. Ivy grabbed my hand, and Martha grabbed Camilla, and we started running along with everyone else.

I was laughing, which made no sense at all except that I was nervous and slightly drunk and the whole thing suddenly felt absurd. I nearly tripped over my own feet.

"Astrid!" Ivy caught me before I hit the ground.

"I’m fine!"

"You’re drunk!"

"I’m not!"

I took another step and nearly went down again. Ivy stared at me, unimpressed.

"Right," she said.

We didn’t make it far. Aldrich and the officials had clearly anticipated exactly this, and students were getting stopped left and right, some trying to hide along the edges of the property, none of it working.

"Nobody is leaving," Aldrich’s voice cut across the yard, sharp enough to stop even the runners.

I stopped moving entirely. My stomach sank.

"We’re dead," Ivy whispered.

"Maybe he’ll forget," I whispered back.

"He’s the principal."

I considered that. "Right."

We were herded together with the rest of the caught students, standing in a loose, silent cluster while Aldrich surveyed everyone.

"Who organized this?" he asked.

Nobody spoke.

Then Roshan stepped forward. "I did."

Aldrich’s expression hardened. Roshan explained, calm and steady, that he’d arranged the party and invited people himself.

"You understood this wasn’t sanctioned by the academy," Aldrich said. It wasn’t really a question.

"I knew," Roshan admitted.

Aldrich asked who else had known about the planning. Roshan didn’t name a single person, taking the responsibility onto himself entirely, and I felt a small, surprised respect for him settle in despite everything.

Aldrich moved down the line of students after that, and when his eyes reached me, I tried straightening up.

It didn’t work. I swayed slightly instead.

"Miss Vale," he said.

"Yes, sir?"

"Have you been drinking?"

I considered lying. There didn’t seem to be much point. "A little."

Ivy looked away.

"How much?" he asked.

"I don’t remember," I admitted honestly.

His expression told me that was, apparently, the wrong answer.

"But I wasn’t... very drunk," I added, and immediately swayed again.

He raised an eyebrow. "Clearly."

He addressed the whole group after that, laying out exactly what we’d done wrong. Leaving academy grounds without permission. Attending an unauthorized gathering. Consuming alcohol. If anyone had been hurt, nobody at Moonshade would have had any idea where to even start looking.

I felt genuinely guilty hearing that, remembering how worried Ivy had gotten earlier over the missing girl.

Aldrich told us there would be consequences, though it was late enough that we’d be returned to the academy first, discipline handled properly the following day.

While we were being organized for transport, I heard a voice I recognized far too well.

I looked up. Reed and Xander, walking fast toward the gathered students.

Their eyes found me almost immediately.

Reed’s expression shifted the second he registered how unsteady I looked. Xander’s gaze moved from Ivy to me and back again.

"How much did she drink?" Xander asked.

"Not much," I answered before Ivy could.

He looked at me, watching me sway slightly where I stood. "You’re drunk."

"I’m standing."

"Barely."

Reed gave me a long, unreadable look, and I suddenly felt like a child caught climbing out a window.

"What were you thinking?" he asked.

"I was having fun," I said, defensive.

"At an illegal party?" Xander said.

"It wasn’t illegal."

"Unauthorized, then."

I rolled my eyes. Reed asked why I hadn’t told anyone where I was going, and I reminded him that the entire point of sneaking out was that nobody was supposed to know.

Xander glanced at Reed. "She’s got a point."

"Don’t encourage her," Reed said.

I almost laughed, except something in the way they were talking to me made it clear neither of them was actually angry.

They were worried.

Roshan approached a moment later, apologizing for the whole mess, taking responsibility again without hesitation. Reed asked whether he’d organized it, and Roshan confirmed it plainly.

"She was invited like any other student," Roshan said, glancing at me.

Reed’s expression stayed serious, though he didn’t push blame onto Roshan for everything.

"Make sure you don’t put her in that position again," Reed said instead.

Roshan agreed immediately.

I noticed the way Reed said her, like I was something he was responsible for, like the word carried more weight than a simple pronoun should. I didn’t know what to make of that.

We were finally sent back toward Moonshade, and I discovered fairly quickly that I couldn’t walk in a completely straight line. I insisted I was fine and took about three steps before nearly running straight into a wall.

Xander caught me before I collided with it. "Clearly."

"I was testing you," I said.

He laughed, and Reed shook his head, and somehow the two of them ended up on either side of me for the rest of the walk back, making sure I actually got there in one piece. I was too embarrassed and too tired to keep fighting them on it.

Back at the apartment, Reed got me a glass of water without being asked. Xander disappeared into the kitchen and came back with something simple to eat.

I watched them both, genuinely confused. After everything that had happened between us since the ball, I’d expected distance. Cold politeness at best. Instead they were fussing over me like nothing had changed at all.

"Drink," Reed said, setting the glass in front of me.

I drank it.

"Sleep," Xander added.

"You two are annoying," I muttered.

Xander smiled. "You’ll survive."

I lay down on the couch, too exhausted to protest further, and looked at them one more time before my eyes started closing on their own. Neither of them left the room right away.

They were making sure I was okay.

That thought followed me all the way into sleep.