Chapter 92: The Favourite Drink

Astrid

I stayed up too late trying to organize the reports Aldrich had assigned, mostly because every time I started writing about one of the trials, I got lost remembering things instead. The forest. Reed quietly handing me food when I was too tired to admit I needed it. Xander finding energy to annoy me even when everyone else was too exhausted to speak. I gave up eventually and fell asleep with my notebook still open beside me.

Ivy was already dressed by the time I opened my eyes, and something about the light through the window felt wrong.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked.

She checked the clock. "Because I’ve been wondering whether I should wake you."

"Why wouldn’t you?"

"I did. Twice."

I looked at the clock and threw the blanket off myself. "Ivy!"

"Good morning to you too," she said, entirely unbothered, picking up her bag while I scrambled through the room searching for my uniform.

"Normal people prepare the night before," she said.

"I was preparing."

"You fell asleep on your report."

I remembered the crease on my cheek that morning and decided that didn’t count. She raised an eyebrow like it obviously did.

I grabbed one shoe, then my bag, then realized I couldn’t find my notebook until she pointed at the desk. No time for breakfast. I told her I’d eat later, and she reminded me I always said that.

"Name one time," she said.

"This isn’t the time for a test."

She sighed dramatically about me collapsing in public one day, and I told her I wouldn’t. "Fine," she said. "Collapse privately."

I made it to class just before it started, sliding into my seat alone since Ivy had a different class. My stomach growled quietly, and I pressed a hand against it, hoping nobody noticed. The room filled around me, conversation buzzing, the professor still absent.

Then the door opened, and the room changed. Conversation dropped, not entirely, but enough that I looked up.

Xander stood in the doorway.

He was obviously not supposed to be there, a senior wandering into a first-year classroom, and several students straightened immediately, recognizing him. Someone whispered his name.

He spotted me and started walking over, and I sat up straighter, already dreading the attention.

He was carrying a drink. My drink, the one I usually got from the café near the west wing when I had time.

"What are you doing?" I whispered as he reached my desk.

"Walking."

"Xander."

He set the drink down. "You skipped breakfast."

"I didn’t skip it."

He glanced at the completely empty space in front of me. "Then where is it?"

"I was going to eat later."

"That’s skipping breakfast with extra steps."

A few students laughed quietly. I shot them a look, and they immediately pretended to be busy.

"You didn’t have to come all the way here," I said.

His teasing softened. "I know."

"Drink," he said, tapping the cup.

"I’m in class."

"You’re not." He gestured at the empty front of the room. "See?"

I tried not to smile and failed.

"People are staring," I whispered.

He actually turned and looked around the room, and every student who’d been watching suddenly found something else fascinating to stare at.

"Let them," he said.

"Easy for you to say."

"You’re my mate. I brought you a drink." His voice wasn’t loud, but it carried enough. My face heated instantly while he seemed completely unbothered.

"Drink it before it gets warm," he said, and headed for the door. He paused. "And eat lunch."

"Are you giving me orders?"

"Yes." Then he was gone.

I stared at the closed door, then at the drink, aware of everyone still watching.

"Don’t," I said, and a girl in front of me quickly turned back around, apologizing for nothing in particular.

The professor walked in a moment later, noticed the odd silence, then noticed the drink on my desk. "Should I ask?"

"Please don’t."

He looked around at the barely contained laughter. "That’s what I thought."

I spent the rest of the class trying to focus, catching people glancing my way, hating that part of me was still smiling.

Ivy was waiting the second I stepped into the corridor.

"No," I said before she could speak.

"Good morning."

"No."

"I didn’t say anything."

"You were going to."

She grinned. "So. He actually came into your class?"

"How do you already know?"

"Astrid. This is Moonshade."

"That explains nothing."

"People don’t have hobbies here."

I almost laughed. She bumped my shoulder. "Was it romantic?"

"It was a drink."

"Delivered personally by a senior royal Lycan who wasn’t supposed to be in your class."

I said nothing, and she smiled wider.

As we passed a cluster of students, I caught fragments of a conversation I wasn’t trying to overhear.

"I’d still pick Reed."

I slowed. Ivy noticed immediately.

"Why?" another voice asked.

"Xander’s too much. He literally brought her a drink."

"Exactly," someone said, and another girl laughed. "Reed would probably just remember she likes it and leave it somewhere before she even asked."

I turned, and they stopped talking instantly.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing," one of them said quickly.

I looked at Ivy, who was biting her lip. "Don’t."

She failed. She laughed. "Were they comparing them?"

"Keep walking," she said, pulling my arm.

"Ivy. Were they seriously comparing them?"

"You have another class."

"Comparing them for what?"

She finally looked at me. "I genuinely love that you have no idea what’s happening around you."

"What’s happening?"

"Nothing," she said, smiling.

We split up for our separate classes shortly after, and I walked alone, still thinking about the morning, Xander, the drink, everyone staring.

I’d still pick Reed. Why would anyone have to pick? I stopped myself. I hadn’t picked. I had both of them, and that didn’t mean they were competing.

Probably.

I kept walking until I heard something ahead, quiet, broken. I almost ignored it, assuming it was just another argument.

Then I heard it again, and my steps slowed.

Selene.

The corridor ahead was nearly empty, the voice coming from around the corner. I hesitated. She’d never been kind to me. There was no reason to follow her voice.

I took a step anyway, then stopped again.

She sounded wrong. Not the usual arrogant and angry Selene I’d grown accustomed to. She sounded afraid.

I moved quietly down the corridor, unsure why I was trying not to make noise. I heard her again, clearer this time.

"Please."

That definitely wasn’t the Selene I knew.

I reached the corner and listened before looking. Silence, then a choked sound.

Crying.

I looked around the corner, and my whole body went still.

Selene knelt on the floor, head lowered, shoulders shaking, tears streaming down her face. My first thought was that someone had hurt her. But there were no injuries, no one holding her, no visible threat.

Just Estelle, standing perfectly still in front of her, posture relaxed, almost gentle.

Selene wiped desperately at her face. "I already did what you asked."

Estelle said something too quiet for me to catch. Selene shook her head. "Please."

I gripped the edge of the wall, knowing I shouldn’t be watching, unable to move anyway.

"Then why are you crying?" Estelle asked, soft, calm, almost kind.

Selene’s face crumpled, terror plain across it. The girl who had once threatened me, who had bullied me relentlessly, who rarely seemed afraid of anyone at all, was shaking on her knees in front of Estelle Raven.

I took an unconscious step back. My shoe scraped against the floor, the sound impossibly loud in the quiet corridor.

Selene looked up.

My heart stopped.

Then, slowly, Estelle turned her head.