Chapter 117: Holidays

Elara:

Before I even realized it, December disappeared. One moment I had been counting down the days until the academy closed for the winter holidays, and the next, the halls were decorated with red ribbons, garlands, and enchanted lights as Christmas arrived almost without warning.

The academy gave us ten days off, stretching from Winter Solistice through the first two days of the new year, and for the first time since arriving at Moonveil Academy, I had absolutely nowhere I needed to be. There were no classes, no magical training sessions, no royal lessons, no ridiculous gatherings, and no one cornering me with expectations I didn’t ask for. Just ten quiet days at my cottage.

I had been offered the chance to head to the royal palace for the holidays, but I declined almost immediately. I had spent three exhausting months discovering that being Eleanora Argentis came with approximately seven hundred responsibilities I had never asked for, and I had no intention of spending my only break pretending to be a princess for everyone else’s benefit.

All I wanted for these 10 days were my cottage, my bed, my books, my peace, and preferably as little royal nonsense as humanly possible. Unfortunately, the Regents apparently had different plans for me.

Before holidays started, I received an official invitation to attend the Winter Solstice Ball, extended on behalf of all five Regents, and the very thought of it made me want to hide under my bed.

Thankfully, for once, the academy was entirely on my side. Lorien, Vice Headmistress Noctis, Jasper, and Master Brown collectively declined the invitation on my behalf, explaining that I wasn’t ready for official royal events yet and should remain away from such matters until at least the beginning of the next term. I had expected an argument. Instead, the Regents eventually backed down. And according to Jasper, it was apparently Lorien who had convinced the other four to leave me alone for the holidays.

I didn’t know what exactly he had said to them, but whatever it was had worked. And although a small, reluctant part of me felt grateful to the Headmaster for it, I wasn’t quite ready to march into his office and thank him. My relationship with Lorien was complicated enough without adding gratitude to the list.

The strangest part of the holidays, however, was discovering that Jasper and I apparently had no one else to celebrate them with. I had expected him to disappear somewhere, perhaps return to wherever blood knights went when they weren’t following their princess around like extremely intimidating shadows, but when I casually asked him what his plans were, he had simply looked at me as though the answer should have been obvious and said he would stay at the cottage.

I stared at him for several seconds before asking whether he actually had somewhere else he could go. His answer had been a simple shake of his head, followed by the revelation that he had no family or friends left waiting for him either. And somehow, that small piece of information changed something in our growing relationship.

So we stayed. Just the two of us, most days. And unexpectedly, it was wonderful.

I slept late without feeling guilty, read books beside the fireplace, attempted to cook a few things that Jasper wisely refused to let me finish, and spent several afternoons training with him until my muscles ached. There were no expectations attached to those days.

Jasper was still Jasper - stern, protective, and annoyingly determined to make me stronger. But even he seemed to relax when there was no academy schedule forcing us from one thing to another.

Myra dropped by every now and then, usually bringing some excuse to visit that had absolutely nothing to do with missing me, and on Christmas morning she and her mother joined us. Mrs. Carter arrived carrying enough food to feed an army and proceeded to turn our little cottage into the warmest place in Starfall.

We ate until I thought I would never be hungry again, laughed over stories that probably weren’t nearly as funny as we made them sound, and for a few precious hours, I forgot that I was supposed to be a lost princess with enemies, secrets, magic, and five dangerously persistent men circling my life.

Violet had left for the holidays, but she returned toward the end of the year just long enough for us to have an early New Year celebration. There were drinks, food, laughter, and far too much teasing. Crazy even participated, although his idea of celebrating involved stealing food from everyone else’s plates and then acting offended whenever someone caught him.

Those ten days were probably the most peaceful days I had experienced since my birthday. Maybe even the most peaceful days since my entire life had been turned upside down. Which was precisely why they seemed to vanish so quickly.

Before I had even learned how to properly enjoy them, the holiday ended, my bags were packed, and I was standing once again beneath the familiar towers of Moonveil Academy.

I expected the return to academy life to be depressing, but the moment I reached my dorm, something immediately caught my attention. Several beautifully wrapped boxes were sitting outside my door. I stopped with one hand still wrapped around my bag and frowned at them.

"What in the world?" I murmured, crouching beside the pile.

Mrs. Carter, Myra, Violet, Jasper, Master Brown, Mrs. Nettle, and even Crazy had already given me Christmas presents, so these couldn’t be from them. Unless someone had suddenly developed a very strange habit of giving me gifts twice.

I carried everything inside and arranged the boxes on my table before beginning to open them one by one. The first few were small and harmless, and I was stunned to learn that they came from my classmates.

But then I noticed a familiar handwriting on one of the packages, and my fingers paused when I found Esmeray’s name attached to it.