Moonveil Academy: Trapped With The Five Kings

Chapter 42: Illusion

Elara:

I never hit the floor.

Instead, a pair of strong arms wrapped around me at the last possible second, catching my falling body before gravity could turn the rest of my evening into a trip to the infirmary.

My stomach lurched as I was pulled against a solid chest, my hands instinctively grabbing onto the fabric of the person’s shirt. For one stunned second, I couldn’t even breathe. Then I looked up and gray eyes met mine.

Kairo Greymark.

His familiar face stared down at me, and as though catching me from falling down an ancient staircase wasn’t dramatic enough, there was already a smirk playing across his lips.

"If you wanted to get into my arms, Princess, you could have just asked." His gaze flicked briefly toward the staircase. "You didn’t have to perform such a classic trick."

My jaw tightened. I pulled away from him immediately, smoothing down my clothes as though I hadn’t just nearly broken my neck in front of him.

There were approximately a hundred things I wanted to say, most of them highly inappropriate for a library. Unfortunately, the irritating man had just saved my life, which meant I couldn’t exactly tell him what I was thinking without sounding like an ungrateful idiot. So I swallowed the words.

"Thank you."

His eyebrow lifted slightly.

"I mean it," I added before he could make another ridiculous comment. "But now you can leave me alone."

I turned around before he could respond and continued climbing the staircase. Thankfully, he didn’t follow me or commented again.

I reached the upper level and found the book I had been searching for, right beside the entryway of the restricted section. Though it was placed this close to the restricted section, it wasn’t a restricted book. I quickly grabbed it and made my way back down the spiral staircase. When I reached the bottom, there was no sign of Kairo anywhere.

Good. Maybe he had actually listened to me.

I returned to my table, placed the book in front of me, and opened it. The first few pages were filled with explanations about advanced illusion construction, magical perception, mental projections, and the differences between simple visual illusions and more complicated forms of weaving.

I had barely finished the first few lines when a voice spoke behind me.

"...illusion weaving requires the caster to manipulate the target’s perception rather than the physical environment."

I nearly jumped out of my chair, but held myself back just in time.

I spun around and found Kairo standing directly behind me. I stared at him and he stared back.

"Do you have some sort of death wish?" I demanded.

His lips curved. "Not particularly."

"Then why are you sneaking around behind me?" I demanded.

"I wasn’t sneaking." He immediately tried to defend himself.

"You appeared out of nowhere." I accused, not sure why exactly I was even entertaining him in the first place.

He shrugged. "That’s because you weren’t paying attention."

I glared at him. And as usual, he didn’t seem bothered. Instead, he pulled out the chair beside mine, turned it around, and sat down with his arms resting casually against the back. "If you are interested in learning illusion, I’m considerably more useful than that book. Or any book."

I almost told him no. I should have told him no. Actually, I opened my mouth specifically to tell him no.

"What do you mean?" The question escaped before I could stop it.

Kairo’s smirk widened immediately. "There it is."

"What?" I asked.

"Curiosity." He answered before leaning slightly closer. "You still haven’t figured out that I’m the best illusionist in this academy, have you?"

I stared at him. There was something deeply irritating about how confident these people were.

Reign believed the world revolved around him. Alaric seemed to think annoying people was a legitimate hobby. Kairo apparently thought everyone should already know how talented he was. Still, I couldn’t deny that his claim interested me.

I’d already witnessed and read enough about illusion magic to understand how dangerous it could be. If someone could manipulate what another person saw, heard, or even believed was real, then illusion wasn’t simply some parlor trick. It was a weapon.

And if Kairo really was the strongest illusionist here, maybe listening to him wasn’t the worst idea.

He reached over and pulled the book toward himself before flipping through several pages. His expression slowly changed from amusement to boredom. He closed the book and dismissed it completely as if he couldn’t even bother looking at it.

"Basic."

I frowned. "You read that in ten seconds."

He spared the book another glance as he spoke, "That’s because there’s nothing complicated here."

"Some of us weren’t born knowing everything." I couldn’t stop myself from stating the fact.

His eyes flickered toward mine. "Fair point." For once, there was no arrogance in his voice.

He pushed the book back toward me and turned his attention fully to me. "So," he said, "why are you studying illusion? Are you interested in the efficiency itself? Though I highly doubt that."

I hesitated.

It would have been easy to lie. Probably the smarter thing to do. I could have told him that I was simply curious about illusion magic. He wouldn’t have questioned it. And I could have pretended I was fascinated by the subject and wanted to learn more.

But something inside me resisted.

Maybe because Kairo had been unexpectedly honest with me all this time. Maybe because I was tired of pretending around everyone here. Or maybe I simply wanted to see what his reaction would be.

I slowly closed the notebook I had prepared to take notes. Then I fixed him with my sharpest gaze. "I’m learning illusion because I want to know how to handle your dear friend the next time he decides to play mind games with me."

The smirk on Kairo’s face disappeared. And the expression that took its place was quiet hard for me to break down.