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CHAPTER 32: Nocturne

“You know, I knew it would be like teaching a toddler how to walk, but this is is disappointing. You wouldn’t lost in Nocturne.” She mutters. I look at her with frustration. It wouldn’t elicit the anger or the fire I needed just to defeat my own mind. I step out of the temple, holdings the sides of my head. The pain was bearable, but there. Lingering in the shadows. Fucking lurking against the back of my eyes.

I stare at the floor, “What is that?” I ask her.

“It’s a walking failure.” She says, I snap my eyes to hers. She’s got her thin, however toned arms folded loosely against her chest, like she’s staring at a student that should just give up before the pain turns me crazy.

“No, that fucking word.”

“Nocturne. It’s not a word, it’s a school. One exclusively for those around the world to build families, legacies, memories and understanding of their lives and the Warriors that might as well be the Gods of every realm you could ever know. I teach the mindset of those who match my properties. When I’m not here waiting for the prophecy to run true about my brother. Or rather that imbecile with a right hook that’s turned sloppy over the years. Elias use to teach in the realm too.” She informs me, giving me information like it’s too secret to pass up.

The name pricked at my skin like it had its own electrical outlet. Making me squat down as I rub my temples and inhale the air of burning wood. It was calming, a haven like none I’ve ever seen, “Those nanobots you gave Nicolai, got anymore?” She wonders when I don’t say anything else.

“And risk you using them on me.” Fat chance I’d give her that kind of information. My techno wasn’t easy to reach, not only that, none of it was here. I used what I could on Martin, on Robert and Reina because they were the most problematic. Been in my way.

“Not on you, they could be beneficial for me.” She had a glint in her eyes. A lover’s going as she looks at the strange volcanic paintings beyond the room. When I cut the meeting loose, I stepped out, it was light outside.

I pause when a hand was about to grab mine, but I stop it and Alastair steps out of the shadows, his eyebrows furrowed, “You’ve been hidden in there all this time?” He questions.

I stare at him, it’s nothing like the illusion of him I saw, but staring at him right now. You’d think it would be as if I was lost on him. If he was good, if he was just a fucking decent man who didn’t use me like he did, who didn’t belittle me the way he did. I wouldn’t feel like cutting his goddamn head off right now. He stills as he stares at me, I feel it brimming in the corners of my fingers, and right when the fire burned in my eyes, he snaps his eyes down the hall, where Elias rounded the corner like a flustered, blushing bitch on a mission.

I lose the heat like it was never there, the one advantage I had on Elias Cardinal was the fat he thought all I was...was a wolf. Surrounded by larger wolves that called me the runt. That called me the sub,is I’ve omega of a clan, of a pack. I don’t think as I punch Elias in the throat harder than I should of and it was out of the agony, the pain I knew that came with my childhood and the lack of protection he brought upon me.

He chokes in shock at the move, I stare at him, “I was just a kid, bullied for being born into the world of fur and you, you cowardly, psychotic, fucker—you reacted in no way to stop it, even though I bet your numerous years you knew you were fucking looking at your goddamn mate.” My voice a burning dark knight rolling through blood just to get to the surface. Like a thousand swords and knives couldn’t conquer my voice.

Athena stands there with a look of happy disbelief. Alastair tilts his head slowly as Elias whispers something with a croak and he gets his breath back. Standing slowly. I stare at him, “The reason behind why you’ve aged differently. Why you’re younger to accomodate me, huh?” I ask him.

He looks like a deer caught in headlights.

I point at him and Alastair, “If either one of you even look at me wrong, Elias can get those saggy balls back and Alastair, my next target won’t be a tree, it’ll be you.” I growl at the ancient cold king with no more menace than I would give an enemy that could’ve killed my entire family, could’ve crushed my soul and ripped out my entire world. I wished, I just hoped there would be something in any one of them. Now that I know the truth...when it’s been staring at me, staring me dead in the eyes and I refused to see it because of my own problems.

Because my focus was Martin when it should have been more open than that. The skin-on-skin contact with these two had sparks. The hospital, when Elias touched me, I thought it was something residual, that it was like background noise making me delusional, putting a shield or blockade over something I should have been facing, not running away from.

I stomp away from the lot of them and across walls of mazes in a castle that looked like a dark dungeon in some places and more like a castle a girl wanted to live in if she was safe and protected from the reality of the world.Nocturne. It’s such a weird name, but something was pulling me to learn more about it, “Where have you been?” I still when Martin’s voice moves in behind me, he’s holding a book in his hand and I pause in his business clothes, wearing a suit, however I don’t think it’s attractive while he leans against the wall and closes the book, looking at me, waiting.

“With...Athena.”

“For three days? How come I missed out on that action?” He asks, eyes with a glint.

I couldn’t find it in me to understand what the—what, “Uh, are you alright?” My wariness matches a frown on his face.

“Yes, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because while I know you’re bipolar, this is just too weird.” I mutter.

He studies me, “You prefer it when I hit you, scratch you, leave you for a polar bear?” As if to ask why I was complaining. The urge to wish I had the adrenaline to leash this arsehole was phenomenal.

“What are you doing? Aren’t you suppose to be reclaiming a throne? Forcing me into an initiation that I will highly object to either way.” I fold my arms. A defence mechanism. I glance over, he lowers the book down to the side table...wait, did he just say three days?

“You look...frustrated.” He murmurs.

I stare at him, I couldn’t decipher what the actual fudge those nanobots did, but he’s showing better results than any other patient did in the clinical studies that had been done, and the non-clinical species used to decipher what would happen if used in humans and other creatures of the world. He was rolling against the odds, he was standing out like a bad thumb in a study. An outlier every scientist would question without hesitation, “Shall we walk the gardens?” He asks , gesturing behind me.

“No, I need a shower...and food...and just leave me alone.” I mutter.

“Celestine.” He says slowly behind my back.

I look over my shoulder, “What?”

“You deserve more than me.”

My eyes bug out of their sockets before I twist around, he’s gone and so is the book he had. I hold my temple, I didn’t need the confusions I had now, “Seriously, not now.” I mutter, moving to a room I think I was assigned, I took the longest bath of my life, staring at the bubbles. I shake my head, this life wasn’t mine. But the second she said the word, I was more curious that Red was to the wolf. Pun intended.

I changed, moving towards the open library, I searched for everything on this damn school. Nothing significant, if not different stories about it being a myth or just some silly scary story spread among the young just to keep them wanting to stay home, to stay in the nest longer. What did she mean by families and legacies? Memories and...

“You’re too curious for your own good.”

She’s lying by the couch with her eyes on a book lined with spells, enchantments of some kind. I get up and move closer. She doesn’t glance my way, “Ask away.”

“Nocturne. I need to know everything. Don’t ask me why, I just...need to know.”

She looks to me then, “You’ll know it when you finally show some results.”

That only piped my curiosity, “I need to know, Athena.”

“Because you think that precious rune pond will be there to confirm or deny that the harem of yours is even one at all? Or has the name itself just changed your view on life for some unknown reason that you don’t know, but feel youneedto know.”

“Do you ever get tired of being an insufferable know-it-all?” I ask her.

“Ditto.” She muses, looking back to her enchanted book.

I fold my arms, waiting. Her silver eyes droop ever-so-slightly, “Alright. The school—like I said, is a prestigious academy who’s location is as sacred as the gates of heaven or the gates of hell. Only handfuls of students and cliques get in, but many stay over the years, finding their lives to mean everything there. The place...it’s like a mini globe, more greenery and mountains...as far as the eyes can see. Working there, it’s a dream, it’s a compass of freedom, especially away from castles and kingdoms ruled by fools and ever dumber of fools here. It’s strict, harsh on their students and different from anything you’ve ever known.” She makes it sound enticing, but there’s an edge in her voice.

I study her, “What’s the catch?” I question.

She sighs, “You see things that would make what you’ve seen here look like sleeping kittens. Even the Sithonia.” She says slowly.

I freeze, “Sith’s was short for Sithonia.”

She nods to me, “Creatures of Hades, they were a the olden day military. Guards of Hades and followers to his crown. Some got them confused, whether they belonged to Hades or to Ares. Different cultures believed in different things. But my point being, there are creatures far worse in than your blood witch and anything you saw in that maze.” I sometimes forget that she could read me like an open book.

An enticing school with more danger, more mystery too, “How do I get in?”

She raises an eyebrow at me, “You start by actually making more than a candle flame,” She scoffs, stepping up and turning away, “...and I somehow doubt those three will let you run.” She murmurs, leaving a big question for me to answer.

They won’t let me run alive, but they can’t stop me if I’m supposedly...dead.