Chapter 6

Elara

The morning fog pressed against the tall windows. Beyond the glass, the academy towers looked distant and unreal, their upper floors dissolving into white. I wondered whether Kael knew what I had said.

Of course he knew. The entire boys’ dormitory knew. Perhaps the whole academy would know by lunch.

I kept my hood up until I reached the Alchemy Building. The second-floor waiting area was nearly empty. I sat on a bench beneath a glowing schedule crystal and placed the medicine request form on my knees.

Nora had gone inside to collect the stabilizer. I should have been thinking about the potion. Instead, I thought about the corridor in the restaurant.

The shoulder. The sound of Kael’s voice when he asked if I felt better. The way he had looked at me afterward—not mocking, not curious in the ordinary sense, but attentive.

My fingers tightened around the paper until it creased. The rumor had already spread farther than I could control. By noon, people would not only know that I had called Kael handsome. They might connect it to the way I had left the room, the way he had followed me, and the fact that we had returned together.

Someone would eventually mention the corridor. Someone would say I had leaned against him. Someone else would decide that I had done it deliberately.

The imagined voices gathered one after another.

She’s throwing herself at a Shadow Department student.

The Moon Department girl finally lost control.

Isn’t it disgusting?

The bench seemed to tilt beneath me. I pressed the medicine request form against my chest and tried to breathe. If the corridor incident became public, I would not be able to explain it without revealing the curse. If I denied it, people would call me a liar; if I admitted it, they would decide that I had used Kael’s interest to get close to him.

Either way, the truth would disappear beneath the rumor. And the truth was worse than the rumor. I had not leaned against him because I wanted attention.

I had done it because my body had recognized his magic as something it needed. That was not a defense anyone would understand. I folded the medicine form in half.

I needed to speak to Kael. I needed him to keep the corridor a secret.

That evening, I went to Emma’s bed while she was sorting her lecture notes. She looked up immediately.

“What happened?”

“Could you ask Liam for Kael’s communication channel?”

Emma blinked once.

“Of course.”

“And please don’t tell him why.”

Her expression softened.

“Do you want me to keep it secret from Liam too?”

“No. Just…don’t let it become a conversation.”

Emma nodded without asking for an explanation. This was the first time in the year we had lived together that I had asked her for something I could not easily solve alone. She did not make me regret it.

Emma contacted Liam immediately. He replied with a joke, received a second message from her, and then stopped joking. A few minutes later, the channel code appeared on Emma’s crystal.

She passed it to me.

“Liam can warn him first if you want.”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’d rather speak to him directly.”

Emma studied my face. Then she nodded.

“All right.”

I returned to my desk and opened the search field. The channel name appeared after I entered the code.

Nightwalker.

I stared at it for several seconds. It was an absurdly theatrical nickname. It also suited him too well.

I opened the profile. His channel icon was a simple black crescent crossed by a thin line of silver. The account name beneath it was not a nickname.

Kael Blackwood.

I hesitated, then sent the connection request using my real name. The request was accepted less than a minute later. My pulse jumped.

I typed slowly.

Hello. This is Elara Whitmore. I have a private matter I would like to discuss with you in person.

I read the message twice before sending it. The reply did not come immediately. In the boys’ dormitory, Kael was probably surrounded by his roommates, and I imagined Dylan shouting about something unnecessary.

I placed the crystal face down. Then turned it over again. A new message appeared.

All right.

The answer was short. Too short to interpret. I entered the meeting details before I could change my mind.

Tomorrow after sunset. The first stone bench on the north path behind Moonlight Tower. It should be quiet.

His reply came after a brief pause.

I’ll be there.

I set the crystal down. The room was quiet around me. The meeting was arranged.

There was no reason to feel as if I had just stepped toward the edge of something dangerous.

Kael

Dylan’s voice was the first thing I heard when Elara Whitmore’s connection request appeared. He was losing a card game loudly enough to make the furniture shake, and Liam was accusing him of cheating. Kevin sat across from them with the expression of someone who had already accepted that the evening would end badly.

My crystal lit up beside my hand. I looked down.

Elara Whitmore wants to connect.

For a second, I thought I had read it wrong. She had found my private channel. The icon was a simple moon rabbit drawn with a few clean lines. Her request carried her real name rather than a decorative nickname, which was unexpectedly direct.

I smiled before I could stop myself. The smile disappeared when her message arrived.

I have a private matter I would like to discuss with you in person.

Dylan noticed the change in my expression.

“Who is it?”

“No one.”

“That is not a no one face.”

I stood up and walked onto the balcony before he could look over my shoulder. The night air was colder outside. Below, the academy lights stretched across the courtyard like a second constellation.

I reread Elara’s message. A private matter. An in-person meeting.

My first thought was that she intended to confess. The second was that she might want to discuss what had happened in the corridor. The third was that the first thought was probably the result of Dylan’s influence.

I leaned against the balcony rail. If she was confessing, rejecting her immediately might create trouble for Liam and Emma. The two of them were happy, and I had no interest in turning an ordinary dinner into a conflict between roommates.

Besides, Elara did not seem like someone who would make a confession casually. She had looked at me that night as if she were trying to solve a problem. Still, she had said I was handsome.

I accepted the request.

All right.

Her meeting details appeared soon afterward. The first stone bench on the north path behind Moonlight Tower. Quiet, isolated, and chosen by her.

I looked at the words for a moment.

So she really wants to say it face-to-face.

I replied that I would be there. Then I went back inside and immediately regretted it. Dylan had been waiting by the balcony door.

“Well?”

“She wants to meet tomorrow.”

“Who does?” Liam asked.

“No one,” I said.

Dylan made a sound of disbelief. I ignored him and put the crystal away. The moon rabbit icon remained in my mind longer than it should have.