Celeste~

Now I felt even more drained than before. I had made it back to my room, thankfully with no further interruptions and just jumped into my bed. I took off my clothes lazily while I was still lying down, I dropped them on the floor and practically dragged my feet to the shower.

I took about 5 minutes, I couldn't be away from my bed for any longer and I needed sleep, and now.

*Buzz

No, no, no. That better not be the fucking Academy with their notifications.

Thankfully this time I was just Chloe telling me that she'd just finished her Trial and was on her way up to go to sleep. I told her that tomorrow before she did anything else, she needed to come to me because I needed to tell her something.

She'd asked me if it was urgent and if she needed me to come now, at first I debated it but eventually decided that there was no point. I didn't think that it was that drastic and we were both weak and tired as hell so I called it a day. I had also messaged Rain to see how she felt after the Trial, she was definitely drained as well but not as much as us. She told me that it was fine and that It didn't guarantee that we did badly it was because it was our first time with psyche magic so intense.

That made sense so I didn't worry too much about that.

Finally, after a very very long day and silly events that weren't really meant to happen, I got myself into bed and went to sleep.

“I see, so what you’re telling me is that Caspian and you are destined to be and a filthy bitch is trying to come in between you guys? Where is she, bring her to me now.”

So after a long sleep yesterday, I woke up and did my usual morning routine before Chloe came to see me. See now where I went wrong was thinking that she was going to take this seriously.

“There. Is. No. Me. And. Caspian.” What was she even talking about, all we did was have a fight. I mean for god's sake, was combat the new sex or something?

“Oh come on, haven’t you realised it by now, he totally had the hots for you during the fight and now he’s making up excuses to be around you, I think our little Raven has a crush.” Chloe practically sang her words as she spoke to me. It was ridiculous, one silly fight and I was married.

“He couldn’t have made this whole thing up just to talk to me, I’m not the damn queen I can stop for a conversation.”

“Yeah, even if what he was saying is true, why are you the only one who needs protection? What about all of the weakies in this place that he could have easily made his fateful saviour moment with.”

“Yeah, I don’t really know the answer to that, maybe he just feels bad because of the fight and stuff, I mean I did get pretty hurt and he healed faster than me.” I wanted to fully believe the words that were coming out of my mouth but she was very convincing.

“Hm, that could be true. But how much empathy can a cold blooded killer really have, he cared little enough to get in the ring with you so…”

“And this is the cold blooded killer that you want me to date, someone with no empathy?”

I didn’t really know what to say at this point to make her realise how ridiculous her claims were. I opted for showing the clear and very valid reasons that we should not be together.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“He’s not even on my tier, not that I’m insecure or care about that sort of thing but he does, everyone does.” That had to get through to her.

“And so what, it’s not like you’d be the first to climb ladders, people do it alllll the time.”

“But rarely with people like him.” He was different. His dangerous position meant that he had fans, people were both terrified and enthralled by him and that bred weird parasocial relationships and obsessions that I just didn’t have the time for. I didn’t pay attention to the news that floats around a lot but if he was as important as they made him seem then I knew that everybody wanted a piece of that, and that just didn’t sit right with me.

He was bred for someone.

And someone was bred especially for him.

And that wasn’t me.

“So whattt, the rich marry the poor people care and they move on, what would be so different about this? More complaining? Wow Celeste, I didn’t remember you always being so sensitive.”

“Sensitive? I’m not sensitive I’m just realistic. We haven’t flirted, there is nothing going on. The likelihood of him and I ending up together is practically zero. Even if you convince me that I’m lying and that I’m head over heels for someone that I barely even know, who’s to say that she isn’t right? That they’re meant for each other and even together now?”

“They’re not, or she’s just extremely insecure. Either way that would be a shambles of a relationship, if you could even call it that. She would compare nowhere near you. But fine fine, there’s nothing between you and Mr Raven.”

I obviously didn’t believe that she thought that.

“But for the things she was saying, I think they’re just empty threats, to be honest.”

So did I, I didn’t really get any vibes from her but jealousy and insecurity.

“Same to be honest, she’s just an insecure bitch. Don’t know why though, she’s pretty.”

“Eh, pretty doesn’t mean anything if you’re a beast on the inside.”

Ain’t that right.

It was only around 6:45am by this time. We all both started and finished the last challenge quite early and we didn’t have anything else to do after it so we did what we wanted. Most of us were tired like me and Chloe so had an early night. We had plenty of time to sleep now, even at 6 in the morning, I was well rested. Nothing like a good routine to make you an early bird, not that it would last long.

Rain eventually came and we chitted and chatted while we waited for the one and only Blue Phoenix Academy notification.

*Buzz Buzz

*Students, I hope you are all well and rested. Please listen closely for important information. The threat of the Angels has not yet subsided, while the immediate threat is not here, please know that that could change at any given time. Stay alert, and stay in groups. From this moment forward, all students can either be in crowded areas alone, or in quiet areas with more than one person. Adhere to this for your own safety is not always guaranteed. Now, the awaiting trial is the last and the most important assessment. None of you should be experiencing any devastating or detrimental symptoms from the previous Harmea challenge, if you are, please go to the infirmary.

The Trial awaiting is a one-on-one assessment with one of our practitioners. The test will be made unique to your skills and magic capabilities. The test starts from 9:45am onwards. Please meet in the hall for this time.

Further information will be given from your personal practitioner. Thank you for listening, good luck!”

Chloe spoke. “Oh yeah, the most important one so far. How are you feeling about it?”

“I don’t know to be honest, it’s scary not knowing what you’ll have to do.” It was the most up close and personal Trial.

“You’ll be good, they simply just attempt to stretch your powers in ways you probably hadn’t even thought of yet. The point of it is to demonstrate your best. They force everyone here to put their best foot forward.” Rain’s knowledge was so comforting in times like these.

“Ah I see, have any ideas about what they’ll do with your shield?” I questioned.

“Hm, maybe they’ll see if I can change the shape of it or something, that would be cool”

While our parents could assist in developing the powers that were identical to theirs, they had no telling if you had something inside of you that allowed you to, for example, blast fireballs instead of just forming a flame in your palm. They knew how to facilitate the feeling of developing fire from a palm but had no clue whatsoever as to what throwing a flame would even consist of, how to make it come fully out from the palm, what making that energy move out from the skin would feel like and how you should direct the energy so it executed safely.

That’s what we were here for.