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Kai sits next to me and deflates. His eyes are stormy and sullen.
“What came over you down there?” I ask. Kai’s mouth stretches into a thin line. I can’t get a read on him. “Come on, Kai. Tell me what’s going on.”
He pushes back his white hair and shuts his eyes. “I don’t want to lose another friend, okay? I don’t want Corvus to get hurt. Or you. Or me.” He sets his hands on his knees and grips them tightly. “And Terra, Raine, Aervin. All of us, Finn. I can’t lose any of you. I can’t fucking remember the other guy that came here with us. Not a damn thing about him, how fucked is that? Just that he was with us, that’s it.”
I frown at him with understanding. The thought of forgetting Kai as I’ve forgotten the other friend we had… it’s horrifying.
What’s worse, I don’t want them to forget me.
38
Edgar
It’s not easy to convince my comrades to join me in going through the portal, but with Corvus’s help, they eventually agree.
Our plan is to investigate the portal and where it leads—recon for the second assessment and what exactly they have in store for us.
We’re going to gather as much information as we can on Fernestia’s infrastructure while also trying to figure out what exactly we’re up against for the second-semester exam.
Today is the day we’ll enter.
We skip class and head directly to the tower beneath the academy.
Kai put a minor blip in my path yesterday. There’s no doubt in my heart that we’ll be fine. It’s just a recon mission. I’m a Nova, after all; I can protect them even with my abilities suppressed, though I doubt we’ll run into any trouble. I never thought I’d be thankful for a Fernestian, but I’m grateful Arthur taught me how to harness my ability to steal darkness. Without it, I’d be useless.
“Edgar,” Lucina mumbles from behind her cloak’s cowl. Her blue eyes have lost so much of the shine they once held—the blight is slowly killing her. It’s part of the reason I’m so keen to get information directly from the source.
There must be something…
“Hm?”
Our footsteps echo in the staircase as we descend into the underground tower. We’re the first heading to the portal.
“Are we going to be okay? You know… No one will get hurt, right?” Her long white hair whips with each step she takes.
I turn and raise a brow at her. “You don’t think I can protect us if anything goes awry?” I know they all witnessed my fight with Terra. How could they not have? The entire castle was shaking with the tremors of our Nova Shadows clashing.
She tightens her lips. “No, that’s not what I mean… It's just, do we even know what awaits us on the other side?”
I stop and Lucina takes a few more steps down before coming to a halt as well. She looks back at me with so much uncertainty in her eyes. I hate it.
“Fernestia. That’s what awaits us. Nothing worse than we’re currently facing here,” I say through gritted teeth. Lucina’s brows knit with worry.
I level her with an indifferent stare and continue down the steps. We remain silent for the remainder of the decline and sit on the last step, waiting quietly until the rest of the squad shows up.
Alani, Rowan, and Vinnie are the first to show. They seem uneasy, but keep better composed than Lucina. Her eyebrows are still pulled tightly together and her arms are crossed. She’s had doubts about the plan from the start, but I can’t just stop because of how she feels. This is so much more than her, or me, or our friends.
Humanity is on the line.
Vinnie pushes his glasses up his nose. “Do we have the bags to collect anything that we may come across?” His dark eyes scour the ground until he finds a small pile of satchels and smiles. “Ah, there.” Rowan follows him over and picks one up.
It was Vinnie’s plan to bring these—brilliant as ever, of course. He made a point that collecting anything that can be of use there would be beneficial. He learned as much in his survival classes with Nekane. Most of it was recon and information on the enemy. Alani shares that class with him and was just as adamant about it.
Rowan’s auburn hair flickers in the low light as he says, “When we get back, we should go to the roof again. It’s so glum down here. I’m going to need to get some sun to wash this mildew from my nose.” He waves his hands around his face for emphasis.
Vinnie nods and mutters, “Yeah, we should celebrate when we get back.”
“I wouldn’t mind grabbing some rolls too. The dining hall is on the way back up, so let’s get some on the way,” Alani chirps happily. She’s always thinking about food. She often sneaks snacks from the kitchens. The head chef even made an announcement a few weeks prior about a thief stealing from the vaults. “I can’t wait for the second-semester exam. I just want to get it over with.” She crosses her arms as if it doesn’t scare her at all.
