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Persephone Flores
“I know you don’t want to talk to me or see me, and I know you don’t think I want to be your friend. But I wanted to check on you. You’ve been out here a while.” I turned to look up at Dylan, who leaned against the wall beside me.
“I can’t go back in,” I told him.
“I get it,” he said, and we stood silently for a few minutes. I realised I was quietly falling apart.
“I can walk you home if you want?” he offered. “It’s dark, and I’m guessing you want to avoid the cameras out front.”
I thought about his offer. I did want to go home. Looking out over the field, I saw the grove leading to the academy. It was well lit, I remembered from the spring fair, but then there was the grove to the Royal residence hall. It would be dark. Begrudgingly I admitted to myself that I didn’t want to walk home alone. It was silly to fear the dark, and I was an adult, but I’d rather not make the journey alone.
“You wouldn’t mind?” I asked him quietly, finding it difficult to speak; a lump had formed in my throat.
“Not at all,” he said, pushing away from the wall and offering me his arm.
We walked in silence until we reached the Academy's main building.
“Percy, I know you might not want to talk, but I’m sorry,” he said.
I looked at him. He was staring ahead, guiding us towards the distant dark grove.
“Why?” I asked him. I thought he would be happy with my sadness and Selene’s engagement, that he would use it as an excuse to try and tell me that I was stupid for loving her.
“I don’t like seeing you hurt. I want to protect you, Percy. That’s all. And I know you think I’m a jerk and jealous, and yeah, I probably am, but I don’t want to hurt you. So, when I say that how you feel now is only going to get worse, that she’ll only hurt you more from here on, I don’t want to say it. I say it because I want you to avoid being hurt.”
I sighed. “I don’t want to talk,” I told him.
I didn’t want to hear what he thought because it didn’t matter. Even if he was right, it wouldn’t change anything for me.
I was in deep.
I loved her too much.
I could never walk away, even if she told me to.
“Sorry,” he mumbled and gripped my arm a little tighter as we left the light altogether on our approach to the seldom used grove that led to the Royal residence.
It was dark, apart from small patches of moonlight that flitted through the treetops. I could barely see my hand in front of my face.
“Can you see well?” I asked him. Shifters had good vision in low light and sometimes part-shifters inherited the gift.
“Percy, I want you to remember that I would never hurt you,” he said instead of answering my question. “You know that, right?” he asked.
“Yeah, just don’t let me trip in the dark. I can’t see a thing,” I answered.
“Let me help with that,” a voice spoke in the darkness before a torch shone towards me, the brightness blinding.
I screamed in fright, jumping back into Dylan, almost falling over until his arm caught me. There was laughing and the light moved away from my face.
“Thank you for bringing her,” the voice I now recognised spoke again. I blinked, clearing white spots from my vision.
“Why are you here? Where’s Halvorsen’s men?” Dylan shouted.
My heart never ceased its rapidly increasing pace inside my chest. This was all wrong. Dylan wrapped his arm around my waist, and I screamed, struggling out of his grip and falling to the ground pushing myself backwards and turning onto my hands and knees, stumbling to my feet.
I ran.
Unable to see where my steps landed, I began running blindly back towards the faint sound of music in the distance.
