Morningstar

Phoenix watches as Lexan, Wither, and Vil walk out of the room. Icarus tells them something before closing the door. He returns to Phoenix, who sits back down on the bed.

“You can now take my cloak off,” Icarus says.

She shakes her head. “I actually like it. It smells of you. Besides, I am a little cold.” She extends her hand for him to sit. He grabs it and sits down as he takes his mask off. “Vil… She is like me.”

He nods. “There are a couple of more people from our team. Some knows it and some don’t.” Phoenix wants to ask him who they are, but he only smiles. “Let’s stop talking about that. Let’s talk about one of my favorite topics.” He lifts her hand to his lips and plants a kiss.

She smiles. “Which is?”

“Apples,” he says. “I love green ones more than red ones, even though they taste the same.” Her smile fades and his becomes bigger.

“You are joking,” she says.

“Of course, I am,” he answers. She lets herself fall on the bed on her back. He quickly follows her.

“Zanna told me to ask you something,” Phoenix says as she looks up at the ceiling. She can feel his fingers slipping into hers. “She said that she found the bells where the first trial started, but they weren’t on the bridge. The bells were on a tree. She told me to ask you why. Why did you choose that place?”

“It wasn’t because the trial started there,” he says. “It was the place that I met you. I had seen you at the main hall, but that was the place where I spoke to you for the first time. It was the place where my heart wanted to break free from my chest to be with you.”

Phoenix reacts quickly. She moves on top of him and kisses him. She remembers that day. She saw his blue eyes that were colder than ice. She knew that there was something apart from that façade. And she was eager. She was eager to find who he really was until he killed Meer. From that point forward, she started to hate him.

Now, she did know him. He is not what he appears. He cares about her and about everyone else. He knows how to make her feel comfortable with him. He loves every flaw of her and makes them seem as if they weren’t flaws. She likes – no – She loves his real self, and she cannot get enough of him.

She moves her lips, kissing his jaw, right where his scar is. She wants him. She wants him now. Her hands lower from his chest to his stomach. They search for the opening of his shirt. When she finds it, she slips her hands in. She feels his hot and soft skin as her lips go to his neck. Her fingers find several scars there.

“Nix–” he breathes.

She doesn’t let him speak. Her lips return to his lips. She feels his hands go to her waist. She pushes his shirt up, exposing his stomach and half his chest. She wants to take his shirt off. She wants to have him tonight.

She slips her hand past his stomach. Her fingers pass his belt. He stops kissing her as his hand grabs her wrist, stopping it from moving. “I-I can’t,” he says.

“Why?” she asks. She doesn’t want to talk. She only wants him.

“I don’t think that it is a good idea,” he says.

She moves from on top of him to the bed. “I do not understand you,” she says as she stands up. “I am giving you permission. I am making the first move. Why don’t you? What is stopping you? Is it me? Don’t you want to touch me?”

“No, no, no, no, it is not that,” he says as he sits up. His shirt falls, covering him once again. “I want to do this, Phoenix, I really do. But I cannot do it. I-I’m lying to you. There are some things that I cannot tell you about myself. You might like me, but this is not my true self. You might want to do this, thinking that you like who I am, but what happens if you later learn something that you do not like? What happens if this Icarus is completely different from the real Icarus?”

“I don’t care,” Phoenix says. “They are things that you do not know about me. Hell, there might be things that you will never know about me, but what matters is that I want you right now, that we both want each other right now.”

Icarus’s eyes look past her. He is remembering something; she can see it in his face. There is something that is holding him back. There is something big that he is not telling her.

He shakes his head. “No, I am sorry. I can’t.”

Phoenix looks at him. She is angry. She is disappointed. She is furious at herself and him. She takes off the gray cloak in one swift move and throws it at him. Without waiting to see his reaction, she walks out of the room without her shoes and makes her way back to her dorm.

***

East’s eyes are already seeing shadows on the lights. He cannot even make out Slier’s face fully. She sees the silhouette of her blurry face, undefined. He has drank so much. He shrugs at himself and takes another gulp from the bottle.

“We are not supposed to be out at this time,” Slier says, but she steals the bottle from East and drinks again.

Where are they? East cannot make the place exactly. He knows that he is outside because of the dark sky with the light moon and stars. He hears the trees’ leaves shaking with the cold wind that hardly comes. He is on the ground, feeling the grass. He is sitting, leaning back and making ground with one of his elbows.

“Relax,” he tells Slier. “What would Morning do? He loves us. We are practically his personal puppets. He told us to hunt a witch, we hunted a witch. He told us to study under Icarus’s tutelage, and that is what we are doing. There is no way that he will punish us if he catches us.”

“Yeah,” Slier says. “You might be right.” She takes a gulp from the bottle of rum before passing it to East. “Who gave you this bottle?”

“No one,” East admits. “I found at a recently emptied dorm. Apparently, it belonged to someone who was in Signe’s team and died in the second trial. He had two other bottles also hidden. I confiscated them. I figured that he wouldn’t need it.”

Slier laughs. “That’s cruel, man.”

“You, calling me cruel? That’s like Tilray calling someone egocentric.”

Slier moves her arm to smack him, but he grabs her wrist. She then looks at his eyes. Her eyes fall to his lips as East’s grin disappears. What is she looking at? Is she thinking about his lips? East’s eyes also fall to her lips. He doesn’t know if he has tasted them, but he has always wondered. Are they soft? Do they taste like sugar?

He leans in to find out when he feels it. He feels a change of atmosphere. He feels the cold air suddenly be replaced by heat. He looks around. He finds someone meters away. He cannot make sense if the figure is a man or a woman. The person shakes its arm. It is lighted up. Is that person a…

“A witch,” Slier says. She stands up quickly. East tries to stand up too. When he does, he feels the earth shaking. No, it isn’t the earth but him. He is trembling. He is past his drinking limit. He tries to take a step, but the earth shakes again.

His eyes go to Slier. She hasn’t moved also. She has drunk as much as he has. He searches for the figure again. Where was it? He moves his head, searching desperately. The figure is nowhere to be found. The figure is gone.

“We let a witch escape,” East says.

“No,” Slier says as she sits back down. East sits back down quickly too. “We didn’t let a witch escape. We felt it. It used something of fire.” She smiles at herself. “We didn’t let the witch escape. We let it have a head start, because now we know that there is another witch and we know what it can do. It will be easier to find it.”

“You are right,” East says as he nods. He lies on the grass with a sigh. “No more drinking. I can barely move.”

“Agree,” Slier says as she falls next to him.

***

Xeon wields his scythe several times. He is walking with Agrion and Hakea. Since yesterday, they have both returned to their usual selves. They are talking to each other, but still Xeon can feel that there are things that won’t return to how they were. Agrion still wants to become a rogue, so he is trying to depend less on Xeon and Hakea. Hakea now watches his words when he is talking to Agrion. He doesn’t want to say something out of place.

“Are you all right?” Hakea asks Xeon.

Xeon stops moving his scythe. “No.”

“What is it about?”

“Zanna,” Agrion says. “Remember that she is now seeing Wither, and yesterday they all had to work together.”

“Ah,” Hakea says. “Don’t worry, Xeon. She will notice that Wither is not that fun and get tired of him. Then she will be free again.”

“No, I do not think so,” Xeon says as he shakes his head. “I have seen them both. He makes her laugh. That’s more than what I can do.”

Agrion touches Xeon’s shoulder. He doesn’t say anything. He only leaves his hand there. Xeon looks at him. He knows what his silence means. Agrion likes Hakea, he might even love him. And Hakea is confused about himself. “Cheer up,” Agrion says. “You have coffee today.”

“Right,” Xeon says, somehow feeling better. He places his scythe behind his back. They enter the lunchroom. He doesn’t bother to look at whoever is there. He is sure that Zanna is. She always is around this time. He picks his food and looks for a table, but he spots her when he does.

She is sitting along with Phoenix and Rin. Rin is talking their ear off and Zanna appears to be hearing every word. Meanwhile, Phoenix is playing slowly with her food. Xeon sees Icarus approach the table. He places a plastic cup in front of Zanna and leaves.

“Let’s sit there,” Hakea says, gesturing to an empty table. Xeon nods, taking his eyes away from Zanna. As he sits down, he sees Icarus approaching.

“Here you go,” Icarus says as he places a cup in front of Xeon.

Hakea leans in to see the coffee inside. “Can you take pity of someone like me and give me some?” Xeon thinks for a second that Hakea’s words are meant for him, but they are meant for Icarus.

“Did you win?” Icarus asks.

“No, but come on,” Hakea says. “I’ll do anything!”

“Anything?” Icarus asks. Hakea nods. “Fine. Stand up on the table and sing me a song.”

Xeon flinches. He never thought that Icarus was silly. He never thought that he would like jokes. He tries to search something in his face, but he is not showing anything. If he is smiling, Xeon cannot tell due to the mask.

On the other hand, Hakea is smiling from side to side. He pushes his tray away, stands up on his chair and then on the table. He clears his throat loudly, drawing the attention from everyone. Xeon sees that even Zanna begins to pay attention to him.

Then Hakea begins singing. Xeon gets surprised. Hakea’s voice becomes grave. He holds notes as easy as if he was talking. He moves his arms whenever he raises his voice. Xeon catches a glance of Agrion. He is smiling from ear to ear as he watches Hakea sing. It seems as if he is back to being himself for a second.

Icarus leaves during Hakea’s song. When he returns, he is holding a plastic cup. When Hakea finishes singing, he takes a bow. Everyone begins clapping. He steps down from the table. “Well?”

“Here you go,” Icarus says as he hands him the cup. “Look at everyone. You made them smile at a place and a time where is hard to. Sometimes just a song can make a difference.”

Icarus turns around and leaves the lunchroom.

***

Fey wants Icarus so badly. She doesn’t want to be his girlfriend. She wants to have sex with him. She wants to feel his body. She wants to feel his roughness. She wants him to tie her down, use force on her, own her. She wants someone for once to take the lead, not her. And she knows that he would be perfect.

But as she stares at him as he speaks, she cannot help but imagine it. What would happen if they had sex? He will begin to be crazy for her, that’s for sure, just like everyone before him. What about her? Will she begin to wish for more than sex? She knows that it is a high chance.

“Fey, did you hear me?” Icarus asks, snapping her awake.

“Sorry, I was, um, thinking,” she says.

“What about?” Moneo asks. Fey wants to punch him. He likes putting her in the spot.

“It doesn’t matter, Moneo,” Icarus says. “Thoughts are one of the few things that we can keep private.” He looks at Fey. “I said that we will finally practice with our weapons. You missed Tilray’s remark, and Killam yelling at someone, but overall, the important thing is what I said.”

“But what about us?’ Phoenix asks. Fey sees Icarus’s eyes open a little more. “What about the people that use guns?”

“You’ll be using rubber bullets,” Icarus says. “It will leave a burn mark if the bullets hit you, but it won’t penetrate the skin. So, as a rule, do not shoot at anyone’s face.”

“What about if I am paired with someone that I do not like,” Rin says. “Let’s say Killam. Can I shoot him in the face then? It might fix his face a little.”

“Fuck you, Rin,” Killam answers.

“Oh, how you would love to do that,” Rin answers.

“Don’t start again,” Icarus says. “No, Rin. You cannot shoot anyone on the face.”

“What about pairings?” Lexan asks. “Would we, close-range weapon users, have to face long-range weapon users?”

“Of course,” Icarus says. “You will face anyone at the trials. You will have to learn how to evade bullets and the long-range weapon users have to learn to keep away from you.”

“Is that even possible?” Agrion asks. “Can you evade every single bullet that is being shot at you?”

“You, of all people, should not be asking this question,” Icarus says. He waves his hand, gesturing them to follow him. “I’ll show you that it is possible.”

Icarus heads out of the room. Fey looks at Beta, searching for something to understand. What is he going to show? Is he going to make someone shoot him? Beta shrugs. They stand up to follow Icarus. Outside, he continues walking, leading them to a forest. She spots a crate next to a tree.

“East, replace your bullets with the bullets in that crate,” Icarus orders.

“All right,” East says. Fey sees him approach the crate and open it. He then begins to pull guns from his belt and replaces every bullet and magazine with new ones. He then proceeds with the guns in his back. “Done.” He turns around. Fey had not noticed but Icarus has walked several yards away from East.

“I am going to approach you,” Icarus says. “And you are going to shoot me. Don’t stop until you hit me.”

“All right,” East says as his hand goes to the sniper on his back. “Whenever you are ready.”

“Now,” Icarus says and sprints towards East.

Fey holds her breath, watching in anticipation. East shoots with his sniper. Fey sees that it doesn’t hit Icarus. When she looks back at East, she sees that he is now holding a shotgun. He fires, reloads, fires again, reloads, and fires one last time. Icarus docks on the first, rolls for the second, and moves away for the third. East then begins to shoot with two handguns. At this, Icarus begins to move from side to side as if he is dancing. He evades every shot. When he is near East, he jumps towards him and places a hand on his shoulder.

“Great job,” Icarus tells him.

Fey notices that her mouth is wide open. “Damn,” she whispers to Beta. “He is making it impossible for me to get over him.”