Morningstar

Norm continues sitting right next to Ilya. He watches her close her eyes. “No, no,” he says, “stay awake.”

“I am tired,” she answers.

“I know,” Norm answers. He grabs her hand, thinking that he might be crossing a line.

“Give us the fucking antidote!” Killam yells at the hooded figure. He has been yelling at the cloaked figure for several minutes now, but the figure keeps saying no.

“There they are,” Zanna says as she nods towards the cave. Norm quickly looks up. He spots Tilray walk out first and then Lexan. Norm doesn’t wait to see who else walks out.

“That makes ten,” he tells the cloaked figure. “The antidote.”

The hooded figure throws a small flask at Norm. He catches it and quickly opens it. He doesn’t care that the liquid is clear and could be just water. He presses the flask to Ilya’s lips, forcing her to drink the content.

“Drink,” he orders her. Once the liquid is gone, Ilya body jumps. She sits up in one move, startling him. “Ilya. How are you feeling?” She doesn’t answer. She only turns to her side and vomits next to him.

“Better,” she answers as she wipes her mouth with the back of her arm.

“Come on,” he says, relieved to see her fine. “Let’s stand up.”

“Congratulations, Draconic,” the cloaked figure says. “You have passed the third trial while Prophetic has failed. We will show your teammates that are still inside the way out while the members of the opposite team will be relieved from their posts.”

“They will be killed,” Killam whispers as he helps Ilya stand up.

“A ship will be waiting for you at the cost,” the figure continues. “It will lead you back to Morningstar.” The figure turns and walks towards the forest.

***

Icarus stands in front of the cave. “I should go back in and find Beta, Agrion, Vil, and Wither.”

“Don’t,” Phoenix says. She is standing next to him. “You heard the creepy figure. They will be shown the way out.” She brushes her fingers on his hand before pulling away. He wants to hold her hand as much as she does, but they cannot allow anyone to look. “There they are.” She points above.

When Icarus looks up, he sees them climbing down the mountain. He smiles. They thought that it was going to be safer to climb down the mountain instead of going through it. They were smart. Then, his smile fades when he sees the spirit of Yenta floating next to Vil. She spoke to him. That’s why he felt her magic in the air.

Once they reach the ground, Icarus rushes towards her. “I need to talk to you,” he tells Vil. Beta, Agrion, and Wither walk past her. “You used your blessing.”

“I had to,” Vil says. “Wither and Agrion were going to die.”

“And is that Yenta? Is the real Yenta?” Icarus asks.

“I am,” Yenta answers. “I can prove it. You killed me with a flying knife.”

Icarus nods. He then looks at Vil again. “Cover him. Imagine a veil coming from you and covering him.”

“What?”

“Do it.”

Vil closes her eyes. Icarus watches Yenta. Yenta flickers before disappearing completely. She opens her eyes. “Now what?”

“You made him invisible,” he says.

“But I can see him,” Vil answers.

“Because you have a bond with him,” Icarus says. “You can only see him. Remember to recreate the veil every couple of hours.” He turns but Vil grabs his arm.

“I thought that you were going to be mad,” Vil says.

Icarus shakes his head. “I can’t be mad. You saved your friends. I would have done the same.”

***

“I thought that I lost her for a second,” Rin says. Zanna and Phoenix are standing next to her on the ship back to Morningstar. The wind feels smooth on Zanna’s face. It relaxes her after that previous event where a wolf tried to devour her. “I took healing classes, as you know, so I knew how to keep her alive, but what if I wasn’t there? What if it was another person who got poisoned?”

“They would have died,” Phoenix says, a little more heartless than usual.

Zanna’s eyesight lands on Wither’s back. He is talking with Vil and Lexan. She pushes herself from the edge of the ship and makes her way across the deck towards him. He is the one talking. He sounds even confidence talking to Lexan and Vil. She slips her hand into his and he stops talking.

“Z-Zanna?” Wither asks once he sees her.

“Don’t let me stop you from your tale,” she says. She moves his arm and stops in front of him, facing the sea. She pulls his other arm and wraps both around her waist.

“W-What are y-you d-doing?” Wither asks.

“I just want you to hold me,” she says. She feels his body relax. He softly pulls her closer as if she is going to run away with any sudden move.

Zanna closes her eyes for a second. She hates talking about feelings. She hates thinking about her feelings. They are distractions and weaknesses, according to her peers’ experiences. She witnessed when Phoenix lost Drano. She witnessed when Tilray broke up with East. She witnessed how her friends, apart from her closest groups, died throughout the years. She decided to not let her feelings get on the way of everything.

But somehow Wither is different. There is something about him that makes her open herself and allow the possibilities of feelings. Maybe it is because he is the first one to trust her, beside her closest friends. Maybe it is because he didn’t force his way into her life. Many other men have tried before to flirt with her and conquer the unconquerable woman of Morningstar, but they have failed. She was never interested on anyone, but now, Wither is making her feel.

“So, where is he now?” Lexan asks. Vil eyes Wither.

“I trust Zanna,” Wither says. “You can say anything to her.” Zanna tries to hide her smile forming on her lips.

“Right beside me,” Vil says. “Icarus told me to hide him. That’s why no one can see him.” Zanna doesn’t know what they are talking about, but she won’t ask.

“We are talking about Yenta,” Lexan says as if he could read her thoughts. “He saved Wither and Agrion’s lives.”

“I saved their lives,” Vil chips in.

“Wasn’t he dead?” Zanna asks. It takes her a second to notice how heartless it sounded. She looks back at Wither, but his expression is unreadable.

“He is,” Wither answers.

“Vil has a gift,” Lexan says. Just like Phoenix. But they do not know that, do they? “She can see spirits, and apparently, now she can materialize them. She materialized Yenta, and now he can’t leave her side.”

Zanna nods, understanding the odd statements. “Shut up, Yenta. I am not your translator,” Vil says. She finds Lexan eyeing her. “What? I am not his translator!”

“But you are the only one who can hear him,” Lexan says.

“Then that’s his problem,” Vil says.

Lexan answers, but Zanna’s mind is already gone. She takes Wither’s hand and lifts it to her lips. She plants a kiss on the back before returning the arm around her waist. She looks at him and he flashes a shy smile. Then he leans in and kisses her lips.

There’s something about him that makes her think that she is the luckiest woman alive.

***

Phoenix searches around without drawing suspicion. When she sees that no one is around, she grabs the stones on the wall and begins climbing. She counts the floors as she goes up. She stops at the third floor and with her hand, pushes the window open. She slips inside before closing it.

She looks around. The room is empty. Maybe he is out. She looks at the bathroom and finds him standing in front of the mirror. Icarus doesn’t have a shirt. He is applying a bandage on his left side. He has other bandages on both of his arms.

She is about to speak when her eyes fall to his back. He has many scars, more than what she can count quickly. “Those scars,” she says. Icarus turns to face her. She sees that also his chest and stomach have many scars, some long and some short. “How did you get them?”

He continues applying the bandage. “Becoming an assassin is not an easy job.”

In that moment she knows that she will never stop learning about him. “Do you need help?” she asks.

“If that is your excuse to touch me, then I am sorry to tell you that I am done,” he says. Then he looks up and a grin appears on his face. Those blue eyes that do not match his grin. Those eyes are mysterious, dangerous even, and don’t hint that he could have a humor.

“If I wanted to touch you, I would have already done it,” she says, even though she knows that she is lying. She glances at that chest. She wants to trace her hand on his honey skin and carefully touch every single scar. She wants to hear every story of every scar. She wants to place her head on his chest and feel the heat of his body. She shakes her head, trying to move her attention. “What happened on your side?”

“Lodge must have gotten to me,” he says as he rolls the rest of the bandages that he didn’t use. “I didn’t feel it by then but now it hurts.” Phoenix is surprised of hearing him admit when something hurts. He took her seriously when she said that she wanted him to be vulnerable around her. “As for the arms, wolves bit me.”

“Oh, when you rescued Zanna and the others,” she says.

He moves out of the bathroom, holding his shirt on his hand. “Kiss me.”

“Uh, bossy–” she tries to say but he is already kissing her.

She hears his shirt fall to the floor. He holds her, wrapping his arms around her. She moves her hand, touching his exposed back. She feels every scar on her fingertips. She pulls him closer as he grabs her and lifts her. He takes her to the bed where he falls with her. His lips move to her neck, sending a shiver down her body. She feels his hand lower to her stomach.

Then he stops to look at her. “Can I?” he asks.

She stares at him. Is this really happening? Is he asking to sleep with her? She nods, unable to form words. Then he smiles and his lips return to hers. She feels his hand moving, removing every piece of armor and fabric from her.

“Are you sure?” he checks again.

“Y-yes,” she answers, her voice betraying her.

He smiles and his kisses begins to descend. It moves down her neck, through the middle of her chest, and down her stomach. She feels him lowering her pants, exposing herself to him for the first time. His lips continue down, not stopping.

And that’s when she feels a heatwave through her body.

***

At night, Killam continues standing by the door of Ilya’s room. “You can leave,” Ilya tells him. She gave him a scare. He wanted to kill the hooded man to receive the antidote. How dumb was she that she wanted to play hero and ended up getting poisoned?

“Are you sure?” Tilray asks, who is leaning against the wall.

“Yeah,” Ilya says. “The worst have passed. I don’t think that there is any trace of the poison in my body.”

“There shouldn’t be,” Shin says. “You vomited every single thing in your stomach.”

“Very funny, Shin,” Ilya says sarcastically. Then her tone becomes more serious. “I didn’t thank you for carrying me through the trial, did I?”

“No, and you shouldn’t,” Shin says. “We are a team. I helped you because I wanted to. And also, if it weren’t for you, Rin and I would have probably been goners.”

“I wish,” Killam murmurs, but then finds everyone staring at him. “About Rin being a goner.”

“Seriously, you can leave,” Ilya repeats, ignoring Killam. She pushes Norm, who is sitting beside her. “Go. Leave.”

“All right,” Tilray says. She is the first out the door. Shin follows. Norm looks back to her once before leaving.

“You too, Killam,” Ilya says.

“You sure?” Killam asks.

“You are worried about me.”

“No,” he says.

“I love you too, Killam.”

“Bye,” Killam says as he turns towards the door.

Once outside, he decides to go to his room. He already took a shower and there is nothing more to do tonight. He will probably do something that he hardly does. He will sleep through the whole night.

When he reaches the dorms, he walks up the stairs but spots at the floor below his room when he spots Agrion. He is heading towards the stairs with a bag in his hand.

“Where are you heading, cutie?” Killam asks him.

“To the showers,” Agrion says, walking past him. Killam reconsiders going to his room and ignoring him, but he wants to have some fun.

“Do you want some help?” he asks as he follows.

“What are you insinuating?”

“What do you think?” Killam asks, but Agrion doesn’t answer. “Come on. You cannot be that naïve.”

Agrion stops walking and turns around. “No, I am not. It surprises me that you are suggesting that to me. There are many people that are better looking than me and could be as cruel as you. Pick one of them to sleep with.” He returns to walking.

“I don’t look for people like me,” Killam admits. “I look for people different from me.”

“Well, you are kind of unique. Everyone is different from you.”

“What? Do you want me to ask again? Do you want me to beg?” Killam asks. He feels Agrion getting into his nerves.

Agrion stops and turns again. “No,” he says. He doesn’t speak for a second as if organizing his thoughts. “I still don’t know what you are playing at… I-I still don’t know if you are asking me seriously or if you are just playing with me just as some cruel prank.”

Killam stares at Agrion’s blue eyes. He grins at him. “Are you becoming softie around me?”

“That was not an answer,” Agrion says before turning and walking away. Killam lets him go. He will come back. Even though Killam wants to touch Agrion’s soft skin, he knows that Agrion wants the same.

“K-Killam?” someone asks. Killam turns around to find a figure behind him. He tries to remember who he is. He seems familiar. It takes him a second before realizing that he is Ben, the guy who told him that Draconic was going to face Prophetic at the trial.

“Ben,” Killam says, nodding.

“D-Do you remember w-what you t-told me last time?” he asks. Killam tries to remember. He knows that he almost screwed around with Ben, but he doesn’t remember about their whole conversation. “You said that if I s-survived the trial, you would…”

“Fuck you?” Killam asks, the memories returning to him. Ben nods as he pushes his glasses up. Perhaps, he is not going to sleep early after all. Also, it will keep his mind away from Agrion. “All right. Let’s go.”

***

When Icarus opens his eyes in the morning, he finds Phoenix staring at him. He smiles at her. “Good morning,” he says.

“Morning,” she answers. She moves a finger to his chest. “Lat night was…”

“Amazing,” he answers. He doesn’t know if she was going to say something else, but he does answer.

She sighs, relieved. “I thought that you were going to say something else.”

His smile fades and he opens his eyes more. “Why?”

“I don’t know,” she says. “I figured that you didn’t want to sleep together because you didn’t want me that way…”

He pulls her closer. He tries to kiss her, but she doesn’t let him. She doesn’t like to be kissed in the mornings right after she woke up due to her morning breath. She lays her head on his chest. “I want you, Phoenix, in every way. You are all that I ever wanted.”

“Then what changed?” she asks. “You didn’t want to and now you did. What changed your mind?”

“I was a fool,” he admits. “I wanted you, but I thought that I was just a fling to you. I thought that I wasn’t lover material for you.”

“Fool,” she answers. She is about to speak again but someone knocks on the door loud.

Icarus is about to shout an answer, when someone yells from outside. “Put your pants on,” Demetrio’s voice is heard from outside. “Morning has requested every mentor for a reunion. It is urgent. The meeting starts in five minutes.”

Icarus looks at Phoenix. What does Morning want that is so urgent? He steals a kiss from Phoenix and stands up from the bed, thinking of all the possibilities.

Whatever Morning wants is not going to be good news.