Chapter 49 CHAPTER 49
ALIRA'S POV
I watched him walk away with a longing in my heart that I couldn't explain.
Maybe I should stop accepting rides with him, it has left me disheveled again. I couldn't even feel the pain in my body properly.
Just excitement and drenched underwear.
But now, I could feel how ruined my body was.
Master Florian had brought out something in me that I thought was long gone and that hurt more than whatever he did to my body.
My body will always heal, faster than usual especially with this pool, but my mind?
It was torn in two visceral directions.
Protect myself from attacks or tear them into pieces, forcing me to look at those bones again.
Those eyes.
The blood.
The healer waded into the water again and began doing her job, not saying a word to me.
If she was pissed off, that's entirely her business. She has to stop talking about Master Florian like that around me.
Especially with this newly reopened madness inside of me. Her aggression towards him did to my mind the same thing that wild anger I have does and as much as I hated it, I don't mind using it to change her mind about him.
“Do you know what a Kindred Flame is?” She asked me, out of the blue.
“No, I'm new here so everything is strange.”
“That's what you have on your neck.”
“What does it mean?”
She didn't respond, only continued what she did yesterday, fuelling my body to heal faster.
“Miss Eruwan?”
“It's not in my place to tell you.”
Of course. I let her be, I have access to a library and I will utilise it rather than disturbing someone who didn't want to be disturbed.
This was one part of the movies that always rattled me. Keeping Superman's heritage until he put his hand in a shredder when they could have told him earlier.
Characters living in confusion until something happens and then someone would look at another and suddenly say, ‘it's time’ like there was anything wrong with telling them from the beginning so they could prepare better.
But unlike the movies, I wasn't waiting around for anyone to tell me shit.
So long as I'm trapped in here, I'll do whatever I can to find out more about myself.
About my parents, if there was time for that, hopefully answer that question I’d stopped asking.
“You're as good as new now,” Miss Eruwan patted my shoulder, “don't come back here again with these injuries. Healing takes a lot from me.”
“Thank you for your sacrifice,” I told her, very grateful that I didn't have to wait a few more hours for all my wounds to seal up.
Now I feel like I've never been sick in my entire life.
I shook off the water when I got out of the pool and thought about calling Styx to come take me to the library.
But I remembered Master Varak’s taunt the other day.
Well, running it is.
And a good thing too because it helped my clothes get dry.
I just wanted to add this new term that Miss Eruwan mentioned to my research before I forget it and then I'll head back to the hostel to get dressed for the Bonfire.
When I pushed the door open, instead of the silence and emptiness I was used to, I heard a drilling machine.
“Hello?” I called from the door.
I might be able to defend myself to an extent now, but I was no match for a drilling machine that was sounding so terrifying even from a distance.
“I should probably get the hell out of here,” I whispered under my breath as I walked further in, towards said noise.
It stopped all of a sudden, and was replaced by another sound that I couldn't place but it was windy, almost too quiet but my ears were always in everybody's business these days.
The sound took me down a couple of turns and I knew I had lost my way again but I still kept rushing forward, trying to find who was doing that.
But right before I could get there, the sound stopped, and so did my peace of mind.
I should have turned around and leave but I had already come this far, so when I turned to the place I'd heard that sound coming from, I don't know what I was expecting to see but it wasn't this.
An entirely new reading corner filled with two couches, a bigger table, a plushie, a snack fountain by the side of each couch, and a bigger reading light.
“Do you like it?”
“Eek!” I screeched, my heart flying out of my chest as I turned to my side to see who it was even though my brain had already figured it out.
But I needed to see him and thus close, I was losing my mind.
Didn't I just nearly fall in love with the Principal some minutes ago?
“Why do you want to kill me with fright?” I snapped at the male who looked like he stepped out of the hottest male magazine on the two planets.
“Sorry,” he apologized with a blush, “I don't walk like…”
I looked down to see he didn't wear shoes and his feet, more webbed than any other wasn't dragon kin at all.
I've not seen a dragon up close but this man definitely had a closer relationship with his dragon than most.
“Oh.”
“So?” He pressed, pointing to the remodeled reading area.
“When did you do this?”
“I didn't know you were going to come again so when I heard you running towards the library, I set to work.”
“Sir, I got here in about fifteen minutes,” I said with a frown.
“Zade.”
“What?”
“You can call me Zade.”
“But you're an instructor. Shouldn't you be demanding that I respect you and all of that?”
“Since you're different, shouldn't I be as well?”
“No pressure,” I shrugged, walking towards the new, wine-colored themed reading alcove.
“You like it?”
I turned to look at him, at the expectation on his face, like he would agree if I didn't.
It was an odd sight ok such a masculine face, but one that reached deep into me and turned on a faucet.
“I love it,” I told him, “and you're really quick. Thank you for covering me with a blanket yesterday.”
“Oh, you noticed?”
“Well if you'd stop disappearing every time I try talking to you, I won't have to be guessing.”
“I'll try but I have to go now. I left something on the fire.”
“What?”
“I know, but this was more important.”
“More important than making sure the Academy doesn't burn down?”
“It's fireproof,” he deadpanned.
I stuck out my tongue, a giggle spilling from me.
“Alright then, but come back soon. I still have to convince you to let me read that book.”
He disappeared before I could read his reaction.
Oh well, he has already accomplished more than I could ever have imagined.
Time to start researching again.