Chapter 21 21: New information

Chapter 21 21 BURN
DARYL
The walk to the office was torture. Soraya stayed three steps behind me the entire way, creating distance. Creating walls.
I hated it.
Twenty minutes ago she'd had her hands in my hair and now she wouldn't even walk beside me.
"You're being obvious," I said without turning around.
"What?"
"The way you're avoiding me. It's obvious."
"I'm not avoiding you. I'm walking."
"Three steps behind like you're afraid of me."
Her footsteps faltered. Then quickened. She came up beside me, lifting her chin in defiance. "Better?"
Much. "Thrilled."
We walked in silence for another minute. Then she said, so quietly I almost didn't hear: "We can't do that again."
My chest tightened. "Noted."
"I mean it, Daryl. Whatever that was—"
"A mistake. I know." I stopped walking, forcing her to stop too. The hallway was empty, but I lowered my voice anyway. "You've made it very clear how you feel about me, Karter. Message received."
"That's not—" She broke off, frustration flashing across her face. "You don't understand."
"Then explain it to me."
"I can't!"
The words came out like an anguished cru for help. And for just a second, I saw past all her walls to something underneath, real, visceral fear.
Of me? Of this thing between us? Of something else entirely?
"Soraya—"
She shook her head, already retreating behind her mask. "We're going to be late."
She walked ahead before I could press further, and I let her go. But my mind was racing now, putting pieces together that didn't quite fit.
The way she'd appeared at Fenrir with no history anyone could verify. Her skill with weapons that seemed too practiced for a witch who had little to no control of magic.
The fact that she'd been in Annie's room right after the girl died. Her mother's sudden involvement in getting her assigned as my guard.
You're my assignment.
What if it wasn't a slip of the tongue? What if she'd meant exactly what she said?
Unease settled in my stomach.
What if Soraya Karter hadn't come to Fenrir to study at all? I had my doubts from the on start,but now I was starting to see things in a very different light.
___
SORAYA
I could feel Daryl's eyes on me as we sat in Principal Owen's office. I could feel him analyzing, dissecting, getting too close to truths I couldn't afford to let him see.
I'd slipped up. Badly.
You're my assignment. God, how could I have been so stupid?
And kissing him—both times—that was even worse. Because now I knew how he tasted, how he felt, the sound he made when I touched him. And knowing made everything infinitely more complicated.
My mother wanted results.
I was supposed to kill him.
Instead, I was falling for him. — a feat I couldn't accept just yet.
Alpha Talon was saying something about security measures, curfews, heightened supervision. The words washed over me.
How was I supposed to complete my mission when there was just a lot going on?
How was I supposed to go on with all these?
When we were finally dismissed, I walked out ahead of Daryl, needing space.
His voice stopped me in the hallway. "Soraya."
I didn't turn around.
"Look at me."
Reluctantly, I faced him. His expression was serious. Searching.
"Whatever you're hiding," he said quietly, "I'm going to figure it out."
My blood ran cold. "I'm not hiding anything."
"Yes, you are. And I think—" He paused, jaw working. "I think it has something to do with me."
"You're paranoid."
"Maybe." He stepped closer. "Or maybe my instincts are finally catching up to what my wolf has been trying to tell me since the day you arrived."
"Which is?"
"That you're dangerous. And not in the way I thought."
We stared at each other. The kiss hung between us, unspoken but impossible to ignore.
Finally, I said: "You should listen to your wolf."
I walked away before he could respond. Before I could see if my admission had confirmed his suspicions or confused them further.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I fished it out, catching my breath when I saw it was my mother.
'Plans changed. Mission should be over and done with within three weeks.'
I released an heavy exhale, my grip on the phone tightening. Now there was a countdown to my work here, and I still hadn't figured out how to go about it. Why did the kiss between Daryl and I have to happen in a time like this? Why the hell did I even allow myself to be kissed in the first place.
By the time I reached Elroy—the house where we’d be training—I’d forced my heartbeat to steady. Forced my face to smooth. Forced myself back into survival mode.
Well, sometimes when life gives you lemons, didn't they say make lemonades out of them?
It was perfect that the prince and I would be trapped in this house with a bunch of other students, two of which already have a grudge on him, undergoing severe training which well, could take a life.
If we look in the bright side, it was only a matter of time before I carried out my mission, and pin it someone else.
"I see you are here, witch..." Ethan Farrow came just at the right time, a sword strapped to his waist as he regarded me with a 'bigger than thou' look.
For the first time, I gave him the sweetest smile I could muster. "Hello there, Ethan Farrow..." There he was—the person who would be the murder suspect if the Prince's death when I do my part.
Oh how the tides have been shifted.