NOVEL NEXT Chapter 22: Bonds
49th of Inandyl - 7th Emder (cont)
Calas led the Drakonys visitors down the girl's side hallway, and he let that vague sense of direction from the thread lead him to her. The truth was he no longer cared about outside opinions and was done hesitating for the sake of propriety. He focused on that slow pulse and frowned.
That pulse wasn't the only thing that had put him in a foul mood as they passed by numbered doors, and he breathed through the tingle in his ribs. Calas had the entire silent walk to stew over everything that Fara threw in his face on the way over here. It was one thing to tease, but that was not what she had done.
It was unexpected and Calas also found it out of character for her to be so direct. What happened to the cat who played with her food? Had she finally grown bored of the game? Not only that, but what she actually said baffled him as well.
What did she know about Blackclaw's motives for Calas, anyway? It was no surprise that she would talk to Jem since he also had a knack for picking up information around Court. What was surprising was that they talked about Calas in addition to that.
And Malakh? Was that what he was trying to discuss at the beginning of break? Why would he want Calas in charge of anything? According to Fara, because he and Rea thought Calas to be a "good person"? He nearly scoffed out loud as he thought, more like because of Fara's gossip! Conniving little minx!
The last of her words lingered in his mind, though. The ones about how no one ever knew where he stood. Of course they didn't and as far as he was concerned, everyone was better off for it. Even in his own family.
He was supposed to be the scion of a far-reaching organization, but who was he fooling there? No one was going to follow him. Everyone on the inside thought he wasn't up to the task and everyone on the outside thought he was just like the rest of the Syndicate: merciless, cruel, and well, callous.
Calas played into that stereotype on purpose. It was easier to keep others, like Malakh, at arm's length. Malakh won't recommend him for that reason so he should feel some kind of accomplishment that he could carry out the facade so well. Why then, did he feel so hollow instead when he applied the same logic to Rea?
Even as he thought it, he knew the reason. Calas cared about Rea. It was as undeniable as the warmth on his finger from the thread and the sharp needles on his ribs from Orendell.
"What room is she in?" Vesa finally broke his brooding silence and Calas made a show of reading the numbers on the doors as they passed them. In truth, he had just refocused on the pulse at the other end of the thread that bound them.
"Not far." He responded in a low growl.
"That's not what she asked." Fara growled back.
Calas shot the Panthara daggers as he stopped in front of a door. He made a point of indicating the number listed on it.
"One-Seventy-Nine." Calas announced in a flat tone and knocked twice.
As he did, some of the agitation in him was overshadowed by a creeping dread that threatened to consume him the longer they waited.
He knocked again, but louder this time. As he did, he sent one last desperate emotion through the thread; it was a culmination of all the anxiety and fear that threatened to drag him under. Somewhere deep within him, Calas knew that if he lost control right now, with the mark biting at his ribs as it was, Fara might witness how true those rumors really were. Instead he gritted his teeth through all his self doubt.
Was he too late? Why hadn't he just done the stupid dramatic plan to begin with? What if she was passed out this whole time and she couldn't get to the door? His mind continued to spiral until a muffled voice was heard through the door.
"Coming."
It was Rea, though she sounded different from inside the room. At that point, there was a returned sensation from the thread behind the wooden barrier and he let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. The thread sent with it a questioning emotion which Calas clung to.
A wave of relief filled him upon receiving it and again when the slow rhythm came up to a normal tempo. Calas took a step back from the door as he drove a hand through the longer strands of his dark hair before it opened. What they saw sent his heart racing all over again.
It was Rea who stood in the doorway, but not like he had seen her just a few days ago. She stood at least half a foot taller in a knee-length nightgown, and a too-small robe pinched awkwardly at her shoulders.
Calas tried not to stare at the now obvious curves through the thin fabric that she somehow grew into overnight. It wasn't only difficult, it was down right impossible. Where once an adorable, little mouse of a girl stood, they were replaced in the blink of an eye with a stunning beauty, complete with smooth skin, lithe curves, and long legs. He apparently wasn't the only one gaping, though, and Rea rubbed at her neck nervously.
"Is there something wrong?" Her voice rang out to them. It was still sweet, and still Rea, but it was different from her normally small voice.
Her words drew him from his own wonder. He let out a relieved scoff that turned into a chuckle. No doubt about it, that was his mouse alright. That she hadn't even realized what happened to her made perfect sense.
Calas closed the gap between them in the doorway and measured her height against his own with a hand to denote her new stature. As he did, he caught a hint of that almost sweet and salty, floral scent of hers and smiled at something still familiar about her. He took a step back and showed her where she measured up now, his hand flat to where her head was, just above his chin.
Rea's deep blue eyes went wide with disbelief, head shaking in confusion. Finally, she looked down at herself and gasped as she took a step back, away from the door. It looked as though she was staring at something in her room while horror and her hands gripped at her face.
"Rea…" Calas started to get her attention, but he was answered quickly.
"Give me a minute!" and before any of them could speak or move again, she slammed the door to her room. A muffled shriek followed directly afterwards from behind the barrier.
Calas sighed and he wilted as he turned to lean on the wall next to the door labeled "179".
"That was unexpected." Vesa remarked as she shifted her stance. She looked to Fara who seem just as dumbfounded.
The comment was followed by a loud, unintelligible complaint from inside the room. It was accompanied by muffled shouting, but not even Calas could make it out, even with the wolf's added perception. The three of them all looked up at it, but quickly gave one another questioning glances.
Silently, Calas directed a nod to the door at Vesa. She in turn looked to Fara, who confirmed the notion with a nod of her head, black ears twitching.
Vesa sighed and approached the door and knocked with her free hand. "Serea, it's Vesa. I'm coming in to help you, okay?" Cautiously, Vesa opened the door and squeezed in, closing it behind her as she entered. A distorted conversation could be heard, but not understood and Calas wondered if there might be an enchantment on the doors to discourage eavesdroppers.
"How'd you know?" Fara asked quietly as the two of them waited in the hallway. Calas folded his arms and quirked a brow in the Panthara's direction.
"How'd I know what?" He responded flatly.
"Hmm," Fara grumbled while she stared at him incredulously, "Oh, I don't know. How about the fact that you knew something was wrong?"
"I told you, we were supposed to have lunch."
"And that you didn't know her room number, but found her room anyway?"
"I forgot the number, but I knew where it was."
"Oh, so you've been down here before? And here I thought you were too scared to come down here yourself." Fara's expression turned sly.
Calas bit back his retort. Fara was goading him into giving her information that she only suspected, but he wouldn't be obliging her a response this time. Especially after the door opened and Vesa announced that they could both come in. Calas wasted no time, pushing off the wall and turning into the room before Fara decided to play another round of twenty questions.
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The room was the standard double; a desk, a chair, a bed, and a wardrobe mirrored on either side of the room. Vesa took a seat next to Rea who sat on her bed, the blankets still tossed. Had she been sleeping this entire time? He thought for a moment that he had overreacted about the slow pulse, but that explosion he felt seemed immensely urgent. Seeing her there now in clothes that clearly weren't hers, he assumed that the sensation was somehow connected with her accelerated growth.
Fara grabbed the chair at the other desk, which must have been Cira's, and sat directly across from Vesa. Her tail twitched as she gave a cool, scathing glance to Calas. The only open seat was the chair at Rea's desk next to the Panthara and directly across from the sulking Rea in an elven style tunic and long, flared pants in a similar style.
Calas clicked his tongue in exasperation taking the seat. That cat will never learn…
He spotted Chou on the desk and smiled when he saw she had her own little bed on the corner of it. The little familiar was sleeping peacefully, completely unaware of the goings on. Gently, he brushed a finger over the back of her tiny body, right between her wings.
"Chou-chou, time to get up, little one," he cooed at her. Slowly, she stirred and was surprised to find so many people in the room. It didn't take her long to settle down on Rea's shoulder, her normal perch.
Lunches were opened, enjoyed, and shared over conversation, when Rea asked, "So did you all just decide to bring me lunch?"
The Drakonys pair stared at Calas, expectant. He should have expected this with the all of the flack Fara had been giving him all day. Using a bite of food as a delaying tactic, Calas thought through how to approach this little yarn.
"Well, it's Emder," he started, addressing Rea. "Usually, I bring you lunch on Emder, but you weren't in the normal place. So I looked in all the not normal places and when I still couldn't find you, I found these two in the Great Hall and asked if they had seen you.
"They had not, but Fara was so kind as to mention your room, so we got lunch to go and here we are!" Calas smiled wryly at Rea, who surprisingly smiled back at him knowing full well that he was lying through his teeth.
There was a kind of mirth in her too blue eyes and he felt his pulse quicken as she nodded, remaining silent. He felt the tinge in his ribs abating while he mused at the fact that she kept his half-truths as their own secret. While her face had lost that small, mouse-like quality, he noticed now when her eyes lingered on his that it had gained a more grown up beauty. He found himself mesmerized.
"Odd day that he went looking for you while it was so bright and without a lunch to take to you until he came to us in the Great Hall." The moment was ruined by Fara, of course. Her voice was flat but full of accusation.
"I figured we would have lunch in the Great Hall, but also I would have provided shade from the big, bad, bright sun."He reigned in his emotions, but he knew this was just more of whatever she was on about earlier and gave Fara a tight smile as if to say, "don't push this".
"It was also interesting that Calas knew exactly which room was yours despite not knowing the room number." She shot him back a subtle sneer disguised as a smile as if to say, "try and stop me".
"I told you, I forgot, okay?" Calas only shrugged nonchalantly, not caring about her desire to catch him in a lie. Rea started giggling and he realized her voice changed slightly, too. Less girlish. Less like the timid mouse to his ears.
"Sounds like it was an eventful morning. Sorry I missed it." A resigned pout etched her face for a moment as she said, "I just didn't feel right this morning."
"I'll say!" Vesa exclaimed, rubbing a comforting hand on Rea's back to soothe her. "Growing that much literally overnight, sucks! It happened to me a few years ago, too, during this same event."
"Really?" Rea's tone was disbelieving.
"Oh yeah! What? Did you think I was always this sexy?" Vesa jeered and all the girls laughed. Calas leaned an elbow on Rea's desk and watched as the conversation evolved into gossip, events, and other happenings around Court.
The three talked about Cira's return in a week, how they should welcome her, and what she had been doing in her hometown of Ambervale. Rea had a great deal to say on the subject as she explained that she and her roommate had been exchanging letters since the beginning of break. They all decided that her welcome party should be a girl's day in town so they could go shopping for Rea's new wardrobe.
Calas remained silent, content to be merely a witness to Rea's joyful involvement with her friends. As he did so and the conversation carried on, a pang of emotion hit him, and resonated, empty and hollow, within him. The last words that Fara shoved in his face came back to him and for once, he started to see what she had meant.
If you asked Calas last term, he wouldn't have cared to be on the outside, at arm's length, looking in on anyone or anything. That detachment kept the worst of himself from others and, by his estimation, kept everyone else safe. It was the same sacrifice he had made for his siblings and he never felt wrong or saddened about saving them from a bit of pain.
He realized that same mentality had followed him to Court, especially after the first term when he left the Arcane Club. Much of that decision had been for Jem's benefit, thinking that if he took himself out of the equation, he made it easier on Jem.
In Malakh's case, Calas made annoying comments to make himself seem unreliable. Calas figured he had been doing Malakh a favor by not allowing him to choose Calas for any kind of position he formerly held with the Club or within his own family. Most of the staffers knew he could, but he complained so loudly about it to deter it from happening.
He supposed even in Blackclaw's case Fara might actually be right as he was always too afraid to upset the status quo with the stoic professor. If he was wrong in the assumption that Blackclaw did somehow care what happened to Calas, he knew it would hurt. The unknown in that situation was more comfortable than knowing the truth and that suited Calas just fine.
But here, now, as he watched Rea bloom like Verdalune flowers, it was the first time that he really wanted to know. What exactly were they to each other? What did she actually see in him? Could she feel something for him like he felt for her? Calas felt the words, all the questions, built up in his chest, but had to push them away. None of those feelings within him could save her from the danger he brought with him.
Had he stayed well enough away, like he should have after Orendell tormented him, perhaps they wouldn't be linked together. Perhaps she would have been free now to live her life with her friends around her at Court without him in the way like this. He gave a melancholic smile to cover the emptiness that wrenched inside him at the thought of disappearing from her life.
"You'll be there, right?" Rea asked and he felt a sensation through his finger like a wave that drew him in. It brought his attention to the once again steady rhythm and the young woman in front of him. "When Cira comes back?" Rea gazed at him expectantly as if she stared right into him, and he realized he missed the question, asking her to repeat it.
She offered him the perfect opportunity to push her away, to prove that she was no different than anyone else. All he had to do was say no, to tell her that he couldn't be there. It was the safe option for her, after all. Cira would look after her. What did Rea really need him for after the next term was over?
The question lingered in his mind as their eyes lingered on each other. Drowning in those ocean blue pools, he couldn't find an answer, but neither could he deny her. He cared too much. She had become a part of him through the term and the break and he found himself wanting nothing more than to continue by her side.
He sent back that last determination of his through their bond, and his smile turned contented as he nodded to her.
"If you want me there, just tell me when and where." His voice was reserved, a weak reflection of all that he had been contemplating.
"Good!" Her face lit up with a smile, the same smile he remembered at the pitch before the broom race. The smile to defy gods, he thought.
"Yeah!" Vesa added, "This time, Calas can carry her trunk back here with Tymon. I'm definitely not doing that again."
"But Vesa," Rea began in a teasing tone, "You both have hooves…"
Rea didn't get to finish that statement as Vesa pelted her with one of her own pillows.
Calas missed most of the joke, but he chuckled along with them anyway for the smile that it put on Rea's face.
"You made Tymon do heavy lifting?" Calas questioned Rea as their tussle wound down.
"It wasn't that heavy." Vesa admitted.
"Oh, then you don't need me to carry it." Calas smirked at the Infernai and blocked the pillow she had thrown at him in retaliation.
The rest of the visit was much the same and as they all departed from room 179, Calas stayed back from the Drakonys pair who were in a heated discussion as they made their way down the hall to the common room. He returned Cira's chair to its rightful place and met Rea at the door.
As Calas leaned in to whisper in her ear, not trusting Fara's keen cat-like hearing, he noticed how simple it was at her new height.
"I'm glad you are alright, Rea. This thing gave me quite a start this morning." He hooked his little finger with hers so she knew what "thing" he was talking about, though he probably hadn't needed to.
"Sorry to make you worry for nothing," She peered up at him, whispering back softly to him. "But thank you for lunch. It really did make me feel better." She broke into a playful smile as if to reference all his lies from earlier.
"This seems like a bit more than 'nothing'." He intoned with raised brows, his eyes indicating the rest of her.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Rea sighed and her sea salt and honey scent filled his senses. "This is definitely something to get used to."
Pausing, he licked his lips as he wondered if he would ever have the guts to tell her what Fara wanted him to, what he should have probably told her a while ago now. You are special to me.
"Unfortunately," he began instead, "I don't think I can call you 'mouse' anymore."
You are the best part of my day.
"I guess it's a good thing I call you something else now."
You make me feel like I matter.
He shifted back on his heel, letting go of her little finger as he did so. She stopped his momentum in an instant as she took his hand in hers and his heart skipped a beat.
"I don't mind when you call me mouse, you know." A light color spotted her now thin face and he fought the urge to run his fingers over it.
"Hmm," Calas said in a low rumble, "you might look a bit different, but it's nice to know you are still a little mouse."
"A bit?" She chuckled in response to his words as he drifted out of her doorway, but he asked in a normal volume.
"I'll see you on Auryn? On the pitch for training?"
"As long as I have something to wear." She quipped back with a scoff.
"I think you'll find something," Calas smirked playfully at her. "Cira's clothes look great on you." The last thing he saw before he turned down the hallway was her shy smile.
As he walked toward the common room, away from room 179, his heart thundered in time to the beat of an unheard rhythm that he felt on the other end of the thread of bonding. At that moment, Calas felt he could fly without the wings that Orendell could shape for him.