Charis
Slater and I walked back slowly to his quarters.
I didn’t know how to feel after everything that had happened tonight. A staff mber t with us for questioning after Rhett was airlifted to the hospital and began asking us about the things we had seen.
I had stood frozen in shock when both Kael and Slater had denied seeing anything. They said they didn’t rember how we got to the clearing. I had to play along, too.
Kael had left us halfway through our walk without bothering to say goodbye, but I was too distracted to care about that. My mind kept circling back to the VIP ward and everything I’d witnessed there.
I kept replaying the look on Rhett’s face. The spark of hope when the door had opened and his stepmother had entered. The way his entire expression had lit up with expectation.
The way his lips parted, eyes wide with childish anticipation, like soone waiting to be rescued.
And then...
Only for it to slowly crumble when he realised his father wasn’t coming. The disappointnt was heartbreaking to watch. The false love in his stepmother’s voice had annoyed so much that I didn’t need to be told she hated Rhett.
I wondered what kind of life he must live—surrounded by wealth but starved of the one thing money couldn’t buy: genuine love from the people who mattered most.
It was sothing I could relate to.
I hugged my arms tighter around myself.
"What’s wrong with him?" I asked softly, breaking the silence between and Slater.
He glanced over at . His eyes looked tired. "You an Rhett?"
I nodded, unable to say anything more.
Slater sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "He has a heart disease. It’s not genetic but degenerative. The kind that can’t be really cured—only managed with dication and careful monitoring."
My heart dropped.
"He’s on a transplant list and the family has been searching for a matching heart for the longest ti, plus the hospital, but they haven’t found a match. Not even close. And from what the doctor said tonight..."
He trailed off.
He didn’t need to finish. I was there when the doctor was going off to the headmistress.
If we don’t find a matching heart soon, Rhett may have only twelve months, or less, to live. The doctor had said.
Twelve months. Less than a year for soone who was barely nineteen, soone who laughed and flirted and seed to embrace life so fully despite the shadow hanging over him.
I blinked hard, willing my chest not to tighten. I barely knew Rhett, not in the way I knew Slater. But there was sothing about him—sothing vulnerable behind that easy grin and cocky strut—that made feel everything all at once.
He laughed like he wasn’t dying. His bright smile, his infectious energy, and the way he tried so hard to connect with people. How did he manage to stay so outwardly happy when he was living with a death sentence?
"I don’t know how he stays so..." I started, but I couldn’t finish the thought.
"Happy?" Slater offered.
I nodded.
"He’s not," Slater said quietly. "Not really. He doesn’t want to die a coward, and he hates to be pitied."
We finally got to Slater’s room, and he unlocked the door without looking at . "I’ll shower first," was all he said, and he disappeared in the direction of the bathroom.
The mont he disappeared into the bathroom, I let myself breathe again. The silence of the room wrapped around in an oddly comforting way. It slled like him—sothing warm, sothing clean I couldn’t na.
I settled onto a small chair by the window, trying to process everything that had happened. The camping trip had turned into a nightmare. The strange blue creature, Rhett’s collapse and now the devastating news that he could die at any ti and oh, Kael’s kiss.
My hands strayed to my lips, touching them, trying not to rember the way Kael had wanted . Not even Slater had shown such passion.
I shook my head to expel the thoughts, exhaling deeply. I didn’t know how I had ended up in this maze of secrets, bloodlines, and heartbreak, only that I was far too deep in to crawl out now.
Slater ca out a few minutes later, wearing a dark tee and sweatpants. He didn’t say anything, just gestured to the bathroom and sat on the bed, towel-drying his hair.
I stood and went in, grateful for the escape.
The hot water felt like a balm against my aching muscles. I let it wash over , eyes closed, relieving the mont Kael had told about the toast and cake. He’d known sothing. Or at least he’d suspected enough to be wary.
I was secretly thankful that the orientation exercises had been cut short—I couldn’t imagine trying to maintain my disguise through whatever other horrors that academy had planned.
And now, with what Kael had told them earlier to pretend like we didn’t rember a thing from the party and what I’d seen—students hazy-eyed, I knew sothing bigger was at play.
When I ca out, I wore a borrowed pair of soft grey pyjamas I found folded on the bathroom counter. They were oversized, probably Slater’s, and I liked the way they swallowed my fra.
I towel-dried my hair, wondering if I should cut it shorter as it was already growing out, but in all, I felt...softer. Less like Eamon. More like myself.
When I ca out of the bathroom, I found Slater lying in bed, the covers pulled up to his waist, his arms behind his head, eyes closed. I padded to the other side of the Queen-sized bed and slipped under the covers, trying not to disturb him.
Slater imdiately reached over and turned off the bedside lamp, plunging the room into comfortable darkness.
We lay in silence for several minutes, and I found myself acutely aware that this was the first ti since our reunion at the academy that we were actually alone together, like this, with , of course, conscious.
No other students, no academy staff, no imdiate dangers—just the two of us in the quiet darkness.
It felt both familiar and strange, like the life we’d shared before everything fell apart. I thought it would be so uncomfortable with him after everything, but it seed normal.
I felt like I’d lived this scene sowhere in the past or maybe the future.
Suddenly, I rembered sothing that had been nagging at since the attack.
"Slater?" I called out softly.
"Yeah?"
"How did you know to co to the camp tonight? How were you there at exactly the right mont?"
He was quiet for a mont before answering. "I found out about the camping trip a little too late and had to follow. You didn’t contact like I asked you to," he said quietly.
"I tried," I murmured. "But no one would lend their phone, and I didn’t co with mine."
"It’s fine," he said quietly and continued. "Orientation exercises at that camp are always... bizarre. Last year, they made all the students strip completely and run through the forest naked. When I heard you’d been taken there, I was worried that might be what they had planned this ti, too."
I blinked. "You’re joking."
"I wish," he said. "So, when I found out, I panicked. I thought it would break your cover. Or worse."
I felt a chill run down my spine at the thought of what could have happened if they had done that.
There was a long silence after that.
I heard him exhale slowly, then say, "What exactly happened there? I got bits and pieces from Kael, but I want to hear it from you."
I hesitated for a second before telling him about the strange behaviour from the students after they’d consud the drinks and chocolate cake that’d been distributed. "Everyone started acting so differently —like they lost their reasoning..." I trailed off.
"You didn’t eat it?"
"No," I said. "I owe Kael for warning sohow. He seed to know sothing was wrong before it even started."
Slater was quiet again. Then, more hesitantly, he asked, "Did you kiss Kael?"
I turned my head, facing him in the dark.
I sighed. "Not the way Rhett made it sound. We were only trying to put on a show for the headmistress and other academy officials who had been watching. We were trying to blend in so we wouldn’t draw attention, and Kael said it would be safer if it looked like we were doing what everyone was doing. So...yeah. But it wasn’t real."
I felt him shift beside .
Then suddenly, he rolled toward my side of the bed, his chest pressed gently to my back.
His arm slid around my waist, closing the small space between us. Then I felt him bury his face in my hair, breathing in deeply.
"Slater?" I whispered.
"Can I kiss you?"
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