Chapter 25: Chapter 26: Gorgeous
"Nyx..." he started.
I didn’t let him finish.
"Get out," I said.
The word came out cold. Flat and final.
Liora flinched beside me. "Nyx, come on..."
I sucked in a slow, shaky breath, pressing my palm against the mattress as if grounding myself there would keep the rage from tearing loose. My chest felt tight, like something sharp was lodged behind my ribs.
Control it.
Don’t let it control you.
I lifted my eyes back to him.
"Mr. Thorne," I said, forcing every syllable to stay steady even as my hands trembled beneath the sheets. "I truly appreciate you. Thank you for saving my life today." My lips curved into something that wasn’t a smile. "Now please leave. I don’t want to see you ever again."
The words tasted bitter but necessary.
Liora opened her mouth, then closed it again, sensing this wasn’t a battle she could step into.
Thorne didn’t move.
"Nyx, can we just talk?" he asked.
His voice was calm. Too calm. Like this wasn’t ripping him apart like It was doing to me. Like he hadn’t disappeared from my life and reappeared in the middle of my blood and pain as if he had every right to.
"I don’t want to talk to you," I snapped. "So just get the fuck out of here."
My voice rose despite myself, echoing faintly off the stone walls. I hated that, hated that he could still pull that much emotion out of me with just his presence.
For a moment, something flickered across his face.
Not anger, not even guilt.
Something unreadable.
He studied me like he was memorizing this version of me... broken, furious, alive.
Then he nodded once.
"We’ll talk next time," he said quietly.
And before I could respond, before I could throw something, scream, or tell him exactly where he could shove that confidence, he turned and left.
The door closed behind him with a soft, final click.
Who? or what? gave him the confidence to assume I would ever want to talk to him again?
He must be dreaming.
I stared at the door long after he was gone, my heartbeat loud in my ears, my breath uneven.
"Can you calm down now?" Liora asked gently.
I exhaled deeply, the sound shaky and exhausted. My anger drained just enough to leave behind something worse, emptiness. The kind that hollowed you out and made you feel stupid for caring at all.
She didn’t push.
Didn’t ask who he was to me or ask what he’d done.
Probably sensed that whatever lay between us wasn’t finished business, it was unresolved damage.
And I was grateful for that.
Because I didn’t want to say anything.
Not when the wound was still open.
Not when his voice was still echoing in my head like a promise I never asked for.
Not when part of me... traitorous and furious... was still shaking from the fact that he had walked away like he hadn’t just shattered my peace all over again.
I lay back against the pillows, staring at the ceiling, jaw clenched.
Whatever game Thorne thought he was playing...
I wanted no part of it.
And yet... the academy had a way of forcing people into collisions they didn’t want.
I closed my eyes, knowing one thing with terrifying certainty.
This wasn’t over.
Not even close.
---
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
No Thorne.
Nothing.
Just me and Liora. Somehow, despite everything, we’d grown closer. We couldn’t exactly be called best friends... Blossom Friends, as the world liked to put it, but we were good. Solid. Reliable. The kind of bond forged in quiet understanding, not forced smiles.
I had been discharged two days ago, and luckily, we managed to secure a room in the White Dorm. Most students hadn’t survived, and the few of us left had agreed, not out of kindness, but necessity, not to be petty about living arrangements. Survival made strange alliances.
The academy, along with its cold, unflinching professors, had decided the remaining students should rest after the bloodshed. Three days ago, chaos had reigned, and bodies had been strewn across the training fields. Many students were still injured, their screams echoing faintly in memory. Today, three days later, we were to choose our colors, the hues that would identify us, brand us, in this academy.
I whispered a prayer to myself: Please, let it not involve taking lives again. There is no guarantee I will be able to keep my head this time.
I wandered through the academy’s classrooms, the corridors, tracing my fingers along the polished stone walls as though the touch could teach me something unspoken about what was to come.
But what will be thought in this classrooms?
War strategies?
How to kill monsters?
Or something far worse?
Only time would tell.
Even then, it was impossible to ignore the luxury that seeped from every corner of Altheris. From the gold-etched railings to the high arched ceilings, from the thick velvet curtains to the faint scent of rare oils lingering in the air, it all whispered wealth, power, and untouchable beauty.
I wondered, almost dreamily, if any corner of the world could ever be as breathtaking as this place. Its beauty was a trap, a siren song that whispered: paradise has arrived on Earth. For a moment, I allowed myself to forget the blood, the pain, the death.
I was still lost in the perfection of Altheris when I heard it.
No.
Not the clatter of footsteps.
A moan.
My heart skipped. My stomach twisted.
What the fuck? How is it possible that someone can still get it to stand?... I trailed off, disbelief clawing at me. In the middle of all this chaos, like someone could still... somehow... indulge in pleasure?
Curiosity, and something darker, drove me forward. Quietly, carefully, I traced the sound to its source.
And then I saw them.
It was the guy... the same one from the field, the one asking a foolish question like life didn’t matter to him... Elion.
And a blond girl I didn’t recognize. Her back leaned against the wall, hands gripping his shoulders, and he held her by her thick thighs, moving as though life itself had no consequence, as though survival and death didn’t matter.
He was thrusting. Careless. Arrogant. Alive. Dangerous.
The anger that surged in me wasn’t directed at the world, at fate, or at anyone else. It was him. That handsome stranger, standing there with another lady, completely indifferent to me, completely indifferent to how it made me feel.
I felt like I had been cheated on, even though I had no right to feel that way. No claim. No reason. But the surge of heat, the twist in my chest, the sting in my throat, it was real. And it burned.
I froze, staring, until his eyes... storm-gray and impossibly sharp, locked onto mine.
He smiled.
Not shame. Not apology. Not even the slightest flicker of embarrassment. Just a smile, smug and knowing, as though he enjoyed the fact that I was watching.
I turned to leave, heat flooding my face. My chest tightened. My pulse thundered in my ears. Embarrassment, fury, and something darker swirled inside me.
Then he spoke.
"Gorgeous," he said.
The word cut through the thick air between us.
"Don’t leave. Come join us."
I stopped dead in my tracks, every instinct screaming to run, but for a heartbeat, my body betrayed me.
Just for a moment, I could almost feel myself stepping toward him.
It felt... so right.
