A/N
I haven't got the time to edit this particular chapter and I didn't want to postpone the update because of that one reason. It's not unnormal that you'll find way more errors than in former ones. I'll edit this chapter as soon as I get any free time. . .and add a better author's note too. Thank you :)

I had successfully avoided King and his calls throughout the weekend and up until the first day of school.

Right now, I was seated on one of the black seats in the library because this was the last place King would visit. My new dark-blue blazer was hung over the seat.

Just one week, I reassured myself, and then I'll talk to him about whatever is going on between us.

There was no one I could talk to about this, not even Sandra. She had caught us kissing and every other thing that followed was panic-driven. Rowan was making me even more stupid. He called me naive when I called him and told him about it. "It's just a kiss, stupid. That skirtchaser's probably had a thousand more. Now get over it and focus on your life!"

Sighing, I turned to the next page of the thick novel and concentrated on reading. Maybe I did need to get over it. What we'd done, was done completely out of... Tension? Wasn't that what Cole called it?

I didn't realize someone pulling a seat beside me and sitting down until a deep timid voice said, "Hey."

I turned just as Griffin pushed his eyeglasses closer to his nose in nervousness, the veins in his hand more noticeable. He managed a smile. "Are you busy?"

"I was just getting through on my project. Mister Nicholas wanted me done with it before- No, I'm not busy," I said instead when I saw his tense body drain down in disappointment. He pushed the hem of his blazer further down. The badge on it clearly wrote 'Senior Prefect' and then the logo of Rose-Gold High was under it.

They had called the names and positions this morning during the school's usually assembly. Sandra Khaling, as expected, got her dream position as event/social prefect. What wasn't expected was Luan emerging as Deputy Senior Prefect and Headgirl of Rose-Gold High.

Well, who didn't know her daddy was capable of being involved in it.

I was called out as Laboratory Prefect and now, those lessons with Mr Steve were now totally unavoidable, pretty much.

Griffin seemed unconvinced with my reply and I felt the need to reassure a timid boy like him, now Senior Prefect.

"You want to talk about something?" I pushed.

"Uh, yeah. I... Actually, I wanted to... Thank you. For, you know, the Josh situ-"

"Snr Griffin," I forced back a laugh. "We're at the library. Talk to me."

He pushed his eyeglasses even closer and smiled. His dimples appeared. Griffin was a quiet person, but he could talk, we used to during our book exchanges. His current act, now, was weird.

I mean sure, sometimes, well most times, my mouth did keep shut when I had something to say. But Griffin wasn't me. There was a difference.

"I know," he chuckled. "It's... I'm scared."

"Of me?"

He sighed and stared at the tabletop, rubbing his finger against it. "Emery, you pressed a knife to Josh's neck without thinking twice."

I remembered the fight; it's barely been a week. Josh hadn't been coming to school, he was in the hospital, or probably back home, recovering. I shuddered at the thought of blood running down his neck.

I had done that.

Griffin and I were quiet for seconds but the heaviness in his eyes was proof that he had more to say. I flipped a page, this time I wasn't reading. I couldn't.

I scribbled down a note on my jotter, then sighed. "That was me acting without thinking. Seeing him hurt you, it broke something in me. I... I really don't know." I breathed out, my heart beating.

It truly had been intense. The erratic heartbeat, my trembling hands, and my agitated mind felt more than what I heard adrenaline could do.

"You caught a flying knife, right at its tip. You were so sure of everything you were doing, it was like..."

"Magic?"

"Emery, you don't know how to fight, remember? We were in seventh grade, they dared you to slap Jonah and you began to cry."

"I-"

"You said you couldn't do it, said your mum told you that violence was never the answer." Suddenly I knew, Griffin's words had a message underneath. He had to know something. Something strange, strange enough to have scared him from talking to me.

"Griffin, I said I was angry. I can't tolerate watching someone being bullied-"

"When I held you that Friday," he stared at my eyes, "...and tried to pull you away, you pushed me and stared at me. Your eyes weren't just dark. They were fiery, dangerous. They flashed red before me then turned to normal before you continued to focus on Josh."

I gasped. Griffin's eyes were focused on mine, waiting for an explanation on my part. But I shrugged, turned and read my books, ignoring Griffin completely because I couldn't provide an answer to that, I didn't have one for myself.

"I just told you, Griffin. I was mad."

Griffin eventually sighed, got up and left.

***

Asking Crypta about the red flash in my eyes proved more difficult as I thought about what had transpired between the both of us a week before.

I mean, it wasn't like anything extreme happened, but now that Crypta knew I was hiding something from him, he would be more apprehensive about his Neban secrets. The whole trust thing I was teaching him about was totally out of the picture.

But I needed to know. Humans didn't just change by spending a few hours a day with a Neban.

Dariela could tell me, though. I hadn't met her, besides during breakfast where no one said more than a few unimportant issues and that situation in the bathroom the day I had fallen on Kimberly's cake.

I chuckled at that thought. I had been so stupid, so vulnerable to Crypta that day. Dariela had made me fall asleep; Crypta could have had his way with and that would have been that.

Maybe he was such a gentleman. . .maybe he was scared that if he betrayed me, I would forget about helping him redeem his people.

Redeem! Crypta had told me I wasn't redeeming his people. I was simply helping him defeat the people of Zadiona, an opposition I barely knew anything about.

We die fighting battles for the Royals, battles that we do not know their instigation. Tevessa's words floated across my mind. Was he right? I didn't know the Zadios, not a single thing about them, not the reason for the feud, not their backstory. And yet I was preparing myself to battle with them.

I hadn't even considered the risks!

What were the risks?

After our last battle, the one that got Bihak's father killed. There it was, the risk was death. Bold and plain!

Tevessa had serious solid points against Crypta and the Royals, but then again he, Tevessa, was hiding things from me. And he was clever with the way he hid them-

Emery.

The Nebans were cunning and that was just it.

Emerald.

I mean, that was why their symbol is a red dragon in the first place. A dragon who breathes fire and has dangerous claws.

"Emerald Scother!" I heard a bang on my green desk.

I shot my head up to see a firm Mr Nicholas staring at me, a thick novel in his tiny hands. His transparent eyes were there, sending daggers through those round black eyeglasses. His grey hair was curly but neatly arranged on his round head.

Albert Einstein gone wrong, Sandra had said once.

"Get up!"

I did and unconsciously rolled my eyes. I needed to get out of here. Mr Nicholas didn't seem to grasp that. "What was the last thing I said..."

"Uh..." I searched my brain for those bits of things he'd been saying while I sat on my chair with my head facing the floor. "Some, something about gambling books for Charles."

The club roared in laughter then stopped just as Mr Nicholas glanced over at them. Griffin was a seat in front while Kimberly was up front, refusing to look at me or stifle a laugh.

Mr Nicholas dropped the green thick book in his hand on my table. It had a title written in white bold capital letters: BOOK GAMBLES by MACADEM, CHARLES.

I sighed.

"Have you read your book of the month?" He asked.

"I'm halfway through it..."

"Then come present the little you have."

"Sir, I'd rather not."

"I said present."

"And I said no!" My hands banged on my desk in frustration. And there it was again, Crypta's square face and his cerise lips, telling me to own my feelings, to say no when I have to, to order rather than beg. My heart began to beat erratically.

My eyes fell on Griffin and he stiffened once we made eye contact. There was a knowing terrified look in his expression and I knew it had happened again. My eyes must have flashed red; I could feel it.

I sighed and took my hands off the table and put them in the pocket of my brown three-quarter trousers instead. "I'm sorry, Mr Nicholas."

There was a solid look in his sunken eyes. "To the front of the class, now, Emery."

I made the walk there and stood right in front of the blackboard and the picture of William Shakespeare hanging down it. "My partner is Kimberly Isnaul and the book's title is Half of a Dragon's Coven. Set in an 1869 world, this book is barely anything about dragons or witches rather..."

"...it's symbolisms perceived differently by the six different people put up as the main characters in the story," Kimberly continued getting up to stand beside me.

I smiled, my heartbeat reducing noticeably. "Hence the name half of a dragon's coven."

The class chorused with us and my mind calmed down even more as I gathered the courage to summarize the rest of the story.

***

With Josh out of sight, I didn't have to be scared of going to the school bus, and I didn't have to be mindful of time either. I followed the main corridor, trying to catch up with Kimberly.

She was in her class when I got in, putting her notebooks into her green Moana bag. I walked to her desk and she looked up, feeling my presence.

"Hey, uh, Kimberly, I wanted to say thank you."

"For what?" Her voice was hurried as she put her last textbook in her bag. It was the club's project, due next tomorrow.

"You know, doing the summary with me?"

"We're partners, aren't we?" But there was something scornful in her voice. And then she mumbled, "It's not like I have a choice."

I pretended not to hear her last statement. "Well, I thought you wouldn't do it because-"

"Because you're not listening to me?" My eyes shot up in confusion even though I knew exactly what she was talking about. "Because I tell you to stay away from my brother and his relationships and you don't? I warn you and you pass it off-"

"Listen, Kimberly-"

"You kissed my brother!" She yelled and threw her hand up. "You fucking kissed him and you let Sandra see you guys. And you know how much Sandra loves King and how close they are."

"Well last time I checked, they weren't dating!" I knew I shouldn't have said that as though I was justifying the kiss. The kiss meant nothing, it was supposed to mean nothing. But I couldn't let Kimberly accuse me wrongly, I had to defend myself.

Crypta was slowly resurfacing in my head but I ignored the warning.

"And when was the last time you checked?" She threw her books at me in annoyance and the books in my hands fell to the ground, alongside hers. "You're only trying to get in my brother's pants so you could be popular. You're using my brothers to be among the happening girls, to get out of the nerd category. You're using Sandra... You don't care who's hurting, you self-centred psychotic-"

My hands rushed to Kimberly's neck and I held it there and pushed her to the closest walls my eyes caught. I gripped tighter, my eyes focused on her hazel ones. "Watch your tongue."

I could hear her coughing roughly, and I felt her small hands against mine, trying to get them off her neck. But I didn't plan to. "Emery..." She barely breathed out. "Stop!"

But I couldn't hear her, I just wanted to get my points across. "Stop jumping to conclusions about my life. Stop saying that I'm using your brother, I fucking hate it."

I gripped tighter, remembering the one time she jumped to a conclusion when she heard that King and I were running for class president. She thought we were running together.

I could see hazel and a gasping-for-breath five feet three body. I could hear Kimberly coughing, groaning, begging.

My hands remained tightly there, gripping tighter, until Kimberly's legs wobbled and she slumped to the floor, right as I heard the shocked familiar gasp of Griffin Greenwood shouting my name and the sound of a bunch of keys falling to the floor.

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