A special gift for me. Fuck, It was spectacular.
Charlotte
Lunch break — food~
I hurried to the dining hall so as not to miss the timing again. The dining hall looked like a cathedral-style room — enormous and high-ceilinged, with long tables arranged in rows and chandeliers hanging above them with real candles that dripped wax onto the stone floor below.
The smell of food hit me the moment I pushed the door open, warm and heavy in the air, and my stomach cramped immediately in response after everything it had been through today. I made it this time. I pushed further inside, but as I entered, the hall abruptly fell into silence.
My steps faltered from the silence, but I kept moving, my head up, and immediately I understood the ranking system Alaric had explained.
Long wooden tables were arranged by hierarchy. The royal table sat on an elevated platform with plush chairs, surrounded by staff and attended to with a care that made the difference in status immediately visible. The noble students served themselves with no supervision, while the commoners were served per plate, orderly and quickly.
At the very top sat two of the three Alaric had described. Xade, I already knew. The other had to be Zephyr — black hair, grey eyes, the same one who had dropped me on the corridor floor, now sitting with a bored expression like he would rather be anywhere other than here.
I was still trying to remember which category I fell into when I caught sight of my attic roommate walking out of the dining room through a side door with a bowl in her hands, head down, unbothered by any of it.
"Well, well. Look who decided to grace us with her presence."
The voice boomed out, ringing through the hall, and everyone turned their gaze to me, which made the silence more deafening. I shivered as I felt my hands start to tremble but clenched them to my side to stop them from showing weakness.
Alaric had warned me against Xade, but I couldn't help but stare at him. Xade was huge and tall with broad shoulders, buzz-cut blond hair, and that familiar nose ring.
I felt the familiar pull I had felt yesterday, but I blinked, not wanting to think about it. Xade sat at the top of the table, leaning back in his chair with ease.
His purple uniform shirt and blazer fit him well, two buttons popped open, his tie nowhere to be found. His brown eyes found mine — my emerald ones — across the room and glinted with something that made my throat tighten.
"What did I tell you yesterday?" he grinned, his tone sitting between mockery and amusement as he moved with ease from the table. "Ah. I remember. What was your name again?" His head tilted slightly as he said it, and the whole dining room erupted in laughter around him.
My face felt hot. I couldn't look at him directly or anyone else, because every direction I turned there was someone watching with amusement or cruelty or both. The only thing I wanted was to turn around and run away like a coward. I took a step back to make a run for it. I wasn't hungry anymore.
In a flash he was in front of me, his hand catching my wrist before I had processed that he had moved. A spark erupted where he grabbed me, involuntarily, and I felt my throat bob.
He had crossed the distance between the top table and where I was standing in the time it had taken me to take one step, and he was standing too close, looking down at me the way he had in the hallway, except now there was something more satisfying in his expression.
"Where do you think you're going, little mate?" he asked, with a smile in his voice that made the words worse.
I shook my head because I couldn't find my voice right now, not in front of all of this.
"Shouldn't we give the human in our midst a proper welcome?" He looked around the room when he said it, addressing them all, and the energy in the dining hall shifted in a way that made the hair on my arms stand up. He turned back to me, his voice dropping an octave, colder, a manic look in his eyes. "Okay," he clapped his hands once. "Here's my welcome gift, little mate."
He poured the drink in his hand over me. The cold of it hit my hair and spread down fast as I flinched.
I was shocked and humiliated and continued to stare at the ground because I was afraid of glancing up and seeing the cruelty on their faces. Some students hollered and whistled that I didn't belong.
"Everyone," Xade said to the entire dining room, his voice carrying easily, "I want you to do the same. She'll be our garbage disposal for today, and I'll make sure every one of you is rewarded."
Before I knew what was happening, I was hit from different directions, which sent me to my knees because my legs couldn't keep up anymore.
Another splash followed almost immediately, something sticky running down the side of my neck and soaking into the collar of my uniform. Someone threw a piece of bread that bounced off my shoulder before falling into my lap.
Laughter rippled through the hall again, louder now, encouraged by the way I stayed still. A cup clattered against the floor beside me as another student emptied the last of his drink over my head. The liquid trickled slowly through my hair and down my back, cold enough to make me shiver.
Each one was accompanied by mocking laughter or a taunting whistle. I didn't move an inch or cover my head or try to shield myself because that would have made it worse.
I pressed my lips together hard, feeling it draw blood, but did not cry. Alaric had told me not to get in Xade's way, but I hadn't. I was just here to get my lunch and walk away. I was hungry, and I had every right to be here.
I peeked underneath my lashes toward the royal table to see Zephyr standing to leave, his coat snapping behind him. For a moment, his eyes met Xade's in an unreadable exchange before he glanced briefly at me and walked away.
I scoffed. What was I expecting? Maybe someone could have stopped it.
I would not give them the satisfaction of a single tear — not one, not here in front of all of them, not with him watching, because that would only spur them on.
I bit down on my lower lip and held on.