"What do you think is going on up there?" Nyx whispered to her sister, her midnight blue eyes staring up in wonder with a pull to remove a long silver high-kneck-line corset dress from her wardrobe.
"The only difference is that strange new girl," Medusa replied, steadying her hardback book of Arcane Engineering & Research against her bookshelf.
"Do you feel … different when she's close?" Nyx asked, eyeing her dress and hanging it on the outer side of the wardrobe.
"Stronger?" Medusa clarified.
"Should we ask her to join our coven for Moon Day?"
Medusa snorted, "You're not serious," giving her older sister a raised eyebrow. "The Pride kingdom has laid their claim; she will be high on their fairy dust by the night's end," she snickered, rolling her deep blue eyes at Nyx's incredulous frown. "The upper families do not bother with the likes of the Lust kingdom." She spat, shaking her head in annoyance at her older sister's deep, exasperated sigh.
"You're starting to sound similar to Mother," Nyx muttered.
"That is rude. I cannot help if what she says holds substance… sometimes," she said, folding her arms over her chest and plopping onto her black and purple bed.
Carmell's grip tightened in Zyn's before she slowly uncurled her fingers and lifted her head from Darrius' shoulder to turn and look at the twins hurtling down the hallway. Her eyes widened in shock, and she turned back to see Darrius' red eyes fading to their usual blue as he watched his little sister deal with the kingdom's bugs. His eyes caught hers, his arm tightening around her back as they landed in the hallway with a crash.
"Are you okay?" He questioned, his eyebrows furrowing without a single crease.
Carmell blinked, and the idea of him being a vampire suddenly played around in her mind. He will never age, but she will eventually die in this body and likely move into a new world. She could die at any moment in this world; the twins could kill her the moment they were all alone, and he would just live on forever with the grief of losing her. For a moment, she questioned whether it was morally right to pursue him.
"Yes, I momentarily forgot dangerous people exist. I should have known better," She sighed, furrowing her eyebrows at Zyn as he scratched the back of his head.
"Ah, I should have explained who the 'keep away' students are," he said through gritted teeth and a clenched fist.
Zion stepped into the trio's group with his hands clasped behind his back,
"I will write you a list and send it through the slate," he gave a quick wink and a bright, warm smile.
Carmell closed her eyes, her head throbbing at her stupidity. This place was not a game, and these people could quickly try to manipulate, harm or kill her the way they did in her previous world. She transmigrated into this woman's body. Where did Merrida's soul go? Could she have pushed her soul out, or did she die out there on the road? The questions swirled in her mind, filling Carmell's eyes with tears she furiously blinked away.
"You need to stay close to us and away from the Angels," Darrius muttered coldly.
His arm left her waist and dropped to his side as she turned to shake her head and reply to Zion. The sparks faded, leaving her bristling with emptiness.
"Through the slate?" she repeated, dazed and holding her hand to her head.
Darrius furrowed his brows and crossed his arms, his gaze sharply moving to Zyn's as he snickered and clapped him on the shoulder.
"Give her a minute," he whispered, "they have unsettled her deeply." He finished, giving him a pointed look before he turned to congratulate Cassie on her perfect aim with a low high five.
"It must be in that massive bag of yours. Here, it looks like this," Zion pulled his tablet from his blazer's inner pocket and gave it a slow shake.
Carmell grumbled in annoyance that the men had that feature while the women were stuck with a little inner pocket that wasn't inside the seams and vowed to fix that error tonight. She slid her bag off her shoulder and opened it while glancing at Darrius.
"I won't leave your side," she whispered, pulling out her slate from the back pocket of her bag as his face softened slightly.
She threw her head back and squeezed her eyes shut in annoyance, vowing to thoroughly catalogue and empty the endless pockets for everything that was hers and what was Merrida's. Dropping her head back down, she tapped the slate with her finger, watching the glass light up and lose its transparency to a light grey. She sighed as a light blue text typed and drew figures across the screen, showing a calendar with the next welcoming event in the morning as the Academy head's speech.
Carmell shut her bag and pulled it back on her shoulder, keeping her slate in her hand and holding it against her chest. She smiled brightly at Cassie, tucking her hair behind her ear and shaking away her anxiety.
"Don't even think about apologising to me. They have needed a good crack to the brain for a long time," Cassie snickered before Carmell could open her mouth to match her grateful gaze.
Cassie jumped forward with a light grace, natural even in heels, looping Carmell's right arm with her left and bumping Zion out of the group and into a snickering Elias. She pulled Zion out of his Dangerous Royals list creation, and Elias was shocked into silence against his door frame as the small fairy bumped into him, his curly-haired head knocking off his chest. Sparks burst across his skin, and a small squeak left Zion's lips as his body moved of its own accord and pressed into the front of Elias' to gather more of his soul. Elias gasped and wrapped his arms around him, pulling him closer to feel the burning electric licking like fire through their bodies.