It felt like the end of a chapter that had barely begun. And worse, I felt unprepared for the next one.
When we made it to the food hall, though, my feet stuttered to a halt. Leaning against the wall at the end of the long trestle tables of food, was Lierick, surrounded by female conscripts. Most notably, Ephily Ingmire. She was leaning into his body, her hand lightly gripping his bicep as she laughed at whatever he was saying.
“Apparently, her disdain for the Lower Lines only extends to those she doesn’t consider attractive,” I muttered to Hayle, who chuckled softly.
Shaking his head, he leaned closer. “She’s like a leech. She can sense his power and she wants to attach to him like a parasite with a host.”
Lierick looked up, and his crooked grin had me glaring at him. Running my tongue across my teeth, I turned away and grabbed my plate. “Hopefully, he isn’t stupid enough to trust her.”
Hayle took the plate from me, putting it on a tray with his own, adding the foods that he knew I liked. He skipped the greens, but added more potatoes and ladled a generous portion of the soup I loved into the bowl section. At the end of the row, he stacked a handful of chocolates beside the plate.
He made all the same choices I would’ve made, without a single word from me. Like he’d been watching, cataloguing what made me happy. Not because he wanted anything from me but to show me that he saw me. That he loved me.
My chest swelled.
Unaware of the fact that I was falling more and more in love with him, Hayle continued. “Lierick seems like many things, but stupid isn’t one of them. He also doesn’t seem to be the kind of man who’d be easily blinded by surface beauty.”
He directed me toward his Line’s table, where I sat down beside an oddly solemn Lucio. I could see the same emotions on his face that I felt in my chest: confusion and doubt, unsure if everything you knew as fact was actually a lie, uncertainty about what you were meant to do with the knowledge you now had.
I bumped his shoulder with mine. “How’s the second most handsome man in the Third Line doing tonight?”
Giving me his signature crooked smirk, he quickly transformed his face into a faux-outraged mask. “Second? Avalon Halhed, I’ll have you know, I’m the first most handsome man, not just in the Third Line, but in all of Boellium War College.” He went off on a tangent about all his attractive qualities, including standing on the table and taking off his shirt, causing a chorus of whistles and catcalls.
Hayle squeezed my hand appreciatively. He didn’t need to, though; I was his Soul Tie, and one day, this Line would be my Line too. But more than that, Lucio was a friend. His happiness was as important to me as my own. His safety was as important as mine.
And that was why I was going to help the Second Line overthrow the Baron of the First Line, and start a revolution.
Eight
Lierick
“If this is the level of stupidity we’ve been missing, I’m inclined to get back on that rickety, piece-of-shit boat and float home,” Iker grumbled as we watched the conscripts train in the outdoor ring. Iker had somehow gotten himself a position in the armed combat department of Boellium, probably thanks to Svenna.
Svenna, who’d torn me a new one. We’d never met before a few days ago, but that didn’t stop her from berating me like I was a child, rather than the Heir of easily the most powerful Line in Ebrus. Not going to lie, I took it like a good boy. She might only have one arm, but I was pretty sure if she got the upper hand, she’d make it hurt.
Besides, the Second Line wasn’t like the First; we liked it when people had the courage to call us on our shit. We liked spirited discourse, alternate ideas, and people who’d hold us accountable to the Line.
That being said, I let her rant, but it didn’t change the course of action.
Iker huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. “They need us, obviously. How they could raise an army on this slop is astounding.”
I shrugged. “They rely heavily on magic. And I guess they don’t want to train the Lower Lines too well, in case they use those newly formed skills to rise up and push back.”
Iker let his lip curl, but didn’t say any more. There were still ears here.
I pushed away from the railing. “I have to go to the library. I’m helping Avalon research.”
He raised an eyebrow, almost imperceptibly. “How is the chosen one taking everything?”
Shrugging, I tried not to groan. “I wouldn’t know; I’ve barely seen her. She’s either avoiding me, or her two guard dogs have her hidden away somewhere, probably doing debaucherous things.”
Iker was now openly laughing at me. “Aw, poor little Heir. Are you jealous?”
I punched him in the arm, flipped him the bird, and walked off. Mostly because I didn’t want to tell him that Iwasa little jealous. When I’d read about Avalon Halhed, an idea had formed in my mind of who she would be. Strong, courageous, a beautiful avenging angel who was going to lead the revolutionary armies at my side. Nowhere in those dreams was my literal enemy fucking her. Nor was there a Third Line Heir growling at me like I was trying to steal his juicy bone.
No one here seemed terrified of the Heir to the Third Line, which made me wonder if the Third Line was keeping their little secret close to their chest, or if our information had been wrong all along.
I smiled at the other conscripts, who’d accepted me easily. Alize, the closest thing the Eleventh Line had to a leader here in Boellium, had happily accepted me into the fold, giving me the best room in the Eleventh Line dorm rooms. The way the Eleventh Line looked at me, though, was a little unnerving. LikeI was somewhere between a fairytale and a savior. It made my skin itch.
