“I—” I started, but realized this was going to be more difficult to explain than I’d anticipated. “I’m not sure. He justknows.”
Hazel stared at me with an open mouth and narrowed eyes as if I were dumber than a sack of rocks. Her black hoodie with the white outline of a raven on it swallowed her whole. “I don’t….” She closed her mouth just to part her lips again. “You expect me to believe that?”
“No, actually. I don’t. But it’s not something I can really get into right now.”
“Do Mom and Dad know about this?” she asked with a raised brow.
“Not yet. I’m leaving that up to Chrome.”
“Fine,” she conceded. “As long as this isn’t about you trying to get in her pants,” she said, nearly gagging with her lips twisted in disgust. The light freckles on her nose and cheeks bunched up with her sour expression.
“Uhm, no! Gods, Hazel!” I scoffed, shaking my head. “If I were, I can promise you’d be the last person I’d come to for that.”I was only fifteen. The idea ofactuallyhaving sex terrified me because what if I was awful? And to do it with Princess Gray…just fucking bury me now.
Hazel sighed in relief, her shoulders slumping. “Okay, good.” She grabbed her hair, the metallic bronze strands glinting from the light streaming in through the windows, and pulled it into a ponytail at the top of her head. “Now, how can I help?”
I chuckled at the absurdity of it all. “Do you happen to have any classes with her? Know when the best chance is for me to catch her alone so I can speak to her?”
“I think you can probably catch her alone during last period. It’s gym for her. Sometimes I see her leaving it later than everyone else after school. The kids aren’t exactly nice to her,” Hazel explained, a sadness filling her eyes.
“What? Why?” I asked, surprised. I had never seen it. But then again, I hadn’t seen her much around school or at the Kinetic Palace. It baffled me, seeing as she was my princess, but I guess humans didn’t know we existed, much less that we had an entire kingdom. There were different domains spread throughout our country and the rest of the world, but the Royal Domain was home to the true Kinetic King. I’d read that many years ago, King Forest’s predecessor had fallen in love with the many landscapes that the State of Georgia provided, so he’d chosen to plant the flag there.
Thankfully, Elementals had pulled their kids out of the human schools that mingled with us years ago. After the incident with Chrome that nearly exposed both of our kinds and the rising tensions over the past decade, they decided they’d homeschool their children. At least we didn’t have to worry about any depletions happening in the schools.
I nodded. “Okay. So, last period in the gym,” I said, my mind already spinning with plans. “I can see if Ms. Hawthorne will let me leave class early. I’m sure it won’t be an issue.”
Hazel rolled her eyes. “Yeah, because you’re the golden boy. You’re lucky Chrome doesn’t go to our school; otherwise, he’d take your place in a Kinetic second.”
I snorted with a small smile. “Leave it to you to always remind me to stay humble, Hazy.” Not that I even cared about the hierarchy at a human school.
“That’s why I exist,” she responded dryly.
“No, it’s not.” I chuckled. “You’re gonna make a great spy one day.” I ruffled the top of her hair, earning a scowl from my sister. “And Gods, I really envy you for that skill.”
The savory scent of roast beef and seasoned vegetables wafted up my nose. My stomach growled, reminding me of how hungry I was and how glad I was that I wasn’t at the revel. After serving myself a plate and sitting down at the dinner table, I faced my family.
“Dinner smells delicious, Mom.” I gave her a wide grin from across the long table where she sat beside my father, who headed it.
My mother’s soft pink hair was braided over one shoulder, her signature style that left a few strays to fly loose. “Thanks, honey. I hope you enjoy.” It was her insistence of “no magic at the table” that was the only intent rule of etiquette we all adhered to.
“I know I will. I’m starving.” I didn’t waste time before digging into the roast beef.
“How’s training going, son?” My father’s gruff voice broke through my ravenous tunnel vision. “I heard about the mission the other night.”
I shrugged as I chewed. “It’s going fine. I’m no Chrome yet, but I’ll get there,” I responded after swallowing a mouthful of roastbeef that made me want to groan. “As for the mission… what were you told?” I asked, wondering what information to omit.
“That you and Chrome lost one of the two Elementals. And that he got the other one. What happened?” Being the Supreme General of the Warrior Guilds, my father had a hard time turning off his “work” when we were having family time.
I sighed, trying to loosen the tightness in my chest. “I don’t know. He just eluded us in the crowd in the club.” I shrugged, not taking my eyes off my food as I poked at it, losing my appetite.
“Garnet, honey,” Mom said softly, “let’s not talk about work at the dinner table. Let him eat in peace, yeah?”
My father’s neatly cropped, burgundy hair shined with the gel he lathered it in to hold it firmly in place. With a resigned breath, he nodded and grabbed my mother’s hand across the table. “Of course, Rose.” He offered her a gentle smile that no one else tended to get from him. Much like the smile he gave her in their Union photos hanging on the wall in canvases behind him.
“It’s fine,” I said, waving with my fork in hand. I’d rather clear it up now than to sit with the anxiety through dinner. “Honestly, I don’t know what happened, Dad. It was an odd mission.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, an air of strained lightness in his voice. He was trying not to let his general tone infiltrate the dinner table.
“It was just odd that there were two Elementals there, but no humans died. There’s no telling how long they’d been there, but I’m thinking they were just there for the concert like everyone else,” I voiced aloud to my parents.
