My stride hitched, but I proceeded to approach him, searching the hallway for any other lingering students nearby. I hiked up my bag on my shoulder, adjusting it as I walked toward him.
My friend didn’t acknowledge me, but that was to be expected.
“Cotton,” I greeted, leaning my shoulder against the neighboring lockers.
Not stopping his task of shuffling through his locker, Cotton tilted his head, offering his usual unimpressed expression. A subtle lift of his eyebrows indicated for me to continue.
“You gonna be there tonight?” I asked, referring to the insurgency meeting in my family’s suite.
With a simple nod, he continued to shift books around within his locker, presumably organizing them to perfection with a concentrated frown.
“Your dad?”
Another simple dip of his head was all I got in return. The white collar of his school uniform matched the color of his natural hair color beneath the glamour, but somehow his hair always seemed whiter than the starched fabric.
I sighed, conceding that he wasn’t in the most sociable of moods. “Okay, man. See ya there.”
Cotton maintained his focus on his task as I pushed off the locker and continued on to find the princess in the gym. I didn’t encounter anyone else as I made my way outside of the main building and walked toward the large structure across campus. The one that housed the cafeteria and gymnasium.
No one understood why Cotton Sjodin wouldn’t speak. The day his mother passed away was the last day he’d uttered a word. The king decided that, combined with his magic and his silence, he would one day make the perfect Inquisitor. Now he stood poised to step into that position.
Entering through the back door, I paused at the threshold, scanning the empty building to spot the princess with ice-white hair. It was silent, except for the distant giggles coming from the girl’s locker room. Hazel said Gray wouldn’t be in there with everyone else. So, that begged the question: where was she hiding?
I searched the bleachers surrounding the basketball court. Empty. At least the floor-level bleachers were. Visions of her public punishment assaulted my mind as I scanned the gym. The slap that reverberated in the ballroom, followed by the thud of her body hitting the floor, tormented me.
A soft sniffle echoed throughout the gym. I froze, listening intently for any sound in the upper levels. I snuck around the back, entering the hallway leading to the stairway that took me to the top floor of the stadium. I let my training kick in, silencing my steps, careful not to alert her of my approach so she wouldn’t bolt before I could talk to her.
As I reached the top, her soft cries and sniffles grew louder. I crept toward her as if approaching a flighty deer.
She didn’t notice me standing beside her as she sat curled into herself on the bleachers. Her icy hair clung to the wetness on her cheeks. Tears streaked down her face in the shadows of the school gymnasium as she hugged her knees to her chest. She was so much smaller than I’d realized. So…fragile. My heart squeezed at the sight, wanting to pull her into my chest and shield her from the cruelty of the world.
Weren’t princesses supposed to be adored by their people?
“Princesses aren’t supposed to cry,” I said, shattering her stillness.
Gray’s head lurched up, her eyes wild with fear at the sound of my voice and presence. Leaping to her feet, she faced me defensively, as if she would make a run for it. Her puffy blue eyes lit with recognition before she began to visibly search for an escape route.
The princess roughly swiped at her cheeks with her palms in haste. “I wasn’t crying.” Even if it weren’t for her stuffy nose betraying her, she knew I had caught her in the act.
My expression dropped as she openly displayed her shame. It struck me that she probably wasn’t allowed to show emotion. I couldn’t imagine the stalwart King Forest being empathetic toward her feelings. “You were. And it’s okay that you were,” I started, taking another step closer. “You’re entitled to that—everyone is. It’s just that…” My shoulders relaxed as I cautiously reached out a hand to the sad princess. “You deserve to havea shoulder to lean on when you do.” My bronzed skin tone was bare of the gold currents the silver bracelet glamoured, suppressing my magic and physical traits to hide from the humans.
“Why would I do that? Like you said, princesses aren’t supposed to cry,” she said, her voice unsteady. “It’sweak.” She spat the last word like it was venom on her tongue.
I took the seat beside the one the princess abandoned, patting the spot in a motion for her to sit next to me. “I never said it was weak.”
Looking at me with a raised brow—skittish—she finally lowered onto the bleachers beside me, adjusting the navy uniform skirt. My line of sight followed the dark marks marring her tanned legs. A rush of anger took flight in my chest as I clenched my jaw at the bruises that shouldn’t have been there. The only way she wouldn’t be able to heal was if she had been forced to wear the bracelet either when they formed, or immediately after they were put there so her magic couldn’t heal them at a normal pace. Maybe Chrome was truly onto something about her safety.
Not wishing to ruin the rapport I was building with her, I snatched my attention from her legs to meet her stormy blue eyes. A pink blush painted her cheeks as she glanced up at me, embarrassment filling her empty eyes from me noticing them.
“I hear how the commoners treat you,” I said, shifting the conversation. “And the human kids here,” I shook my head as I reflected on the shitty treatment she received from nearly everyone. All I saw before me was a broken girl, which was prime meat for ruthless teens and the vultures at the Kinetic Palace. “They’re fucking ignorant. The girls are jealous of you, and the guys are afraid to show interest because of it. But no one deserves to be treated the way you are. Please know that not everyone dislikes you. We’re just…hesitant to show it. Your dadwouldn’t approve because it would be considered undermining his authority in his eyes.”
She shrugged, sniffling again. “It doesn’t matter.”
Without realizing what I was doing, I cupped her cheeks in my palms, determined to see a spark of hope in her hollow eyes. She flinched at my touch, and a flicker of fear flitted in her eyes instead. But I held her there in my soft embrace, not wavering from my mission. “It does matter, Princess Gray. Your light is too bright to be dimmed.”
At my words, the princess’s bottom lip quivered as tears filled her eyes.
My hazel stare held her own, seeing all her broken shards laid bare. “Let me lend you some of my strength.”
