“No, it’s okay,” I said. “What did you want to ask?”
Alexei paused. “Well... I can always feel your emotions changing, but I never knew why. Your mood must fluctuate depending on the strength and weakness of your immune system.”
“That’s exactly it,” I said, marveling at Alexei’s empathy powers. “A weak immune system can influence the chemicals in your brain. One of the ways I can tell I’m getting a cold is if I get depressed for no reason, and can’t figure out why.”
“That makes sense,” Alexei said.
“Is there a cure for it?” Odette asked innocently. “There must be, right?”
My stomach dropped. This was one of my least favorite questions. “Well, not yet. But there’s new research coming out every day.”
“Theremightbe a cure,” Ethan said in a rush. “We can use one of the Crystals of Harmony. You don’t have to be sick, Em.”
My heart twisted inside my chest. I didn’t want Ethan to get my hopes up. Besides... I was stuck with this, and as much as I hated my illness sometimes, it was a part of me, and had become a piece of who I was. Couldn’t he accept me like this, for how I was, like how I accepted him with his missing leg? I knew he didn’t want me to suffer, but even with my illness, I wanted to be enough for him.
“I don’t know if it works like that,” Delmare said. “What if the dragon stone only works to heal dragons?”
“We have a wolven stone,” Ethan pointed out. “We can use that. It might work.”
“Sorry, but I’m not willing to let you stab me with a sword to find out,” I grumbled.
Ethan opened his mouth to object, but Kiara cut in. “If we don’t know how the healing magic of the crystals work, we shouldn’t be messing around with it,” she said. “We can’t be experimenting with Emma’s health until we’re absolutely sure.”
Ethan frowned, but he didn’t say anything more. I was relieved. I didn’t want to talk about the subject further. I’d become accustomed to my illness, and was working it out on my own. Ethan helping me, without asking me what I really wanted, would only hurt me in the long run. Of course I wanted to be cured, wanted to be healed... but I’d been so sick in the past year that I couldn’t picture a life without this disease anymore. I’d had symptoms long before I was ever diagnosed. It’d taken over me and changed everything about my life. I’d do anything for a cure, but I didn’t want to get tangled in delusions and fantasies. I could be happy without chasing after something I might never have. As much as my disease sucked, I’d grown content with it. For now, anyway.
“So you’re going to be okay,” Delmare stated, her voice hanging on the precipice I might not be.
“I’m going to be fine,” I told her. “This disease isn’t easy, but I can handle it as long as you guys support me. The hardest part of it all is dealing with how other people treat me. I don’t want to be discriminated against or made to feel like I’m less than because I have a condition I can’t control.”
Kiara got up and gave me a hug. “We’re going to be with you, Emma. Screw everybody else who looks down on you because of this.”
“Yeah!” Delmare flung her arms around me. “Screw other people. If they think you’re weak, I’ll kick their ass.”
Odette ran to me, to join the group hug. I embraced my girls. They knew how to make everything better. Fuck CVID. So long as I had my friends, it didn’t stand a chance.
Odette pulled away from the hug and straightened up, putting her hands on her hips. “Well, since we’re all getting secrets out in the open, you boys should probably know that Eli killed Professor Waldron.”
“Odette!” Kiara and Delmare exclaimed, while I facepalmed. Alexei, Theo, and Stefan’s mouths all dropped open in surprise, eyes widening.
Ethan put on a shocked face, but I wasn’t fooled. He already knew this due to his work as the Phantom.
“What?” Odette cried. “I thought we were coming clean about everything!”
“I guess we are now,” Kiara said, rubbing her eyes.
Hey, I was surprised Odette had kept the secret this long, so go her.
Stefan leaned forward and said, “What do you mean Eli killed Waldron? How do you know?”
“We overheard him talking to Gabby at the King’s Ball last semester,” I explained. “He admitted to doing it, and said the Black Claw had proclaimed him the Hidden King— their leader. Gabby also confessed to attacking Morgan, too, though she thought it was me. Both of them are killers. But we don’t have any proof, so we can’t turn them in.”
“Gabby was trying to hurt you last semester?” Ethan burst. This was a piece of information he didn’t know. His expression was obviously murderous.
“Calm down. You can’t lose your shit with her, or she’ll hurt you,” I said. “This is why we didn’t say anything.”
Ethan remained silent, but still, he was close to erupting again.
“It’s not fair you guys kept this from us,” For the first time, Alexei looked angry. His expression became stony as he said, “We had a right to know!”
