Jaxton held the cup of green tea in his hands, his thoughts a million miles away from where we were. I grabbed a thin throw and draped it gently on his shoulders. Jaxton seemed to wake up when I did this, he grabbed the edge of the throw and looked at me with rounded eyes.

"It's called a Comfort Blanket," I explained with a grin. "Apparently, it'll make you feel better."

He gave a gentle tug and adjusted the throw on his shoulders, "It actually... does feel nice."

"Of course," I said proudly, sipping on my drink. "I better go tell Vel that we've got everything sorted."

When I got up, Jaxton did too, grabbing my arm and stopping me. "I only know a little bit about what's going on with Vel, but... I want to thank you for everything you've done for her."

I gave a nod, patted him playfully on the shoulder before I turned.

"I'll come with you."

"No," I stopped him, grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him down on the couch. "Nuh-uh. You sit right here and rest up. I'll open every single light I have in this room for you. Sound cool?"

Jaxton opened his mouth to retort but I simply gave a wave and walked out of my dorm to see Vel.

Vel and I had a brief discussion on how we were going to explain this to Jaxton, but there was no other way, really. It had to be the whole truth. It wasn't fair anymore to keep Jaxton in the dark anymore and... it was also time for my judgement. Will Jaxton forgive me for lying to him?

When we returned to the dorm, my chest was tight and I had to force my breathing to stay even.

"Um..."

I glanced at Vel then back at Jaxton, who was now asleep on the couch. I let out a sigh of relief.

"Well..." Vel rubbed her head. "Guess no explaining tonight then."

Jaxton's head began to slip from the couch and with an abrupt jolt, he woke, eyes in a daze. They focused on the two figures standing by the door.

"Oh," he rubbed his cheeks, "you two are back."

"Should we do this tomorrow?" Vel said, rather too excitingly, but from Jaxton's look, we knew we couldn't keep avoiding it.

"Should I be glad I'm sitting?" Jaxton joked, a tired smile on his face.

"If you happen to faint, I'll catch you, don't worry," I teased and sat on the bed while Vel grabbed a chair and sat between the two of us.

"Alright..." Vel gave me a look and I nodded encouragingly. Vel put on a brave face and shifted her focus to Jaxton. As for me, I took the chance to grab a cushion, so I could hide the fact that I was even more nervous than Vel.

What would he think of me after all this?

"So, these three people we murdered," Vel cleared her throat, "they were threatening me with your life."

Jaxton's widened eyes landed on me, and I wanted to shrink. I only told Jaxton that Vel was in some tiny, personal trouble, but nothing else.

"What?!" He exclaimed, shocked.

"A-and with Robin's life."

When Jaxton heard this, I saw every single feature on his face come alert. "Do they know where Robin is?"

"I can't be sure. But they forced me to come to this school so they can watch me. They're watching you too, but shadowsmen have the night's cover, so it's easy to slip away."

Jaxton inhaled deeply. "How do they threaten you, Vel?"

"They come to my room and we 'talk'," Vel's voice grew quiet. She was omitting the 'hitting' part. I guess part of it came from her shame. The shame she once told me about.

I can't believe I let them touch me.

Besides, if Jaxton knew, he'd be furious.

"They want me to act like a normal student. When Cassie and I went to the ball, they didn't like it," Vel looked at me with a guilty look. "I dragged Cassie into this when she found out something was wrong."

Jaxton didn't look at me and that made me worry. I simply nodded at Vel and said: "go on."

"We went to my dorm, first," Vel rubbed her arm. "I had a fear that they would come and find me after the ball, and... talk. Things got a bit out of hand."

By out of hand, it meant...





"I see how it is, Dawn," the older woman said. The other two had younger voices and they were taller than both of us. "What part did you not understand? Should I remind you by using your brothers?"

"I think not," Vel said sternly, slipping on her gloves. "I've had enough."

"If you decide that your brothers have had enough time on this earth, then I can do you a favour," I could sense a smile behind the woman's mask. The other two pulled out their weapons, one's a tonfa and the other, a sica sword, a bent blade in the tip. The older woman held none.

"I don't think you will be able to execute that favour any longer," I said threateningly. I didn't want to kill them. Killing them meant we aren't sure whether Robin was really in danger. It might also mean we lose a potential connection that linked to Robin. We also didn't know whether anything will happen after their death. But, on the other hand, it seemed that if we didn't, things were going to get out of hand anyway. I'd rather kill than be killed.

Vel's ballroom thing tested their boundaries, and it was outside the freedom that these trios gave her. It seemed both like good and bad news. Good that we managed to lure them out of hiding so I would be able to see them — unfortunately, with their masks on, it was hard to recognise them immediately. Bad that we had to face three dangerous enemies.

Vel ignited her magic in her palms, and they glowed in violet and green. I pulled out Reflecta.

The tonfa was held by the girl. She had her tonfa weapon lined against her lower arm. As Reflecta soared toward her face, she raised both arms and my blade struck her tonfa square on. She pushed my blade down and stretched her other arm. One tonfa stick spun in her grip and struck me on my skull.

"Shoot!" I was unprepared for that spin. I diverted the blade to the sica. The boy hooked the bend of the blade on Reflecta, diverting it to the ground. He attempted to hook my shoulder, wanting to draw blood.

I wasn't going to give him that chance. I aimed and booted him straight in the stomach, sending him flying across the room.

Vel's blue powder exploded in tonfa girl's face and at the corner of my eyes, through all the commotion, I saw the older lady heal injured sica boy.

"Don't let her heal!" I called to Vel.

My ice sparkled against the girl's eyes and she had to leap back to avoid being frozen in the face. She whipped out her tonfa and changed its position with the sticks protruded toward me in an attacking stance. She launched her stick toward my eyes but I turned my head and let the stick cut past, inches away from touching my nose.

I turned my wrist, Reflecta gave off a dim shimmer as I sliced it across the girl's abdomen. She was shocked, stumbling to the ball as she tried to stop her blood with her arm.

I see the healer was being occupied by Vel, but from her movements, she wasn't a good fighter. Rather, sica boy had to protect her instead. Though, I could see the relationship between them were brittle.

The girl attacked again. Drawing her tonfa and locking both of the sticks on my blade. She wanted to disarm me, but my body flipped with her movements. She twirled on one foot and, with all the force she could muster, she was about to whack my brains out with her tonfa. I dodged, hearing the tonfa crack the delicate decor on Vel's table. The tonfa turned and aimed for my neck.

Vel was suddenly on the floor and the boy, holding his sica, towered over her. She raised her arms, potion ready to explode.

Before I knew it, it exploded.

It was rather silent, almost like a puff of smoke. The odour was strong. I let out a series of coughs before I realised I needed air, that each intake was proving harder than the previous.

I was on the ground, and there was an unfamiliar, unwelcoming touch on my ankle. A sweaty palm that crawled onto my back like the devil in sleep paralysis. I tried to fight them off, but the girl held her tonfa in the air, aimed at the centre of my head, her fingers tight around the stick. Her mask was off — probably because it was hard to breathe in the room — but I recognised her. She was one of the girls who walked by Vel and I as we had lunch in the forest before we met Lambert.

The tonfa came down quick. I dodged my head to the side and heard the stick bang hard against the floor beside me. I searched blindly for Reflecta, and when I felt the cold hilt in my hands, I plunged it into the girl's stomach.

It went right through.

The sight was horrifying. It was nothing I've ever seen. The girl's face instantly lost its colour, her mouth looked like it held something she could not swallow. She clutched her wound tenderly, but still attempted to raise her tonfa.

I raised one leg and kicked her in the shoulders, pulling out Reflecta in the process. The girl fell back onto the floor in a loud tumble, her tonfa striking the floor in hollow echoes.

She never got back up again.

My breath was hitched in my throat as I sat up and retreated into a corner, shielding myself away from the body.

I killed someone.

My throat burned. I quickly held my mouth as I forced the acid back down the pipe it came up in. But the sour, stinging sensation lingered.

I heard Vel's struggling voice and leapt into action. I ignored the girl's body and waved the foggy powder away, covering my nose with my sleeves.

The healer was already on the ground, a pool of liquid beneath her body that was too dark of a red to be something else. Vel was held against the wall, the sica pierced the skin on her arm and was inches away from the skin on her neck.

"No, you don't!" I struck the boy with my blade right on his arm, forcing him to drop the sica. I turned my blade, Reflecta aimed at his chest. Vel caught his falling sica and we both ran the weapon through his body.

Reflecta pierced his heart. And his own sica drew blood from his neck. He didn't make much of a struggle, his eyes simply drifted and he fell limp to the ground.

Vel leaped away, dropping the sica as though it burned.

"It's over..." I muttered.

"My God, Cassandra..." Vel looked at me, eyes watering. Her white dress was bathed in blood and I realised to my disgust and horror that so was mine.





Jaxton was quiet and Vel was holding her head as she finished. I clenched onto my cushion tighter, watching the siblings with a close eye.

"So..." Vel started. "I'm not sure if I... if I caused more trouble than..." She swallowed, her words stuck in her throat. "I brought danger to all of you."

I watched Jaxton's rising and falling chest as he breathed and thought, carefully, of the next plan. Except, Vel and I aren't able to help him if he didn't reveal anything about his searches for Robin.

"The only choice we have is to pretend this never happened," Jaxton finally said. He held a fist to his forehead, eyes to the distance. "We got rid of all the evidence."

"Yes," I said, as though it would provide more reassurance.

"And..." Jaxton was slower in his speech than usual. "If anyone gives you trouble, let me know. I'll take care of it."

Vel pursed her lips and bowed her head in shame. "I'm sorry, Jaxton."

"Don't say that..." He said, pain in his eyes. "I should've been there."

Vel and I both looked up and stared at him. "What?"

"Nothing..." he let out a small breath. "So, you saw their faces. One's the healer and one's the girl you guys saw passing by. What about the boy?"

"Don't recognise him, but they said they owned Weapons of Iridescent."

I loosened the grip on my cushion, and the room felt like the coldest place in the world. Jaxton had his eyes on Vel, and again, not on me. I didn't know if he was resisting the urge to look at me, to identify me, or that he just didn't know how he would look at me the same way again.

"W-what?" Jaxton inhaled through his mouth. "H-how can you be sure?"

"I'm not sure. They claim themselves to be. I suspect that they know something about Robin and that Robin... they need him for something. Maybe they're using me and you as leverage against him."

Jaxton clenched his fists, strangling the edges of my throw. "Alright..."

Alright... how cold it sounded...

Jaxton gave a weak smile at Vel and said, "Why don't you go and get some sleep? Cassandra needs her sleep too."

"Yeah, of course," Vel stood up and approached me quickly. I stood and embraced her tightly as she sobbed into my shoulder. "Cassie, I'm so grateful to you. I'm never able to repay what you've done."

I didn't say anything. I simply held my palm against her back, making sure that my embrace resembled something of safety and comfort. When she pulled away, she wiped her tears and put on a determined look.

"Never again, Cassie," she whispered, and I knew what she was saying.

I'm never letting anyone hurt me like that again.

I nodded and saw her out the door. When I closed it, I felt the tension in the room rise in a suffocating manner.

"What Vel said... was it true?"





***

A/N

Just grab that 'Comfort Blanket' and everything will be fine 😬

L