Astrid
The music, the laughter, the lights drifting overhead, all of it faded into background noise, distant and unimportant against the one fixed point in the crowd. I could only see him.
Run, my body screamed, the same instinct I’d been trained on since childhood.
I didn’t move. I couldn’t.
"Astrid? What’s wrong?" Ivy asked, tugging my sleeve.
I forced myself to blink. "Nothing."
I looked away, counting seconds in my head before I let myself glance back toward the pavilion.
The King wasn’t looking at me anymore.
My lungs finally released the breath I’d been holding. Maybe I’d imagined it. Maybe he’d been looking at someone behind me, or beside me, or anyone but me at all.
I refused to finish that thought any further.
Ivy, blissfully unaware of what had just happened, pointed excitedly toward another stall. "Come on, there’s a magical illusion booth over there!"
I let her pull me along, deeper into the carnival, further from the pavilion. Enchanted lanterns floated above us, students performed small tricks for laughing crowds, food stalls filled the air with sugar and spice, and somewhere a group of second-years cheered loudly over some game I couldn’t see. I should have been enjoying myself.
I couldn’t. Every royal guard I passed made my shoulders tense. Every mention of the King sent my stomach twisting. I caught myself checking my reflection in a glass display case, searching for anyone trailing behind me.
"You’re really not okay, are you?" Ivy finally asked.
"I’m just nervous," I said, the safest answer I had.
She accepted it, though her eyes lingered on me a moment longer than usual.
Reed and Xander found us a while later, finally free of their royal presentation duties, both still dressed in the formal academy colors that made them look older, more distant somehow, less like the two boys I’d argued with over gum-scraping duty just weeks ago. Xander looked thoroughly exhausted by the whole ordeal.
"If I hear the words ’honored to represent’ one more time," he said, "I’m jumping off the stage."
I laughed before I could stop myself.
He pointed at me, triumphant. "There. Knew I could make you laugh."
For a brief moment, the tension actually eased.
Then Reed studied me, his expression shifting the way it always did when he noticed something I was trying to hide. "Something happened."
My smile faded. "No."
He didn’t argue. He just looked at me, steady and certain. "You’re scared."
That landed harder than any question could have.
"I saw the King," I admitted finally.
Xander’s playful expression dropped instantly, all trace of the exhausted joking from a moment ago gone. "And?"
"He was looking at me."
Xander glanced toward the pavilion. "There are hundreds of people here."
"I know," I said.
Reed asked quietly, "Did he look away?"
"Eventually," I said, though the word felt thinner than I wanted it to.
He considered that for a long moment. "Stay with us."
I looked between them. No teasing in Xander’s face. No argument from Reed. They were simply making it clear, without needing to say it outright, that I wasn’t going to face whatever this was alone.
I tried to brush it off anyway, though Xander noticed my hands trembling before I could hide them behind the fold of my sleeve.
Without a word, he shrugged out of his jacket and settled it around my shoulders.
"You’ll be cold," I protested.
"I’m a Lycan."
"That’s not an answer."
"It’s the only one you’re getting."
I looked down at the jacket, warm and faintly smelling like him. For once, I didn’t have a sarcastic reply ready.
"Thanks," I said quietly.
His teasing smile softened into something gentler. "Anytime."
I realized, uncomfortably, how different the two of them were in the way they cared for me. Reed’s was quiet, steady, always there before I noticed I needed it, a lamp adjusted here, a stack of books carried there, never announced, never demanding acknowledgment. Xander’s was warmer, easier to see, impossible to miss once he decided to show it, a warm drink pressed into cold hands, a jacket offered without hesitation.
And somehow, I was starting to depend on both of them.
That realization frightened me nearly as much as the King did.
The carnival grew louder as the royal delegation began moving through the grounds, students crowding toward the procession, whispers of excitement rippling through every cluster of people we passed, phones and enchanted glass mirrors lifted overhead to catch a glimpse of him as he walked.
My anxiety spiked immediately. The King was getting closer.
I took an instinctive step back. Reed noticed right away.
"We can leave," he said.
"No," I said, shaking my head. "If I suddenly disappear because the King showed up, people will notice."
He understood. He didn’t argue. Instead, he and Xander shifted, positioning themselves on either side of me, not possessively, not dramatically, just enough that I could feel them there.
For the first time since the King had arrived, I felt slightly less exposed.
The delegation moved steadily through the crowd. I kept my head lowered, watching the ground, the King’s presence growing heavier with every step he took, the air itself seeming to thicken the closer he came. Students bowed as he passed. Others whispered excitedly, straining to catch a glimpse.
I tried to look like everyone else. Ordinary. Unremarkable. Invisible.
Then, without warning, his footsteps slowed.
My heart stuttered painfully in my chest.
I didn’t look up right away. I heard the faint rustle of his robes, the guards halting behind him, the conversation around us seeming to drain away into silence.
Finally, I raised my eyes.
The King was looking directly at me.
This time there was no ambiguity left to cling to. He wasn’t looking past me, or beside me, or at anyone standing near me. There was no crowd for him to be looking through, no coincidence left to hide behind.
He was looking at me.
My fingers tightened around the edge of Xander’s jacket, knuckles white.
Reed noticed. Xander noticed. Neither of them said a word.
Then one of the royal guards leaned toward the King, murmuring something too quiet for me to catch, his eyes flicking briefly toward me before dropping respectfully back to the ground.
The King’s gaze stayed fixed on me the entire time.
Finally, he turned slightly toward one of the academy officials standing nearby, his voice calm, controlled, carrying easily across the sudden stillness.
"Who is that girl?"