Page 89 of The Awakening of Essensia

Vaelira closed the door behind her.

As she crossed the courtyard, she spotted Ressa and Fang sitting on the bench beneath the tree. Ressa stood, meeting her halfway. “We need to talk.”

“Not here,” Vaelira said, glancing at the other recruits heading into the refectory for lunch.

A few moments later, the three of them were crammed into Fang’s bedroom. Ressa and Fang sat side by side on the bed, backs to the wall, while Vaelira perched on the edge of the dresser. The room was surprisingly neat. Aside from several books lining the windowsill, everything was tucked away.

“How come you get a bigger bed?” she asked, feet dangling. Fang’s bed was twice the size of her own.

“Have you seen me?” Fang said glancing down at his massive frame.

“Good point.”

There was a pause. Fang glanced at Ressa. Vaelira didn’t like seeing him like this. Nervous didn’t suit a man of his strength, least of all in the privacy of his own room.

Ressa sighed. “You knew the demon was coming.” It wasn’t a question.

Vaelira had only begun to admit that to herself. How had Ressa noticed?

“You were like a hound on a scent,” Ressa went on. “At first, I thought you were staring at Kolborn, but your focus was off. I shouted but you didn’t even blink. Then the demon appeared and I realised.” Her voice hardened. “How did you know?”

Vaelira saw the weariness in their eyes, the caution. “I know what you’re thinking,” she said. “I didn’t summon the demon.”

Ressa and Fang exchanged another glance, but they didn’t interrupt.

She hesitated. They’d given her the chance to explain herself, even when they suspected the worst. She could give them this.

“I don't know how to explain it,” she continued, quieter now. “My ears started ringing. I couldn’t hear a thing. It got so cold. I don’t know what made me look, but it was like something shouting at me to pay attention.” She shivered, remembering the brush of ice down her neck, the blur of movement, the slash of shadow. She gripped the edge of the dresser and decided against telling them what she’d tasted before the demon appeared. Blood.

“It wasn’t him calling me,” she continued. “It was something else, like I was being watched, or warned. I don’t know, it happened so fast.”

The silence stretched. Ressa’s expression was unreadable. Fang chewed his lip, but he didn’t look away.

“I didn’t summon it,” Vaelira said again. “But I didn’t stop it, either. I just stood there and watched him die.” The words hung heavy in the room, like the storm clouds still blanketing the sky outside.

“You couldn’t have stopped it,” Ressa said at last. “No one could have.”

She was right, and to think, the demon could have come for her next. Any of them. It had been the perfect opportunity.

“And even if you had shouted,” Fang added. “Would they have seen it? Believed it? We’ve told them what you both saw and they still don’t.”

Vaelira shook her head. “Jurah saw the body, he knows what it was.”

Ressa leaned forward slightly. “And?”

“He's covering it up,” she said. “The report says Kolborn tripped, cut his own throat.”

Fang blinked. “That’s ludicrous.”

“He said he was under orders,” Vaelira continued. “That if the guards panic, the people panic. I gave him an earful about it.” She looked between them, daring them to accuse her again. “That’s the truth.”

“Vaelira,” Ressa said slowly, “he’s the Lord Commander of the Royal Guard, and you challenged his authority?”

Ressa was right. When had she become so bold? Perhaps it was Elijah's influence, or maybe her exhaustion at the games this city seemed to play.

“I don’t know what to think,” Ressa said. “But I know a liar when I hear one, and you’re not lying. Not to us, at least.”

Fang gave a grunt. “Anyone who has the balls to chew out our Commander and break curfew probably isn’t summoning demons.”