7. Ella

Chapter 7

Ella

Once Ella returned to her office, she finally had a moment to access the official Delmarth database with her newly bestowed password. Through the laptop provided to her by the school, she searched Connor Paight in the system, examining his schedule to find a time for them to meet.

Headmistress Dyer told her on day one that she wasn’t permitted to pull students during their Power Practice times, which occurred eighth and ninth period when the Meteoros, Varmin, Cerebri, and Herculeans trained their unique abilities to master control over their powers and bodies. She’d need to pull him from an academic class, which didn’t thrill her, but she had limited options to choose from. They didn’t seem to award students any free periods in Cavale, and she didn’t want to rip anyone away from their lunch period. Because Connor was a Varmin, she needed to consult the head of the Varmin department before she made any alterations to his schedule.

She found Kellen’s information through the database, copying his phone number, then typed out a message, sliding her plush leather chair back against the wall to give her legs enough room to splay over her desk.

ELLA: Kilic. It’s Ms. Rose. I’ll be pulling Connor from sixth period Liberal Studies on Tuesdays for counseling. Thought I’d give you the courtesy of a warning before I adjust his schedule.

Ella lifted her enchanted mug of Diet Coke, crafted from crystal with a diamond pattern wrapped around the walls and handle, to her lips just as her phone vibrated with a response from Kellen.

KILIC: 1) How the fuck did you get my number? 2) Absolutely not.

Ella squeezed her hand into a fist and huffed. She set her mug down, collecting her phone to reply.

ELLA: 1) I’m resourceful. 2) Students repeat the same schedule every day. He’s in Liberal Studies for two periods in a row. If he misses one of the two periods for one day a week, I don’t think it will kill him.

KILIC: One of those periods is Literature, and the other is History of the Gods. He will not be pulled from either.

ELLA: Then what else do you suggest I do?

KILIC: Fuck off.

“What a fucking dick,” Ella grumbled, stopping herself before she hurled her phone at the wall.

ELLA: Why do you have to be so fucking difficult?

KILIC: Why are you still talking to me?

ELLA: It’s either this or I pull him from Power Practice. Your choice, Kilic.

KILIC: You will NOT pull him from Power Practice, Rose. That is absolutely out of the question.

ELLA: Then I’ll be changing his schedule to say he has counseling with me on Tuesdays during sixth period. Done. No further discussion is needed.

KILIC: I despise you. Ella grinned to herself, her fingers flying across the screen in their haste to type a response.

ELLA: Always a displeasure doing business with you, Mr. Kilic. You can now lose my number.

She hit send, then tucked her phone in the front pocket of her briefcase and reached for her jacket, heading out for the day.

“Freya? I have a surprise for you!”

Freya scampered to the door, leaping up to lean on Ella’s legs and stretching her front paws out to reach Ella’s knee. Ella stroked the top of Freya’s head, letting her lick at her fingers, then rifled through her briefcase. “You know how I asked Headmistress Dyer for a fridge that can make any food I want? Well, guess what it made for me today?” She yanked out a bag of dog food, shaking it in the air. “Ta-da!”

The smile vanished from Freya’s face, replaced with a frown that accompanied a raspy whimper.

“Oh, come on!” Ella cried, setting the bag down on the kitchen counter. “Don’t whimper. I know you like the meat patties, but this is good too!” Freya didn’t even bother to acknowledge the clear lie.

She turned her back on Ella and ran to the couch.

“I didn’t realize I raised a snob,” Ella muttered, just as Ella’s phone buzzed from inside her briefcase.

It vibrated between her fingers with an incoming video call from Rylee. Ella rejoiced in being able to see Rylee on her screen, in all her stunning splendor, her chestnut brown hair cropped to her shoulders, blow-dried straight, and tapering off where her neck collided with her shoulders.

“Ells!” Rylee squealed in greeting. “Tell me how today went.”

“Today was actually the best day I’ve had here.”

“ Really?!” Rylee’s grey eyes, identical to Ella’s and the only feature from their mother the girls shared, sparkled. “ That is the best news I’ve heard in so long! Tell me everything.” Ella plopped down on the couch. Freya rested her squished face into Ella’s lap, unable to help herself from being close to Ella inspite of her annoyance.

“To tell you about today, I have to first tell you about last night. Kilic almost drowned me in the pool.”

“ WHAT?!” Rylee dropped her phone in horror, so Ella was forced to stare up at the chipped paint peeling off Rylee’s ceiling before her sister reappeared on the screen. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. But I was so angry that I stormed to Headmistress Dyer’s office and told her that if she didn’t do something to stop these attacks, I wanted to be let go and sent back to the Earthly Plane.”

“Good for you, Ella! It’s about fucking time. How did she react?”

“She called an emergency staff meeting today with the whole faculty and told us she’d spoken with the Cavalian Gods’ envoy. Anyone who lays their hand on me again will be sentenced to three days in Terminus.”

“Hallefuckinglujah!” Ella laughed while she watched Rylee set her phone down on the table and spin around her couch, twirling her fists in the air as an accessory to her raucous cheering.

“You’re a terrible dancer,” Ella giggled when Rylee returned to the sofa.

“Can we just take a moment to appreciate this massive win? You stood up for yourself, and you actually got results. This is huge. Can you let yourself do that, Ella? Can you let yourself be proud? I know I am.”

Ella’s smile grew heavy with longing, her desire to be with her sister aching through her core.

“I love you, Ry.”

“I love you, Ells . And I’m so proud of you.” Freya nudged Ella’s hand with her snout, so Ella unfurled her fingers for Freya to lick.

“I got invited by a serpent-shifter instructor to go for drinks tonight with her and her friend.”

“Ella! That’s amazing! Who invited you?”

“Her name’s Josefyn. I don’t know if I should go, though.” Rylee’s scowl pierced her flesh through time and space, as though she were standing over Ella right now and not separated by the membrane of an interdimensional void.

“Yes, you should absolutely go!”

“What if she invited me just to get me off campus and kill me?” Rylee paused, deliberating this.

“Did your gut tell you that when speaking to her?”

“Well, no.” Ella frowned. “She seemed genuine, but it’s hard for me to trust in that, knowing all the different ways those feelings could be manipulated by the Primordials to trick me into a false sense of security.”

“Forget trusting in her. Trust in yourself. If your instincts didn’t scream danger when around her, then try to listen to them. Go tonight with your senses on overdrive, be ready to bolt if you need to, but you should still go.” Rylee objected the moment Ella’s lips divided, “No buts. You need people, Ells. You can’t survive the next nine months with just Freya.”

“Freya’s good company, though.” Ella scratched the top of Freya’s head.

“She is, but she’s not enough. If there’s a chance for you to make some real connections here, you need to take that leap. I’m thrilled you’re finally growing your voice and getting more comfortable advocating for yourself with the Primordials, but it wouldn’t hurt to have someone else in your corner, sticking up for you too. Take the chance that this Josefyn can be a warrior for you while you get comfortable being a warrior for yourself.” Ella wasn’t fast enough this time to quell tears.

“Stop saying profound shit that makes me miss you even more,” she mewled. “It’s cruel.”

Rylee’s smile appeared wistful. “I cry about how much I miss you once a day, so it’s only fitting.”

“Wicked. You’re wicked. Why do I even love you?” Tears painted stripes down Rylee’s cheeks. Ella couldn’t tolerate bearing witness to her sister’s despondence, not when she couldn’t easily make the trip over to her and comfort Rylee herself. “Want to help me figure out what to wear?”

“Is that even a question? Go get options!”

Rylee and Ella spent a total of thirty minutes sifting through her closet for something suitable to wear. They settled on a sleeveless red corset top with a sweetheart neckline tucked into black jeans that flared out at the ends and frayed along the hem, garnished with her favorite cropped black leather jacket. She paired the ensemble with silver teardrop earrings and her black ankle boots that were actually rain boots but possessed a pointed tip that made them modish enough to pass for evening wear. After an hour spent fiddling with her hair, whipping it in different directions and fashioning it in diverse shapes, she settled on leaving it loose over her shoulders, the golden tendrils torrenting down her chest to her mid-sternum. She then spent another fifteen minutes deciding if she should tuck the front strands of hair behind her ears, or allow them to frame her cheeks. She played with a combination of both, the right side pulled back and the left side unshackled, for five extra minutes, contemplating how long it would take to shave her whole head.

Before Ella gave in to the temptation and went looking for a pair of scissors, the door quivered from a fist pounding against the other side, followed by a feminine voice calling out, “Ella? You there?”

It was loud enough that it awoke Freya, who never had a good reaction to being unexpectedly roused from a nap. She let out a ferocious—well, her version of ferocious—bark, glowering at the door.

“Freya, quiet,” Ella ordered, running to the door and yanking it open.

“Look at you!” Josefyn cried, doubling back in the hall so she could survey Ella from top to bottom.

“Wow,” Ella spluttered, drinking in the immaculate ringlets of Josefyn’s violet, silky strands and the silhouette of her long-sleeved black mini dress, embellished in sequins with a tie fastening at the waist. Messily applied eyeliner smirched Josefyn’s waterline, not detracting but rather enhancing the soft lavender hue of her irises, while her lips were coated in red gloss, enriching the white of her teeth. “You look beautiful, Josefyn.”

“Thank you! So do yo—” Josefyn’s sentence was trampled by a gasp. “Is that a dog?” Ella spun around to look back at Freya.

She’d taken up occupancy of the doorway to their bedroom, guarding the entrance by laying down on her belly and splaying her legs out behind her splooting, widening her stance so no one could cross over her.

“Her name’s Freya,” Ella told Josefyn, cocking her head at Freya’s strange behavior.

“I’ve never seen an Earthly Plane dog before.” Josefyn scuttled deeper into the apartment. Ella closed the door behind her. “We have Varmin who can shift into dogs, but they don’t look like this. They’re less…fluffy.” Josefyn sunk to her knees, proffering her palm outstretched to Freya.

Freya sniffed at the air, assessing Josefyn’s scent for any reason to be cautious before she pulled herself up and dashed over to meet Josefyn where she was still on her knees. Freya dug her nose into Josefyn’s palm to further her examination.

When Ella watched Freya’s tongue dart out to lick Josefyn’s fingers, she relaxed, Josefyn having passed Freya’s test.

“She’s so sweet!” Josefyn giggled, stroking the top of Freya’s head.

“Don’t let her lick your face or she’ll try to stick her tongue down your throat,” Ella warned.

“She’s a forward girl, isn’t she? We love a confident queen.” Ella laughed on her way to the kitchen to prepare Freya’s dinner. “How old is she?”

“She’s five. I found her in an alley by herself when she was three months old. She’d been separated from her mother and was living on the street. We haven’t spent a day apart from each other since.”

“She’s lucky you found her.” Ella’s chest warmed.

“ I’m lucky I found her. She’s the best friend I could ever ask for.” Ella broke her gaze from Josefyn and Freya before she dissolved into tears, measuring a full portion of dry dog food for Freya.

“How’s she been adjusting to being in Cavale?”

“Way better than expected. Freya makes things very easy. She travels well and doesn’t complain. She’s not the brightest bulb in the shed, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she has no idea we’re not in New York anymore.” Josefyn chuckled, though it was unclear if the laughter was induced by Ella’s joke or by Freya leaping up to place her paws on Josefyn’s shoulders in her mission to lick the gloss off Josefyn’s lips. “My sister and I always joke around that Freya is the definition of lights on, nobody’s home. I think she’s just happy to be included in whatever it is I’m doing.”

“She’s such an angel, Ella.” Josefyn managed to detach Freya from her face and create enough distance between them for her to rise off the floor. “You ready to go? Akio is waiting for us outside.”

“One second.” Ella set the bowl of dog food down on the ground beside Freya’s water dish. “Dinner, my love.” Freya glanced down at the bowl, then shoved it towards Ella with her paw. “Seriously?” Ella groaned. “I don’t have any meat patties for you, so for today, just eat this. Please? For me?”

Freya exhaled a huff, then allowed Ella to lightly guide the bowl back over to her with her foot.

“ Now , I’m ready,” Ella declared, Josefyn snickering under her breath. She turned to grab her keys and blew Freya a kiss out the door, though Freya was too deeply submerged in her dinner to notice. “What can you tell me about Akio?” Ella asked, scurrying to keep up with Josefyn.

“He’s a Cerebri instructor. He’s alright, I suppose.” Her words were honed by a silent laugh, comicality wrapped around the statement in a way that left Ella both confused and sensing that she was only jesting. “You’ll love him,” Josefyn assured when she noticed Ella’s expression, sounding certain.

Josefyn held the door for Ella, her face illuminating like a cloudless dawn at the male they found leaning against a neighboring tree, his face eclipsed at first by the shadow raining down from the canopy of leaves. When he stepped out of the obscurity, Ella took in the gorgeous specimen, with ink black, borderline blue hair draped across his forehead like tassels at the end of a blanket, single-lidded eyes, and a jawline so cleanly chiseled that it looked more like a serrated knife than a bone attached to a person’s face. Handsome, strong features, the face of a soldier.

“Mr. Takeshi,” Josefyn greeted in a solemn voice, though in the underbelly of her words lay humor and a hint of coquetry.

“Ms. Yilanci.” Akio’s brown eyes devoured Josefyn’s physique, consuming the length of her legs down to the red heels her feet were squeezed into. Akio smoothed the lapels of his blazer, fixing the collar of the maroon button down that lay beneath the jacket before closing the distance between them, his fingers gripping her waist to yank her into him. He leaned down to nuzzle the crook of her neck and pressed a kiss to the edge of her jaw. “You never cease to take my breath away, wife of mine.”

“ Wife?” Ella spluttered, which prompted Akio to rip his face out of Josefyn’s throat to regard her.

“Surprise!” Josefyn squealed, beaming.

“You must be Ella.” Akio released Josefyn to extend his hand. “I’ve been eager to meet you officially. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Any of it good?” she quipped, slipping her hand into his. Akio released a braying laugh, squeezing her hand in a way that precipitated a blast of heat to sweep across Ella’s cheeks, circulating down to her chest. She hoped the heat wasn’t discernable through the sheath of her flesh.

“Not at all,” he bantered, though she wouldn’t be surprised to learn he wasn’t joking. He dropped her hand to drape his arm around Josefyn’s shoulders, threading his fingers through hers.

“Shall we go?” Josefyn asked the group, her nose tracing the column of Akio’s neck.

“Come on, little earthborn,” Akio beckoned as he and Josefyn began their trek to the parking lot. For the first time since she’d been in Cavale, that name, usually lobbed at her as a derogatory insult, sounded almost like a compliment, a smile attaching itself to the bottom half of Ella’s face.

Ella rode in the back of Akio’s black car that resembled a Volkswagen beetle, which Akio told her he named Ace after Josefyn’s nickname for him. Ella barely spoke during that car ride into the city of Sleka, content to listen to the intimate banter pass between Akio and Josefyn while she gazed out the window, sketching invisible lines to connect the beads of rainwater gathered over the glass. Ella watched how the yellowed light from the streetlamps played in the droplets, shattering through the deluge in solitary drops. The tires unleashed a monotonous hiss over the rain-washed highway, the sound gaining velocity with the more distance they put between them and Delmarth Academy.

Ella learned on the drive to The Dow that Akio and Josefyn met when they were students at Delmarth. They grew up together and had been best friends for years before either of them considered dipping their toes in the realm of romance. In the end, it was Akio who made the first move to crawl over that friendship line, breathing life into the feelings Josefyn had been harboring secretly for years.

“That was before we learned we were Cavalisha,” Josefyn mused, her fingers caressing the hair at the nape of Akio’s neck.

“Cavalisha?” Ella repeated. “What’s that?”

“A Cavalisha is a destined mate,” Akio explained, his thumb drawing patterns along the inside of Josefyn’s thigh. “It’s the strongest bond you can share with another, the other half of your soul, predetermined by the Gods themselves. Time and space cannot separate you. Despite all circumstances, you will inevitably be drawn together, an unavoidable collision of hearts and minds, designed to be each other’s beginning and end.” Ella pulled her leather jacket tighter around her shoulders to subdue a shudder.

“How do you know someone is your Cavalisha?”

“The bond clicks into place the first time you say I love you. It feels like a sucker punch to the heart that forces the axis of your life to shift, making your being forever orbit around your other half, not the sun.”

“That sounds painful,” Ella muttered, her fingers clawing at her chest, trying to reach where her heart lay throbbing.

“Isn’t love always painful, though, in a sense?” Josefyn argued, her words delivered like a soft embrace.

Ella had to admit, from her own experience—not romantic love, which she’d never had the pleasure of experiencing thus far, but from burdened familial love— Josefyn’s point was valid. She’d learned from her mother that pain was an unavoidable accessory to loving someone, whether that pain arose from their absence or their presence, a necklace with thorns that could never be taken off.

“A Cavalisha is both your greatest strength and your greatest weakness,” Akio continued. “Strength in the sense that through accepting that bond, your powers intensify. Weakness in the sense that when one of you is injured, you’re both injured. When one of you perishes, you both perish.”

“How does one accept the mating bond?”

“There’s a ritual that’s performed as an offering to Mara Cavalian, the Goddess of Love. It involves proving to Mara that your love is pure enough to deserve a permanent joining of hearts.”

“Primordials are guaranteed a Cavalisha, but many reject the mating bond and never make an offering to Mara,” Josefyn added, her thigh angling closer to Akio’s hand. “While the idea of a power proliferation is attractive, possessing a Cavalisha in public places a target on your back. It’s your heart walking outside your body, vulnerable for all to strike at. Which is why no one at Delmarth knows about me and Akio. To the outside world, he’s Mr. Takeshi, and I’m Ms. Yilanci.”

“No one knows you’re mated?” The two shook their heads. “But you’re telling me ,” Ella whispered.

“We’re telling you, ” Josefyn confirmed, turning in her seat to meet Ella’s eye. Her warm smile swore, I know you’re hesitant, and you have every right to be, but you can trust our kindness.

“I won’t tell a soul,” Ella vowed, touched by the faith they’d placed in her.

“We know,” Akio said, then jibed, “Besides, no one would believe you anyway.” Three unique forms of laughter wove themselves together along the wind, drowning the car in sweet music.

Akio parked Ace in the lot by the pub, then circled around the car to open the doors for both Josefyn and Ella. Ella sauntered into The Dow behind Akio and Josefyn, the mated pair splintering apart from one another once they entered the thronged space. Crimson clay bricks and white, clean marble slabs amalgamated to create the outer structure of The Dow. The inside comprised of rounded, stone beams supporting the upper floor with torches attached to them, dangling heat and illumination from the rafters. Booths bordered the perimeter of the tavern in a complete circle against the walls, with a large U-shaped bar positioned in the center of the massive expanse, where patrons populated the grounds around the bar to claim space on the dancefloor. Josefyn elected to link her arm through Ella’s to prevent herself from giving into temptation and draping herself across her husband. The women followed Akio into the heart of the establishment as he searched for an empty booth, the air thick with the scent of ale and roasted meat.

“Grab that booth,” Akio directed Josefyn, pointing to the vacant cubicle on the far right side of the tavern, bordering the winding staircase that united the ground floor and the upper level. “Rakira good, Jo?”

“Perfect,” she purred, then led Ella over to the booth.

“What’s rakira?” Ella asked as she situated on the bench across the table from Josefyn, shaking her jacket off and folding it on the leather cushion.

“It’s a type of liquor. It’s the only thing Akio drinks. It has a sort of malty flavor with vanilla notes.”

“Oh! Like scotch.” Josefyn cocked her head.

“What’s scotch?”

“It’s an alcohol from the Earthly Plane. It’s my brother-in-law’s favorite. Mason always reserves his Friday evenings to lock himself in his office and enjoy a glass of scotch. He says it makes him feel fancy.”

“Sounds like my kind of man,” Akio said when he returned, presenting them with three glasses of amber liquid with rich red-gold tones, the liquid the same hue as the mahogany table when the ambient light peppered over the surface. “Raise your glasses, ladies,” Akio requested, gliding into the spot next to Ella rather than flanking his wife—most likely to avoid the lure of touching her in public.

“What’re we celebrating?” Ella asked, accepting her glass of rakira.

“We’re celebrating you, Ms. Rose. It’s not every day we welcome a new face into our little circle. You’re part of the in-crowd now.” Ella simpered, her cheeks burning along with the corners of her eyes.

“To our new friend,” Josefyn cheered, the three of them clinking their glasses together before sampling the liquor. It tasted as though the ingredients of a campfire, firewood and kindling, had been deliquesced and coalesced into a liquid. The smoke flavor scorched Ella’s throat and made her splutter a nasty cough. Akio patted her back, laughing, “Take it easy, champ. This stuff is strong even for a Primordial. I can’t imagine how your human body will stomach it.”

“No big gulps,” Josefyn advised. “Just small sips. If it’s too strong, we can get you something else.”

“I’m good with this. Thank you, though.” Ella wanted to prove to them, but mostly to herself, that she could keep up, that she wasn’t backing down from their customs or ways of being.

“I remember my first rakira,” Akio sighed dreamily.

“You nearly died, Ace,” Josefyn reminded him, then clarified for Ella, “The jackass, at fifteen years old, mind you, thought he was tough enough to down three glasses of rakira in ten seconds. It knocked him out five minutes later. I had to drive his comatose body back to campus, in a fucking blizzard, so he could get his stomach pumped.”

“You know that’s why I only drink rakira, right?” Akio said, gazing heatedly at Josefyn. “Because it reminds me of the night you saved my life, the night I knew I loved you.” Josefyn’s eyes were two congealed orbs of pure love. Two halves of Ella battled for dominance of her head and heart, one half swept up in awe of the almost tangible passion the two of them shared, the other wishing to distance herself from what felt like a moment she was intruding on by sitting there. “So, Ella.” Akio knit his fingers together on the table. “How the fuck did you end up in Cavale?”

“I don’t even know where to begin,” she laughed, her index finger tracing the mouth of her glass. She sat up straighter, then explained, “I graduated grad school in May, but I’d been looking for a job long before that, since February. I wasn’t having luck finding anything in New York and wasn’t looking anywhere else, because ironically, at the time, I had no wish to leave the city. In June, I received an email from Headmistress Dyer stating that Delmarth had been searching for a permanent school counseling position and my resume was passed to them.”

“Who gave them your resume?’ Akio asked.

“I have no idea. Headmistress Dyer never said.”

“How did they find your resume from a different dimension?” Josefyn questioned, chewing on her straw.

“I don’t know. I also found it strange they sent that email to my personal email, not my school email. My older sister told me it was a scam, so I almost didn’t attend my interview. We researched the school, though unbeknown to me, the website we looked at and the campus I ended up touring with Headmistress Dyer was an illusion created by one of the Cerebri instructors here.”

“That sounds like something Daniel Madix would do,” Akio grumbled under his breath before imbibing more of his rakira. Ella didn’t have to ask for verification that Akio disliked his department head.

“Or Kellen Kilic,” Josefyn argued. “I know he doesn’t broadcast it, but Kellen is also an image-manipulator.”

“What does an image-manipulator do?” Ella asked, intrigued by the mention of Kellen.

“They can create illusions in people’s minds to make them see whatever they want them to see.” Like making me believe a sea monster was going to attack me, Ella thought to herself, a piece of the unsolved puzzle clicking into place. “They can also access people’s thoughts, or communicate non-verbally into people’s minds.”

“How can Kellen be an image-manipulator if he’s also a Varmin?”

“His father was a Cerebri,” Akio answered. Ella clocked how Akio said was but decided not to further delve into the matter. “It’s not common, but sometimes Primordials can take on powers from both parents. Usually, only one, even if their parents are mixed. They’re known as dual-bred.”

“Dual-breeders tend to not advertise their second ability and choose one to favor in public,” Josefyn added. “Primordials are inherently ravenous for power. Anyone with unfair advantages is seen as a threat to the Gods. Those in the past who have exhibited an imbalanced surplus in powers have been sent to Terminus.”

“Over something they can’t control?” Ella spluttered in horror.

“Over something that could make the Gods look weak in comparison,” Josefyn offered as a counterargument.

“That is so unfair.” Ella shook her head. “I understand the Gods sending someone to Terminus over committing a crime, but sending someone to eternal damnation for something they were born with, just to make themselves feel better about their own insecurities? That’s pathetic.”

While Josefyn snorted into her palm, Akio cautioned Ella in a low voice, “I’d be careful what you say about the Gods. They hear everything, and they forget nothing.”

“I don’t care,” she dismissed with a shrug of her shoulders. “They’re not my Gods, so they can’t punish me.”

Josefyn’s eyes swung to Akio. “See why I like her?”

“I do,” he confirmed, his brown eyes scrutinizing Ella’s facial features. “Seemingly quiet and sweet, but that good-natured mask is covering a shitload of fire underneath. She’s like a clone of you.”

“I take that as a compliment,” the women said in unison, then stared at each other with enlarged eyes and squealed.

“Instant best friend,” Josefyn declared, squeezing Ella’s hand.

“Back to what we were discussing before,” Ella said, sipping her rakira carefully. With each mouthful, she grew more accustomed to the taste. “I don’t think it was Daniel or Kellen who created that illusion. If either of them had participated in bringing me to Cavale, they wouldn’t be so angry that I’m here and wouldn’t be trying so hard to get rid of me. I’m not sure who did it, but whoever did knew the reaction bringing a human here would garner and did it anyway.”

“I bet it was all Headmistress Dyer,” Josefyn guessed. “She may be a Herculea with healer abilities, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she has some Cerebri in her blood too. The way she commands a room leads me to believe she has some heightened gifts in swaying others to do her bidding. I’ve speculated about it for a while, not that she would ever corroborate it. If she is an action-manipulator, and it was Daniel or Kellen who helped her bring you here, they might not have even known what they were doing when making that website and campus illusion. They might not even hold memories from it.”

“My wife is so smart,” Akio marveled, sinking his cheek against his palm as he stared lovingly across the table at her. Josefyn blew him a kiss, and he pretended to catch it in his hand and smack it on his lips.

“I have a question.” Josefyn adorably raised her hand. Ella giggled before waving her fingers to grant Jo permission to speak. “So you told us how you got the job, but how did you actually get to Cavale?”

“ Great question,” Akio prided. Ella presented them with an impish smile, then brushed her hair out of her face.

“Headmistress Dyer sent a car to pick me up and take me to where I believed Delmarth was located, which was upstate New York in Albany. The driver’s name was Marlon—”

“Marlon!” Josefyn and Akio cheered. Josefyn framed her cheeks with her hands. “Awe, he’s the best security officer. He’s been at Delmarth since Akio and I were in Kindergarten. He’s the sweetest!”

“The sweetest?” Ella repeated. “From the second I got in the car, he had a raging attitude with me. When I asked bluntly, ‘You don’t want to be driving me, do you?’ he replied, ‘I would rather be anywhere in the realms than sitting in this car with you, Ms. Rose. I would’ve taken a life sentence in Terminus with a smile than be forced to enter the Earthly Plane and consort with the likes of you. ”

“That’s just because you’re human,” Akio said with a flick of his hand, as though that excused the disrespect. Ella had been enjoying herself immensely so far, so she decided to let that subtle insult slide.

“Of course, I had no idea what the fuck he was talking about. I thought he may have been on something.”

Ella shut her eyes, brought back to that exact moment.

The Hudson River unfolded to her right as they charged down the West Side Highway towards Delmarth. The white lace waves in the waterway purged in congruence with the rhythm set by the wind, which wafted into the backseat through the open window and blew her hair off her flushed cheeks. Freya sat contentedly in Ella’s lap and licked her fingers. Out of nowhere, a perturbing crackling sound, as if an apparatus within the car was breaking down, drowned the totality of the car. The noise progressively amplified until it bore a resemblance to nails being dragged down a chalkboard.

Ella felt like her ears were bleeding.

“Excuse me?” she called out, cupping her hands over her ears to protect them from the racket. “Marlon? I think something’s wrong with the car.”

“Nothing’s wrong with the car,” Marlon spat back.

“Don’t you hear that noise? I think the car might be breaking down.”

“What noise?” This was the first time he actually bothered to look back at her, even if it lasted a mere two seconds.

“That noise. It sounds like the car is breaking down.”

“You’re the only one who hears anything.” All Ella could do was blink, because what was she supposed to say to that?

“That doesn’t mean there isn’t something wrong with the car.” Panic leached into her voice. “Can you please stop to check the car?”

“No. Then we’ll be late for school.”

“But if something’s wrong with the car and it breaks down, then we’ll have no way of getting to school.” Ella received no response. Her heart leapt up into her throat. His silence, coupled with that grating, intensifying sound, caused the hair on her arms to rise. “Marlon? Can you please pull the car over?”

“You’re not getting out of this car, Noella.” The assertion echoed like a brash rumble of thunder.

Ella reached for the door handle and was immediately met with the click of the car being locked from all sides, her open window sealing shut. When she tried to roll it down, the button was no longer functional.

She couldn’t breathe.

Ella checked the car’s license plate before she got into the vehicle to verify it matched the one Headmistress Dyer emailed her over the weekend, but the feeling that maybe she’d gotten into the wrong car itched around her bones. Marlon never mentioned Delmarth when he collected her. He’d just said he was taking her to school, which she immediately assumed was Delmarth, so she thought she was safe.

Rylee lecturing her in high school to always ask her Uber drivers who they were meant to pick up, so she could confirm they were there for her , played on a loop in Ella’s head, about fifteen minutes too late.

“What institution are you from?” Ella demanded, not even bothering to mask her concern.

“You humans are so slow,” Marlon muttered under his breath, then snapped, “I’m taking you to Delmarth, Noella. Now shut the fuck up so I can concentrate, or we’ll miss our exit.” That answer didn’t settle her.

“Don’t talk to me like that,” Ella snarled, gripping Freya so tightly that her knuckles were white and Freya fidgeted. “Tell me what’s going on, or I swear to God, I will jump out of this car while it’s still mo—”

All of a sudden, they swerved off the road.

Marlon jerked the car to the right, launching them through the air and over the railing, the car soaring towards the Hudson River. Ella was sent lurching forward, her seatbelt saving her from being hurled over Marlon’s shoulder and launched at the window. She folded herself around Freya to protect the dog from injury, Freya whimpering within the depths of Ella’s arms. The car descended towards the river, rear-ending with the water, the collision followed by an explosion of foaming waves spewing out from beneath them as the car sunk beneath the surface of the river.

“By all means, Ms. Rose,” Marlon drawled with a smile. “Jump out of the car. It’ll make my day.”

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” Ella screamed at the top of her lungs.

“If you ask me any questions right now, I will not answer. Headmistress Dyer will answer all your questions when we get to Delmarth.”

“NUH-HUH! NO WAY!” Ella just kept thinking, on a torturous loop, this is how I die, this is how I die, this is how I die. I somehow always knew I would die by drowning. “Take me home NOW.”

“No. And please try to refrain from shrieking for the remainder of our drive. My ears would really appreciate it.”

“You—” Marlon proceeded to drag his pinched fingers over his lips, mimicking the motion of zipping something shut, then tossed an invisible key over his shoulder before turning back around.

The car landed on a bed of sand, covered from all sides by bedrock, cobbles, mussel shells, old oyster reefs, and debris dumped by people, a revolting amount of it. Marlon just started driving again, as if they were cruising on the highway rather than at the bottom of a fucking river. Ella rocked back and forth in the backseat, hugging Freya tightly to her chest with one hand while rubbing her temples with the other to keep a migraine at bay, though she was losing the battle against the stabbing headache, three seconds away from fragmenting into a full blown panic attack.

Suddenly, a resplendent door appeared in the sand, gargantuan in size and gold-plated, limned with seaweed. The gate parted when it sensed their car approaching, revealing on the other side a verdant path, dressed in evergreens and multicolored florae. When they drove over the threshold, the gateway sealed shut behind them, the river and New York disappearing through it. They now sat in a luxuriant meadow, a sky entirely divergent from the one they just left behind suspended above them, streaked with pink clouds that emulated billows of cotton candy.

Ella’s jaw dropped open.

She couldn’t stop blinking, waiting for that one magic blink to disband the image and fracture the fantasy.

“This isn’t real,” she tried to convince herself. She buried her face in her hands, failing to temper her wheezes. “You’re still asleep. You missed your alarm. You’re going to wake up in your bed, and all of this will have just been a bad dream.” Marlon snorted in front of her. Ella almost heard his eyes roll.

“So human,” he sneered, shaking his head.

“Where the fuck are we?!” Marlon exhaled an irritated breath, but surprisingly answered the question.

“Welcome to Cavale, Ms. Rose.”

“Headmistress Dyer was waiting in the meadow,” Ella told Josefyn and Akio, the two of them hanging onto her every word. Ella’s eyes were locked over her glass of rakira. “Marlon left me in the car to go speak to her. I knew they were talking about me because they kept looking back at me.”

Ella watched them through the foggy glass, reading their lips and making out what they were saying.

“How is she?” Headmistress Dyer asked Marlon.

“She freaked out in the car. She’s got a mouth on her, that one. You don’t pay me enough for this shit, Valerie.” Headmistress Dyer narrowed her eyes, then shook her head at him. “How will you explain it all to her?”

“I’ll do what I should’ve done from the start,” she replied, her gaze meeting Ella’s through the window, catching her observing them behind the protection of Freya’s head. Then, Headmistress Dyer said, this time directed at Ella, who she now knew was listening, “I’ll be honest.”

“Headmistress Dyer told me to come out and join them. She said it would be okay. So I got out of the car.”

“Then what happened?” Josefyn asked. Ella raised her head to cinch her eyes with Josefyn’s.

“I ran for my fucking life,” Ella replied. Josefyn’s lips spread into a gargantuan smile, as though she’d predicted that outcome. “I was so scared and confused. I didn’t know what to do, so with Freya in my arms, I booked it through the meadow. Headmistress Dyer sent Marlon after me. I obviously didn’t know then that he was a Herculea speed-wielder. He didn’t even have to run. He just teleported in front of me and blocked my path. He then dragged me back to Headmistress Dyer, who finally explained how the contract she tricked me into signing bound me to Delmarth for the rest of the school year, so I couldn’t leave Cavale. Then she and Marlon drove me to campus.”

“Did she ever apologize? For tricking you?” A lump clogged Ella’s throat.

“No. She didn’t.” Akio rested his hand on her shoulder, while Josefyn reached across the table to grab Ella’s hand.

“If no one’s said it to you yet, let it come from us.” Akio squeezed Ella’s shoulder. “I’m sorry you were forced here against your will. No one should ever have to endure having their ability to choose stripped away from them.” A scream mingled with a sob in Ella’s throat, but rather than let the violent combination leak out, she tendered to Akio a teary-eyed smile and set her hand on top of his on her shoulder.

“Between the two of us, Ella, we promise you that no one will fuck with you again,” Josefyn swore. “We’ve got you. We’ll get you through the next nine months.”

“I can’t tell you how much I needed this,” Ella murmured. “How much I needed people.” One tear escaped her restraint.

“You have people now,” Akio affirmed. “You’re not alone.” Ella inhaled a breath, tasting relief and comfort and companionship on her tongue. The hefty weight on her chest she carried in solitude was a portion less heavy, now that she had two people with her willing to help support the load. Akio glanced down at the table, then blustered a laugh. “We forgot to order food with our drinks.”

“That was dumb of us,” Josefyn giggled, her sobriety slipping farther and farther away from her lavender gaze, replaced by a glimmer of drunkenness.

“Let me go get us some food.” Akio slid out of the booth, crossing the tavern to reach the U-shaped bar.

“He has such a fuckable ass,” Josefyn sighed, prompting Ella to snort on a giggle. “I mean it. I want to bite it.”

“You’re so drunk,” Ella snickered, dabbing tears from her eyes.

“So are you,” Josefyn chortled before the smile vanished from her face and she sat up straight. “ Shit .”

“What? What’s wrong?” Josefyn gulped.

“Look who just walked in.” Ella spun around, her gaze sweeping over the room before landing on the entrance.

Where she watched Kellen Kilic cross over the threshold.