Darkling

10| Dusk

Chapter 10: Dusk (Callum's POV)

We've been reading in silence for an hour. I was getting sleepy, which is normal. I end up taking naps often because I can't sleep at night. 

"Can I ask you something now?" she spoke up hesitantly. 

"You can ask, but I make no promises of answering," I nodded. I couldn't say no. 

She was looking at me so hopefully with such puppy eyes. I didn't say no. 

I always say no. Whenever someone asks me anything, I always say no. And her puppy eyes aren't that great. So why didn't I say no? 

"Yesterday in the cafeteria when everything... happened," she cleared her throat awkwardly, uncertain if it was something I wanted to talk about. "And when you punched Finn, he called you um..." 

"A son of a bitch," I finished the sentence for her, raising my brows. "What about it?" 

"And you replied and asked if he was calling the queen a bitch. Why would you say that?" 

I sighed and then turned my body a little so she was listening to every word and knew that she had my attention. Which she looks very glad to have. "Ilea is a kingdom. Like an old one. So, we also have a royal family here, which I'm sure you know nothing about," I scoffed. 

She glared at me. 

I lifted a brow in response. "Well, do you?" 

"No," she admitted sheepishly. 

"That's what I thought. The queen's name is Gemma. And the king's name is Aaron Nikolai." 

"So?" she shrugged. 

"Jesus," I chuckled. "Aaron Nikolai. Callum Nikolai. Ring a bell?" 

Her eyes widened in realization. "You're the prince of Ilea?!" 

"Mm-hmm," I nodded. 

"Mm-hmm? You're a whole prince and you answer that with 'mm-hmm?'" she frowned. 

"What should I answer with instead?" 

"Anything but mm-hmm," she scoffed. "Why are you here?" 

I blinked in confusion. 

"I mean at Arcane High." 

"Even the prince has to graduate, Clara," I replied, lying through the skin of my teeth. I'm here because if I stayed in the palace without learning to control my powers, I would have killed someone by accident. 

Arcane is very good at teaching everyone control. Obviously, it was ten times harder for me because sometimes I would try to control the fire and I would end up blowing the lights out. The more powers you have, the harder it is. But your first two years in Arcane, that is your freshman and sophomore year, you learn control. There's a class for that. And if you still can't do it, then you keep taking that class along with other subjects. And of course, the ones who take history are able to learn control faster because they learn more about their power. 

"So... you live in a palace?"

"Yeah. But we're not such an old kingdom, morally." 

She frowned in confusion. 

"Most kingdoms like ours still have a dictatorship. We don't. The council board is made up of people who represent each category." 

"Of the hierarchy?" 

I nodded. 

"There's a rich man and rich woman. There is a middle-class man and a middle-class woman. A... poor man and a poor woman. And an older man and older woman to represent senior citizens. These people are normal people with normal jobs. They just get extra financial support from the royal family when they need it. And nobody on the board knows each other. They all represent their category and we listen to everyone's opinions before making a decision for Ilea," I explained.