Chapter 15

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Nimue's POV

I couldn't get over the fact that Catarina brought up the fact that she wasn't into guys that bluntly. It wasn't exactly something I'd be comfortable telling the whole group that easily. Aura seemed to think that Collin's reaction was hilarious but then again, she wasn't the hardest to make smile once you got to know her. Her newest habit was to watch the bunch of us as though she was worried, we were all just going to disappear; as if she had dreamed us all up and was going to wake up at some point to find us all gone. I know that she had found the family she missed in us and I worry that she's going to be devastated if one of us gets injured.

She was the one who developed the majority of the plan and the guilt would eat her alive if any one of us were to end up dead or crippled because of something she missed while planning. I was well aware that she wasn't sleeping and instead chose to run over the plans she'd drawn up, muttering about all the things that could go wrong before she changed some small thing to ensure it wouldn't happen. According to the books and records I've collected on the Plague, there was not much else we could do in the way of planning. All we could do now was wait for the ball to happen. While the Academy had school dances, they were nothing fancy. All the students showed up in their nicest training gear and we would stand around, eating the cookies the chefs would prepare and discuss different ways of disarming an enemy. Not exactly party conversation.

Unbeknownst to Aura, Catarina and I had made small changes to our dresses and I was eager for her to see them. This was something we would all remember, and I wanted to look good. Aura and I had grown up together and we had seen each other in almost every possible state, except for in finery. My job for the next three days was to figure out how to get Catarina to dance with me. I wasn't sure when it happened, but I think I may have developed feelings for her as the quest continued. Every time she laughed or brought up some fancy new spell, my heart would stutter in my chest and I had to fake a smile to hide how nervous she made me. Figures that I've contracted emotions for the girl who resembled a twelve-year-old when we met her. Though it wasn't as strange as I was probably making it out to be given that I was only one year older, and she had been giving me signs.

Case in point when she saved my life and nearly died herself. But I couldn't be sure if it was her caring about me as a friend or her caring about me because she cared about me. Sprawling out on the bed, I extend my arms and legs out into a star and I make out little shapes in the patterns on the ceiling. It was an activity I had picked up during the past couple of days and it had managed to keep my mind off of the impending battle.

If my thoughts wandered to the fight, there was no telling what I could come up with. I wasn't ecstatic about thinking of my friends dying in front of me, despite my efforts to save them. With my attention focused on the shapes, I hadn't noticed the dip of the bed when someone crawls onto it beside me. However, it was difficult not to notice the scent of peaches that the witch of group somehow managed to carry with her wherever she went. Cat nestles into my shoulder and stares up at me with wide eyes. Automatically my arm curls around her shoulders and rubs small circles along her arm. She lets out a soft sigh and wraps her arm around my stomach, pulling me closer before she closes her eyes and lets her breath even out. Thinking she had managed to fall asleep, I tried to pull my arm out because if I didn't get away from her, I was going to do something I would regret. A small snort sounded from behind me and Menidise was suppressing laughter as she witnesses my awkwardness. Her pale skin was as flushed as a banshee could get and her staggered exhales were evidence enough of how funny she found my current situation. Her legs kick up slightly as she laughs at me and it takes everything in me not to lunge at her. Well everything in me and the vice grip Cat has on me. Desperately trying to peel her arm off of me, she groans and shifts so that she's practically on top of me causing me to freak out internally.

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