Supernova

Chapter Forty Six - A Fate Worse Than Deathmatch

A/N: Hey homies, I just wanted to yet again thank everyone who takes the time to read my little story here. Hope you're enjoying the journey & I hope you're excited for my all time favourite OC, Iliana Ragnor to make her official debut in a few chapters. Not that I'm biased or anything, but she's wicked cool. I don't really see Cassie as a self insert in any respect...but Iliana....

Being back on campus was still a little depressing and hard on the mind, but less so. Regardless, Elias seemed to have thought of a plan for that too, and casually reminded me that we hadn't been taking Deathmatch as seriously as we once had. I told him he was absolutely right. At this point, we were still undefeated, sitting at ninety-eight wins. A comfortable sitting point between having more than beat Demon and Needles, and not much further to go until we dethroned Leo Claeson and Iliana Ragnor as current champions. I supposed that his bringing this up after going home for the holidays was less coincidental than I originally thought. I laughed and asked him about it.

"Leo doesn't know I've participated in Deathmatch at all, actually." Elias smiled knowingly at me. "He is comfortable on his throne. For now."

"I wish I could see the look on his face when he finds out you dethroned him," I told him sadistically in a way that made us both laugh. The intersection of sibling rivalry and hunger was one we hardly ever stood at, hardly ever needed to, especially anymore, but not one that was unfamiliar in any respect.

"You will," he told me.

I was confused about that, and he explained. Leo and Iliana had been champions for years, never having been dethroned, but when a new pair is about to dethrone the old champions, they tend to like to have them battle the reigning pair. Even if they're alumni. They don't often refuse. They're often eager to hold onto their throne, even years after leaving The Academy. Headmistress Brangwen had been right, it seems, that bonds from The Academy tended to last the test of time. Nevertheless, when we'd won our one hundred and fifty ninth match, they'd invite Leo and Iliana back to fight us. Hype it up. Have people bet. It would likely have a huge turnout.

"Excellent," I swooned, placing a dramatic hand to my forehead.

"Indeed," Elias agreed, his selfish smile on his face. If he'd had fangs, they would have been visible. I almost had to remind myself that he didn't.

But then, a horrible image entered my mind. Leo Claeson, a direct link to Empress Claeson, would know who I was, and be able to carry that information around with him to use however he pleased. I sat in my shock for what felt like a few seconds, but was perhaps longer. Elias' right hand found mine and his left found its way under my chin to lift it. In his eyes were the calm ocean waters I could float my life raft on.

"He won't," he assured me.

"How do you know?" I asked him. It came out nothing but a whisper.

"Because he is deeply uninterested in my life," he began.

I was unsatisfied. "He won't be a sore loser?"

"He will most definitely be a sore loser," Elias said, his light mocking tone coating those last two words, amusing himself with the term. "But he's more than aged out of his tendency to run to his mother to nurse his wounds. He doesn't spend much time with Empress Claeson either way."

"Why not?" I asked him.

"Hard to say," he told me. A diplomatic way of telling me his tongue was staying between his teeth on that one. It made me uneasy, but I was still making the active decision to trust both Eli, my friend, and Heir Claeson, my partner, so I swallowed my feelings towards it. After a few seconds of pause, noticing I did not and didn't know how to respond, he took a breath. "Besides, between Princes anyways, if the Heir makes a request, it is quite the foolish choice to go against it."