Supernova

Chapter Fifty Two - Claeson Family Values

A/N: Okay, okay, okay, I've hyped up a lot of chapters about being some of my favourites, but this one might actually be my personal favourite. I mean, I wrote Cassie in first person POV because I wanted to express her trauma dumpster fire of an internal monologue and explore what a sensory disability would turn a person into, but Iliana is truly my baby. And here she is, in all of her well-meaning yet sarcastic bitch/ruthless mom friend glory. 

What nobody in the world knows, besides the two of us, obviously, is that Iliana Ragnor came to see me in my dorm room after the match.

Elias and I celebrated, you'd better believe, for a couple hours in the shower, and had our Team Untouchable victory milkshakes at the bar, but there eventually came a time when his breathing deviated similarly to how it did when he was about to tell me he was heading to the library. I let out a long sigh and lifted my eyebrows, challenging him. His eyes flared with some dread as he informed me that he had been invited to spend some time with Demon, and Leo, and Needles, just like old times. No girls allowed. Sigh. I knew exactly where that idea and those parameters had come from, and despite the fact that they weren't going to be alone, it almost irked me more. But I told him, whatever, fuck off, I'd find something to do. His eyes seemed apologetic when he smiled, but he didn't stay. What I ended up doing most of the night was throwing chocolates and fruit into the air, catching them in my own mouth, and watching the snow fall outside out massive dorm room window that sat above the bed.

That was, until there was a knock at the door.

I was shocked. I mean, I had no fucking idea who it might be. I knew for certain that every friend I had here was off at some stupid fucking no-Nova-allowed circle jerk. I almost considered ignoring it, but before I had even formed the thought to contemplate it, there was another knock. This one was longer and more impatient. I shrugged to myself and obeyed, and when I saw Iliana standing there, pale blue arms crossed at her chest, for one of the first times ever, I froze. Became as silent and still as her entirely white eyes.

She didn't bother waiting for an invitation. She kept her arms crossed, nudging my arm as she pushed past me, giving no indication towards what she made of my dumbfounded state. I shook the cloudiness out of my head, turning towards her, suddenly widening my stance and crouching a bit. As I let go of it to lift and push density into my hands, the door closed behind me, trapping us inside. If it was another fight she came for, I'd give her one.

"Look, about King Claeson," I started, my voice solid and indifferent.

She lifted a hand and flicked a wrist nonchalantly. The action stunned me more than her presence.

"Oh, I don't care what Leo does, especially with Academy students," she said with a bit of a laugh. A laugh. Her tone was completely different than it had been in the arena. Almost like she was joking, and letting me in on it. "I mean, what's the worst that could happen? One of you catches something? He gets you pregnant?"

She walked around the bar and stood next to one of our barstools, the one near the wall, the one Elias always took, and her hair ran over it, wiping it clean, I realized, and dropped the dirty, possibly paralytic infested water into the sink where it swirled down the drain. She then took a seat, looked back at me, and smiled. Smiled. It was the weirdest fucking thing that had ever happened to me. I just kind of stood there at the door like an idiot. I had no idea what to do.

"Do you want a milkshake?" I asked her.

"Sure," she said.

I took two from the fridge, both of them labelled CS rather than EC, and brought them around the bar, offering one to her. She didn't seem particularly excited or unimpressed. She just peeled the lid off, as if she was familiar with the process, stuck the straw I'd brought with it into it, and took a few sips. She didn't put it down between, and her pale blue fingers wrapped around the cup comfortably.