𝙎𝙃𝘼𝘿𝙊𝙒 𝙊𝙁 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙁𝙇𝘼𝙈𝙀

𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗻

Thomas

I feel giddy when I walk into the barrack. I could dance right there in the middle of the room for everyone to see, but Sam would probably scold me. Today was a great day and I couldn't stop smiling. Even now I feel a huge grin on my face. Maven was so nice and cute coming with me and telling me stories. It was almost a shame when night came.

"Why do you hang out with him, Tommy? He's not good for you," Sam tells me as soon as I get through the door. My grin falters for a moment. The other people in our barrack move around finding blankets for the night. I squeeze past them to find the bunk bed I share with Sam.

"He's my friend," I answer. And I also think I might... Forget it, I can't tell him that.

Sam scoffs. "Is that what he said?"

"Do you have a problem with him?" I turn to him as we reach our bed. I'm starting to get annoyed. I've always thought of Sam as an older brother. Someone to look up to in this place so far away from home. He's one of the few friends here I truly trust. I always listen to him and take his advice when I have a problem, but his behaviour with Maven is getting to me. This isn't the first time he acts cold around him.

"I have a problem with what he is," Sam says. "Silvers aren't good, much less our friends. You know that."

"What are you talking about? Maven isn't Silver. He was forced to come here just like us." Now he's saying senseless things. Maven a Silver?

"Listen, I wasn't sure at first either, but when I saw you spending so much time with him I began asking around and—"

"Do you really think he's so bad?" I interrupt him.

"I'm just worried about you, Tommy," he runs a hand through his hair in frustration. "You don't know who he is."

"I do know him. He doesn't like being here either. He was conscripted early." I need him to understand. For some reason, I feel like I need his approval.

"Right. Just like he's your friend." He makes quotation marks with his fingers to emphasise the sarcasm in his voice.

"I like him and he's nice to me. Is it wrong that I want to spend time with him and be his friend?" I don't get angry easily, but Sam is pushing it and he's saying things that aren't making sense. I hate feeling stupid. I hate feeling like someone is using my ignorance against me.

"Then tell me, Tommy," Sam spits, "has your friend told you his last name?"

I'm about to retort but stop short. Maven's last name is... his name is Maven... what?

Sam almost laughs at my face. I must look lost. "His name is Maven fucking Calore."

Calore. Why does that name sound so familiar? Calore. Like a Burner. A Burner, like the King of Norta. The Silver King that put us all in here.

"He's a Silver. And not just any Silver, Thomas, he's the Prince of fucking Norta."

I stop breathing for a moment. "What?"

"He's using you, Tommy. He's not your friend."

Maven is Silver? He's the Prince? I think of his black hair and beautiful blue eyes. Black hair like the King's. Blue eyes like the Queen's. I know those figures very well. When I was an apprentice my master made me memorise their features so I would know who the real enemy was, or so he said. They're the ones that put us here, Thomas, while they live in riches, he used to say. I think of the way Maven stands and talks and moves, so elegant and sure of himself. Like he has everything in the palm of his hand. Like he's a royal.

"Maven is..." I can't bring myself to say it.

The way he rarely talks about his family. I used to think it was because he wasn't close to them, but I guess he was just hiding the truth from me all along.

"You shouldn't get close to him, Tommy," Sam repeats and I slump into my bunk bed. "It doesn't do you any good."

He lied to me.

Maven lied. All this time I thought he trusted me, that he told me things he didn't tell anyone else because I was his friend. He must have laughed so hard behind my back, having fooled me. I feel so stupid. How did I not see it before? Now that I know it, it's so obvious. I'd heard about the Crown Prince being in camp. Tiberias the Seventh. If he was here, what would stop the second prince from tagging along?

My chest hurts. I feel my eyes water and it makes me ashamed. I'm embarrassed to hurt for someone like him. A lying Silver. And to think that for a moment I thought that maybe we could...

But he lied. He fucking lied.