𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚆𝚑𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚁𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚗

Chapter Twelve: A single crow means misfortune

"Oh my god, is that a kitten?!" Selina says, sitting down on the floor beside me.

I glance up, having not heard her come into the dorm room. "Yeah. I named her Magnifique," I say, smiling as Selina held the small white fur ball.

"Aw, hello Magnifique," She whispers. "I have a kitten at home. A little black one. I named her Scarecrow,"

I smile softly as I watch Selina. "How was Capture the flag?" I ask.

"Oh, right. You didn't go. Is your wing okay?" She says, setting Magnifique carefully on the rug. We both watch as the small kitten climbs into my curled wing, then lies there to sleep. She keeps doing that. How was I supposed to get up now?

"Yeah. I just didn't want to get more hurt just as it healed," I say, shrugging. "So, how'd it go?"

"Anyhow. Um, Capture the flag went decently. Nikolas accidentally flew into a flower field, though, so he smells like pollen. I don't think he's been stung by a bee yet..." She smiles as she spoke. "Um, Amir got the flag, which doesn't surprise me since he's super competitive,"

"Sounds like somebody else I know," I say, shrugging.

"Hey!" Selina says, nudging my shoulder with a laugh.

"You are really competitive, Blaze," I say, tilting my head.

"Okay, I.R.I.S." She says with a laugh again.

I shrug innocently. I would never admit this out loud, but I was beginning to get used to the unique nickname she had given me, which meant that Amir and Nikolas now called me that more often than my actual name. But we did call Selina Blaze most of the time, and Amir was called Wolfie, so... I'm fine with I.R.I.S.

I glance over my shoulder as somebody sat down behind me, tapping my shoulder. My eyes land on Dante. He had dark brown hair that, from a distance, can easily be mistaken as black. His cheeks and nose were covered with freckles, and his eyes were a dark shade of brown. He wore some sort of beaded necklace with random letters added to it. None of these letters involved Dante's initials. I scowl, crossing my arms and looking behind me. "Go away," I mutter, crossing my arms.

"Come on, I.R.I.S. I just want to ask you somethin'," He says, a light, barely even noticeable Italian accent ringing in his voice.

An empty silence followed, and Professor Garrido explained one of many elf wars. I was beginning to get tired of hearing this. Every two weeks, a new elf war in a new century.

"Well? Are you mute all of a sudden?" I snap, keeping my eyes on the professor while keeping my voice low.

"Whisper!" Dante whispers. "And, if you don't mind me asking, what happened in the woods the other night? You know, when you and that Starling kid, Nicolo? I don't really know, um, but I asked Alex. He didn't answer. And Nicolo—"

"His name is Nikolas," I growl, turning my head so I could look at Dante. "Get it right, or don't say it at all,"

Dante's eyes were wide with surprise, but he quickly hid them with a cunning smirk. "What's with you and that kid anyways? You two are always defendin' each other like some stupid duo," Dante whispers, sitting back in his chair and crossing his arms.

"What are you talking about?" I whisper. I'd never heard Nikolas defend me. I mean, except for the one time with Adira, but he hadn't known I'd been there. I've defended Nikolas countless times while he was both in the room and nowhere near.

"You know. Starling's always saying such great stuff about the Elias Drozdov. I mean, it's a little hard to believe, but he seems pretty certain that you are a holy saint," Dante says.