The Knight Academy

CHAPTER 35

I wore my mask and coat that midnight, and Clive held my wrist.

"Don't go alone! I told you, I won't be hurting you anymore!" Clive's eyes were earnest and I retracted sobs.

"Are you crying?" he asked the obvious.

"I can't have the Headmaster doing this—holding it over my head like—like—"

"Blackmailing, right?" Clive hugged me tightly, as though he was off to a war. "It hurts, doesn't it?"

"It's does," I hoarsely responded.

"Let me go with you."

I heard the clock outside the dorm tick and the silence our room had besides the lantern I left on.

Did I want to bring innocent Clive into this mess? The memories of when he joked around with me losing made me waver.

He was definitely a sociopath if not narcissistic.

Call me a fool, because I felt like one as I hugged him back. "Can you really?"

"Of course," Clive grinned, and grabbed his cloak and mask. "Tonight we can end it, I hope."

End what?

Down the stairs Clive held my hand and led me down each steps, and I felt warm, although I should've seen. Should've known.

"It's definitely not your family, I've checked, after all," he whispered to comfort me. "But we need to know the source of the rumor."

"Why?"

"I can't have you being hurt," Clive whispered. "I don't think I really like it. Not like this."

"Like what?" I asked.

Clive turned to me and I saw the silhouette of his mask, and it bothered me I could not see his face.

We reached the Headmaster's room and opened the door to Stein and Vic. They were easy to spot, one with dark skin, the other pale. They were taller, but when the jumped up in their coats the Headmaster waved for them to calm down.

"Don't fight them. They'll be your replacement soon enough," the Headmaster muttered.

"Them?" Vic laughed crudely. "They waved at killing. I've watched them sometimes, and the Rottings boy even prays over their corpses! He's not fit to be a—"

"Shut up!" The Headmaster stood up. "Vagrant, I'm disappointed in you. Not knocking, rushing into my study with Nell, and most of all, your lie last time."

Was it a lie? I turned to Clive.

"It's not a lie—" I weakly refuted. "My family has no heretics!"

"What about you, Nell?" The Headmaster stood up and produced something. It was just a book.

No, my letters were in that book? How?

"Don't you look confused from what I can see? Such a silly boy." The Headmaster laughed and everyone but Clive followed.

"I didn't do it!" Clive said loudly.

Did he? Did he find my letters to myself, locked in that book? The first book father ever gave me, on a spur of the moment?

Are you toying with me?

Clive took off his mask and stepped on it. The crack was loud and Stein and Vic had grown quiet.

"I'm quitting. I don't want to be a person of Goldenvale if I have to betray my loved one! You can gouge my eye or hurt me as you wish, but I'm not weak enough to lose my humanity! Nathan taught me that!"