Warsong | Celeste Academy Series Book #4

Chapter One ⚜ Simple Dinner

It had been a really long day and the Twelve were undeniably tired dealing with the cleanup for the festival. They were short on hands, so the rest had to double the effort in order to accomplish things on schedule. As much as the rankers hated to acknowledge it, the academy was closing down temporarily. It would take a month or so before they would reopen, and it wouldn't even be on the original campus, but a new location.

Dinner was served and the Twelve along with Vallore had gathered in the dining room, feasting solemnly. Tamara and Keelan were the only ones talkative while the rest felt contented with listening.

"So, how was it?" Keelan looked at the poor drakon who sat, pushing around the food on his plate. "Did you have fun today?"

"Fun?" He grumbled. "I had no fun at all."

"Why not?" he asked, shoving a spoonful of rice into his mouth.

Vallore did not reply. His pointed ears were red and he was grinding his teeth together. The fork in his fingers had already bent to a certain degree. It seemed he was holding himself back from losing his temper.

Ah, the Circle could really be aggravating. They never know how to properly accommodate a newcomer, only knowing how to make them into their gopher. Was this some sort of initiation test?

"Enough, Keelan, don't pester him," Elfre said. "Just eat your dinner."

Valeriana shook her head at the exchange and caressed Femeron's head. She was a behaved little dragon at dinner and knew that it was not a place to mess around at. The last time she jumped on the table, she received severe scolding from the fourth-ranker. Since then, she kept herself on Valeriana's lap and waited for the food to be delivered to her mouth.

"That's good, baby," Valeriana cooed. "You eat a lot. You have a lot of growing to do."

Femeron's golden eyes blinked up at Valeriana. She gave her what looked like a toothed grin, her scales glistening under the warm candlelight.

"Oh, yeah, I have a question. It's been bothering me ever since we had the Gathering with the Headmaster," Aneeka said.

"What?"

"Didn't you guys expect an attack at the festival since the issue with Valeriana before? I mean, the demons have been acting up lately. I'm sure it would've been an expected turn of events."

"Truth is, we had set a plan earlier to draw out the perpetrator behind the demon attacks, especially after we knew of certain truths that came out from the investigations the headmaster sent underway while we were . . . out. The perfect setting had been the festival, only that it did not go the way we planned it to be," Corvan said. "It was after we discovered Valeriana's possible relationship with Charles as a second cousin."

A chorus of cries resounded.

Tamara's eyes went wide as she looked between Valeriana and Charles, nearly dropping her fork. "Your cousin? Which side?"

"Father's," Charles casually answered.

"That means . . ."

Valeriana and Tamara's gaze met while the truth dropped to everyone's head.

"By the grace of the gods!" the third-ranker exclaimed. "Holy lords, that means we're related! I always knew we had something special!"

Keelan almost choked on his chicken and Brindon's gaze became even more frozen than usual.

"I have so many questions," Elfre said, downing her cup of water. "Pass me that jug." She waved at Aneeka, who moved to obey.

"Alright, so," Aneeka began as she handed Elfre the jug of water. "Aside from discovering Valeriana's possible relationship with the Larkovian high nobility and the whole Direct Control purifying specialty issue we discussed yesterday, my question remains. You were expecting the attack?"