The movement did not go unnoticed.
Darren studied me in the shadowy passage, head cocked to the side as if I was an experiment he wasn’t quite sure of.
The warning bell chimed.
“You should go,” Darren said abruptly. “The judges won’t take kindly to you being late, especially after yesterday’s trial.”
I shot him an incredulous look. “It’s a bit of a formality, isn’t it? You and I both know my fate has already been sealed.”
The non-heir frowned. “You shouldn’t discount yourself, Ryiah.”
I stiffened. “You are truly something,” I told him, “still playing at your mind games even after all you’ve done—”
“Mind games?” Darren looked outraged, even though he had no right to be. “Are you really so daft?”
“Not enough to fall for false flattery twice.”
“For the love of—” Darren slammed his fist against the wall and glared down at me. “I guess I should congratulate myself,” he declared, “on helping the world’s biggest idiot!”
“Helping?” I spat. “Helping? What part of your actions was ‘helping?’” I climbed the remaining steps so that he could not escape. Fury was keeping my senseless attraction in check.
“Was it when you were sabotaging me in the mountains? Insulting me at every turn? Or when you kissed me and then dumped an entire vat full of pig’s blood on me the next time we talked?” I grabbed the non-heir’s sleeve, forcing him to meet my cold, angry eyes. “Really, Darren, which one of those should I be thanking you for?”
Our faces were inches apart, and Darren’s livid gaze was burning me alive. “You really want the truth, Ryiah?” he demanded.
I refused to cower.
“Priscilla was going to go after you whether I led the hazing or not.” He watched the full impact of his words hit me like a ton of bricks. “She had something far worse in mind, something that might have actually made you resign. She hates you. And after she found out that I’d…that you and I…”
I released Darren’s arm and dropped his gaze immediately, suddenly aware that I had been holding onto both for far too long. There was a heavy pounding in my chest.
“Jake saw us that night,” Darren continued, unfazed. “Eve warned me what they were planning. I thought maybe if I avoided you, Priscilla would drop the vendetta, but she didn’t.” Darren exhaled loudly. “I am sorry I didn’t warn you, Ryiah, but Priscilla would never have listened to me if I’d asked her to stop. It would have just complicated things…so I told her I wanted to help. I figured it was better that way. I could halt the worst of her plan without anyone being the wiser. She was much more willing when she thought you were a mistake.”
“You call that ‘helping?’” I choked. “You still let her haze me. and it was you, not Priscilla, who led me straight into it.”
Darren raised a brow. “I was helping you. It was much better than her original idea, and everyone knows hazing is a tradition—”
“So that’s your argument.”
“I knew you could take care of yourself,” Darren countered. “Plenty of Jerar’s mages have gone through the same.”
“You weren’t hazed.”
Darren rolled his eyes dramatically. “If you must know, Ryiah, I still almost stopped you, only you opened that door anyway, and by then it was too late.”
A long silence followed his confession.
He had to be lying. He is just trying to manipulate me again.
What had he said right before I went outside that night? “Wait, Ryiah, don’t—”
And then to Priscilla when she was about to attack me: “She’s not worth it.”
Had he been protecting me? He couldn’t have. But then why had he only deflected my casting when I had tried to attack him? And why had he ceased brawling with my brother the second Alex had mentioned my name? And stopped his own brother that first day of trials?
Millions of thoughts were racing through my head, and none of them were making any sense. Or rather they were. I just wasn’t sure I wanted to trust them.
“Still can’t make up your mind about me, can you, Ryiah?”
I glanced up, startled.
Darren’s garnet eyes met mine. He seemed tired, and I wondered if it was because of me, or the trial he had just come from.
“You are probably wondering why I went through the trouble.”
Yes.
“I’ve asked myself the same question many times,” the prince continued, “and I have come to the conclusion that somewhere along the lines of this year I went mad.” He gave me a wry smile. “Luckily for me, it seems to only pertain to things that involve you.”
“But.” I couldn’t think, and my heart was beating impossibly fast. I wanted to believe him, wanted to believe that my irrational feelings were justified but there was still something missing, something pressing at the back of my mind that I was forgetting. Something important that could void all the explanations he had just put forward.
Darren was looking down at me, waiting for my response to his long-awaited explanation. Were we friends, or enemies? After all he had done, it would seem the former.