Page 14 of Elemental Hall: Nautica (Elemental Hall #1)

Am I about to poison myself?

I raise the glass of clear fluid in the sunlight, trying to spot any imperfections in the liquid. This is the moment when I’ll know if I’ve managed to pass the challenge or if I’ve just made a huge mistake.

Already, there are plenty of students throwing up at the side of the clearing. It seems that the elementalists testing us won’t use a deadly poison, but they’re not above using something milder, something that gives us more than enough incentive to complete the test properly.

I think I’ve purged the glass of poison. I think I’ve changed it back to cool, clear water, but there’s only one way to find out. I set the glass to my lips and drink, draining it to the last drop.

It’s water, only water.

I set the glass down and stand there smiling until Elemental Mistress Halan is sure that I’m not going to vomit.

Then I go to stand with the group of those who have already succeeded.

It already contains Nissa, Cara, and Orion.

Aria must have made some small mistake, because she’s throwing up with the others.

That means she’ll have to try again tomorrow and every day until she gets it right.

I want to run over there and hold her hair back from her face, but we have strict instructions not to interfere with the outcome of the test, or Nissa would probably already have healed everyone who got poisoned.

It’s Darius’s turn. He picks up the glass the elementalist running the test hands him, and I see a look of concentration on his face as he summons elemental power. He raises it as if in a toast to everyone assembled, then drinks it down in one. He stands there casually, clearly with no ill effects.

I smile a little at that. It’s good to know that what I taught him worked. For a second, I remember the instant of that teaching, our hands on one another’s, our power intermingled…

“Is everything okay with you and Orion?” Cara whispers beside me.

I look over guiltily, frowning as I try to make sense of the question. “Yes, why?”

“It’s just that your eyes always seem to be on the Umbran when he’s around. And… well, by this point, usually people are sneaking into one another’s dorm rooms at night.”

I fight the urge to blush. It’s true. Nautica might officially have separate dormitory buildings for male and female students, but they’re close enough to move between easily and no one seems to police the comings and goings.

Judging by some of the sounds in the night, there are plenty of people sneaking in to be with those they’re seeing.

“No, everything’s fine,” I assure Cara, but she looks doubtful. “We’re just taking things slowly.”

“All right,” Cara says. I can see I haven’t convinced her. It probably has something to do with the rumors still floating around about Darius and me. Sybil seems to be determined to keep spreading them, determined to drive a wedge between Orion and me so that she can step into the gap.

I wonder if there’s any world where Sybil and I could have been friends.

She’s pretty, smart, and she seems to get along with everyone else.

She’s cruel only to me, and the explanation for that is obvious enough: Orion.

I’m half tempted to go over and tell her that Orion and I aren’t really a thing, just to try to make things right between us.

Two things stop me. First, I’ve given my word to Orion. Our agreement gets him out of a tight spot, and it means that I’m not on the fringes here. Orion’s girlfriend is tolerated in a way that a simple girl from a fishing village never could be.

Second, Sybil is a little busy throwing up in the bushes right now. I must admit, after she tried to kill me, that’s good to see.

After the last student tries the challenge, we’re finally free to leave.

I start to drift back in the direction of the dormitory before realizing that I should probably seek out Orion.

I’m pretty sure we should leave on one another’s arms or something, if we’re going to quash the rumors.

I look around, spot him, and hurry over, putting my arm through his.

“What’s this about?” he whispers as I lean into him.

“People are getting suspicious that our relationship isn’t real,” I whisper back. To anyone watching, it will look like we’re whispering sweet nothings in one another’s ears. “All these rumors are making it harder.”

“The rumors don’t matter,” Orion assures me.

“They do to some people. Cara asked if things were okay between us. She thinks, because you’re not sneaking into my room every night, that we can’t be a real couple.”

Orion frowns briefly. “Well, I can think of a way to fix that.”

Is it wrong that I briefly consider the option? “You are not sneaking into my room.”

“Not that,” Orion says. “But if you sneak out tonight and I do the same, people will make their own assumptions about what we’re doing.”

It could work. At the very least, it’s the easiest way to keep the pretense of our relationship going. I nod.

“All right. I’ll see you tonight, near the bay where we study.”

***

The moon shines in through the window of my dorm room, the light helpful, since it will make it easier for me to see my way. It will be easier for me to be seen, too, which is part of the point of tonight. There’s no point in sneaking out so well that no one notices.

I move quickly and quietly across the floor, heading out of my room into the hall.

There are a couple of the other girls out there, and I give them a quick look before heading for the stairs.

I don’t say that I’m going to see Orion, but the very fact that they’ve spotted me leaving in the night should make that obvious.

I slip downstairs, then out into the night air.

I move quickly, heading along the path to the bay.

There are other people out under the moonlight, but I keep moving, not stopping to talk to them.

If I were really trying to sneak unseen to an assignation with a lover, I would probably hide in all the darkest spots, making sure that no one noticed me.

As it is, I simply don’t talk to anyone.

It doesn’t matter if they see me or not.

I make it to the bay. Idly, I wonder if the seraphin is there, but even as I wonder, a large, muscular figure detaches itself from the shadow of the rocks.

Orion looks good in the moonlight. He’s wearing a pale tunic, since it’s cooler at night than in the day, but I can still pick up every detail of his athletic form. I head over to him.

“I think enough people saw me on my way here,” I say.

“A couple of people spotted me leaving too,” Orion replies, with a smile that flashes in the moonlight. There’s something fun about our little conspiracy, letting people think what they want about us, knowing that it’s all for the good cause of keeping Orion at the Elemental Hall.

Orion holds out a hand. “Come with me, Sera. I have a surprise planned.”

“What kind of surprise?” I ask.

“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you,” Orion says. “Come on. We need to spend at least some time out here. We might as well do it together. Or is my company so hard to tolerate?”

I smile back at him. “It’s not hard at all.”

I take his hand and he leads me through the near dark.

When the moonlight isn’t enough, he conjures an elemental spark as bright as a firefly to guide us along the path.

Orion leads the way to a clearing, and in that clearing, there is a blanket spread out on the ground.

For a moment, I think he might actually be planning to sleep with me out here, but then I see the small hamper next to the blanket.

A picnic. The powerful noble young man who everyone assumes will become a general of the elemental forces of Lumina has arranged a picnic. He starts to spread it out on the blanket, looking very pleased with himself.

He should. There are small cakes, delicate sandwiches, a whole bottle of blackberry wine. There’s something sweet and surprising about all of this. It’s the last thing I expected.

“How did you do all of this?” I ask.

“It isn’t hard,” Orion says. “Most of us arrange to have things brought in on the supply boats and this… well, I’ve been thinking about doing this for a little while now. Tonight was just the excuse.”

Most of us, meaning most of the nobles with the resources to arrange it. Some of the sadness I feel at that thought must show on my face, because Orion reaches out to touch my cheek as we sit on the blanket.

“What is it?” he asks.

“I’m just thinking that I don’t have the kind of people who can arrange things like this. My family… I can’t even get news to them about how I’m doing.”

“You miss them,” Orion says.

“Obviously. But it’s not just that. It’s… my whole life is changing. Even if I do ever go back, I won’t be the same person I was when I left.”

“None of us will be,” Orion says. “But maybe that just means that we get to be the people we want to be instead.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Anyone would think that you don’t relish the thought of going back to your noble estates.”

Orion winces. “That reminds me. My family wants us both to visit them.”

“You want me to go visit your family?” I say. That seems like a big step.

“It’s more about what they expect,” Orion replies. “Please, Sera. If I can get through the training without them pulling me from it, I can do what I want.”

“Were you planning to go off and become the general of all the elementalists of Lumina without ever visiting home?”

“I visit already, since it’s so close. As for being a general… I’m not sure it works like that.”

I catch a hint of something in his voice. “And you don’t want to be?”

Orion shrugs. “Not really.”

“What would you rather be instead?”

“I don’t know. Maybe an explorer, one of those elementalists who venture off into the world, searching for new things.”

It’s not an answer I expected. There is so much about Orion that’s unexpected. So much that seems to throw me off kilter every time I think I know what’s going on with him. He’s sweeter than I thought, kinder, less the stereotypical noble.

He’s also sitting very close to me.

This close, I can smell the scent of him, masculine and strangely sweet. I can hear his soft breathing. I look him in the eyes, and it’s like I want to get lost in them.

It’s easy to close the gap and kiss him.

He tastes the way I imagine the moonlight would taste, clean and pure and beautiful, but there’s strength in him too, and as his arms go around me, pulling me to him, I can feel all that strength. I can feel every muscle beneath his tunic.

A part of me wants to pull off his tunic right there and then.

I almost do. I almost turn this into exactly the moment we’re both pretending it is. Somehow, though, I pull back from him.

“I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to be sorry,” he says. “That was… good. At least, I hope it was?”

I nod. “That’s kind of the problem.”

I get to my feet. “I should go.”

“You don’t have to. You could stay. Nothing has to happen.”

I laugh then. “We both know that isn’t true. If I stay, everything is going to happen.”

He gives me a look as if to ask if that would be so bad, but he doesn’t push the issue, doesn’t call me back as I slip away.

Everything between us is meant to be a pretense.

It has benefits for both of us, but the whole point was that I was the one person who wasn’t pushing him for more.

Now, I’m not sure what I want, what I feel.

A part of me still wants to head right back into that clearing, tear Orion’s clothes off, and see where we go from there.

I ignore it.

I head back to the bay instead. I sit by the water, willing the seraphin to come to me. Wanting that peace, that distraction. For a moment, I think I see its scales glittering in the moonlight.

Then it’s gone, the turmoil of my emotions plainly too much for it.