Page 21 of Elemental Hall: Nautica (Elemental Hall #1)

“So you’re saying that this wasn’t an official challenge?” Orion asks, sounding angry.

I open my eyes slowly, looking around the room.

I’m lying in a bed, in a clean, open space that must be Nautica’s infirmary.

I’ve mostly managed to avoid it until now, thanks to Nissa’s efforts.

Orion is there; did he carry me all the way back?

So is Elemental Mistress Halan. The elemental mistress looks down at me levelly.

“You’re awake, that’s good. I was just explaining to Orion here that the challenge you were sent on has nothing to do with the school. The Green Tower Pool is abandoned for a reason.”

“The kraken,” I croak out. My voice barely wants to function.

“A particularly old and vicious example of its kind. To survive it, even wounded, is impressive.”

It doesn’t feel impressive. My body aches, although there isn’t the same ragged, tearing agony that there was before.

“Someone sent me there,” I point out.

Elemental Mistress Halan nods. “Someone who wants you hurt or killed, it would seem.”

“It’s the Umbran students,” Orion says. “It must be. I’ll—”

“You will do nothing to act against fellow students of this academy,” Elemental Mistress Halan snaps back.

“We will find who did this, and they will be punished for it. For now, Seraphina, you should rest. Your wounds have been healed, but it will still take you time to recover your strength. You will need all of it for the water flow challenge tomorrow.”

Orion looks surprised. “Mistress Halan, surely you’re not expecting Sera to dive straight back into a challenge when she’s injured?”

There is some sympathy on Elemental Mistress Halan’s face when she looks my way, but that doesn’t change what she says.

“The rules here are quite clear. We provide instruction, we provide opportunities for you to learn, but the challenges are what determine whether you pass or fail. We cannot allow elementalists out into the world who have not proven themselves. That means completing the challenge.”

“What happens if I can’t?” I ask. I don’t feel strong enough to do anything like that so quickly, but I also don’t know if I’ll have a choice.

“This challenge is not one that can easily be repeated,” Elemental Mistress Halan says. “You would have to return home and wait until next year to try again.”

I swallow back my fear of that possibility. Months stuck in the village, after all I’ve gone through here? When my parents might still try to marry me to Gerant? When the recruiter found me, I felt as if my whole life had changed. I can’t go back to my old life now.

“You don’t have to decide right away,” Elemental Mistress Halan says. “The challenge is tomorrow. We’ll see how you feel then.”

Elemental Mistress Halan leaves. Orion is still there and he doesn’t look any happier.

“I can’t believe they’re forcing you to do the challenge even though you’re hurt. They can’t do that.”

“They can, though,” I point out. “I even understand it, a little. They want elementalists who are able to rise to any challenge.”

“Even when that’s because someone has deliberately tried to get them killed?” Orion replies. “I don’t care what the mistress says, those Umbran students—”

“What if it’s not them?” I ask.

Orion looks a little taken aback. Good, it means he’s thinking. “What do you mean?”

“Ash and Sybil tried to kill Darius and me during the storm challenge,” I say. “How hard would it be for one of them to write a fake note?”

“Not that hard,” Orion admits. “You really think it’s one of them?”

“Maybe, maybe not.” I keep from committing to a possibility, mostly because I suspect that Orion will run off and attack anyone I pick. I don’t want him getting into that kind of trouble over me.

I’m surprised that he’s even prepared to. I know we kissed, but it isn’t as if anything has happened since then. We’re back in our fake relationship groove. I’m not the person Orion should be getting expelled over.

“Did you carry me all the way back from the pool?” I ask, trying to distract him from thoughts of vengeance.

“I had to get you to a healer as quickly as possible,” Orion says.

“How did you even find me?” There’s no way that Orion should have been there to save me. No way he could have known the trouble I would be in.

“Cara told me about the challenge you’d been given. She knew that the Green Tower Pool was dangerous, but not why. I’d heard about the kraken. I knew that I had to help.”

“What if our teachers had sent me to face down a kraken?” I ask. “It’s not as if the challenges they set are exactly safe.”

“I thought that they might have done this,” Orion says. “I was angry with them. I thought Elemental Mistress Halan might just be determined to test you to destruction.”

And he was ready to pick an argument with one of the most powerful figures at the academy on my behalf?

I’m not sure that I’m comfortable with that.

It’s too much. I know that he’s pretending to be my boyfriend.

I know that things have gone a step further now that we’ve kissed, but I… I’m not comfortable with that.

I’m not comfortable with any of it. Not with being stuck in a fake relationship that exists only because it’s convenient for both of us. Not with being stuck in a strange halfway place where neither of us wants to go further, and we’re both caught up playing a part.

“Orion, why did you come to save me?” I ask.

Orion looks puzzled. “What kind of question is that? You’re my friend, and I—”

“Your friend?” I say. “Is that all?”

Orion doesn’t seem comfortable now. He takes a step away from the bed. “Look, Sera, if this is about our arrangement, I—”

“I kissed Darius.” I don’t know why I blurt it out like that so suddenly and abruptly. It’s the kind of thing that, if we were in a real relationship, might hurt Orion deeply. I don’t want to hurt him, though. I just want to try to find a way to make things simpler between us.

“Why are you telling me that?” Orion asks, his expression wary.

“Because I need you to know. Darius and I… well, there isn’t anything right now, but I want there to be. It’s been building up since he arrived here, and when we rescued him after the Umbrans trapped him in that sea cave, I kissed him.”

“But you didn’t tell me at the time?” Orion says.

“Because I was worried that it might make things too complicated. That it might hurt you. That it might mess everything up here.”

“But you’re telling me now?” He clearly doesn’t understand.

To be honest, I’m not entirely sure if I understand why I’m doing this now, only that I need to do it.

I came close to dying, and I’m grateful that Orion saved me, but that’s all that seems to be between us: some complex web of gratitude and practical need.

I’m attracted to him, but it isn’t enough.

“Orion, you asked me to pretend to be your girlfriend because you knew that nothing was ever going to happen between us,” I say.

“And that’s fine. It was good for both of us, but now…

I can’t pretend that I feel nothing for Darius.

I can’t go around playing at being with you when it’s him I want to be with. ”

Orion stands there for a few seconds. I’m not sure how he’s going to react. I’m not sure how I want him to react. Should he be angry? Should he declare some hidden love for me? All of it seems both too dramatic and too childish to want.

Instead, Orion’s expression stills as he gives me a steady look.

“I understand, Sera.”

“You do?” That catches me off guard.

He nods. “I’ve spent my time trying to avoid an arranged marriage, trying to be free to do what I want.

I can hardly blame you for wanting the same kind of freedom.

I’ll admit, I don’t get what you see in a guy like Darius, but that isn’t the point, is it?

If you want to be with him, then I don’t get to hold you back for the sake of a relationship that was never real. ”

He’s taking this much better than I thought he might.

“You’re a great friend, Orion,” I say. “You’ve done a lot for me. You brought me into a group when I would have been alone otherwise. You saved my life back with the kraken. I don’t want to lose that, but I can’t keep pretending that I don’t feel anything when it comes to Darius.”

“You’re not losing anything,” Orion assures me.

“Are you going to be okay?”

“You’re expecting my heart to break?” Orion asks with a wry smile.

“I mean, with your parents, the marriage to Princess Tia, all of that?”

Orion nods. “I think we bought enough time for them to start to get used to the idea of my being here. And I guess if it looks like they might change their mind, I can try to find someone else to help me the same way. I’ll be fine, Sera.

Now, I should probably get to class. I thought I was going to have you walking all of us through the water manipulations we’ll need for the challenge. We’ll need to prepare.”

It’s an excuse for him to leave; both of us know it, but I’m okay with that. As Orion leaves, for the first time in a long time, I start to feel as though some of the turmoil within me has started to quiet down.

I’ve done what I need to do. I’ve made my choice. Now I need to focus on getting stronger, because the challenge ahead isn’t going to wait for me.