Page 2 of Destinies of Diamond
I ignored him. I didn’t need to discuss my diet with anyone, thank you very much.
Together, Brendan, August and I made our way back to our table. Knox and Pollux were still there, although Knox was visibly unhappy about it.
There were massive gouges in his side of the table. My heart clenched as I took in the sight of the twisted metal. We might have come back from the Apsid Quasar, but we hadn’t returned in one piece.
I consoled myself with the thought that if things had been excessively bad, Brendan wouldn’t have come after me at all and had stayed with Knox instead. In our little group, he was the only one who could immobilize Knox—if he tried hard enough, at least.
For the moment, the situation was under control, so I slid back into the seat in front of Knox. I shot him a quick smile and he relaxed. Sort of.
He still glared in Argyle’s general direction, muttering, “One of these days, that guy will push me too far and I’ll feed him to Cerberus.”
“Let’s not go there, okay?” I said softly. “Our chimeras have had enough variety in their diet lately.”
Knox twitched, a half-flinch that told me he’d just remembered I was still mad at them. Silence fell between us. I hated it, hated this awkwardness I didn’t know how to deal with. Conversation had flowed so smoothly between us before. I’d felt like I fit in. But now, that sensation of rightness was gone, because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t help but think that they hadn’t trusted me enough to include me. And a part of me couldn’t help but feel that the distrust between us wasn’t wholly unwarranted.
I’d been naive when I’d thought our feelings for one another could magically wipe away all our differences. Where did that leave us?
“We’ve already been over this, Selene,”Sphinx whispered at the back of my mind. “You said you’re going to give them a second chance.”
“And I am,”I offered, mechanically starting to eat my soup.
“Maybe, but are you doing the same for yourself?”
It was a good question, but I didn’t get the chance to answer her. The communications array that lined the walls of the mess hall lit up, announcing an imminent message from our esteemed leaders.
Commander Trevor’s voice echoed over the room, stern, sharp, and almost ominously loud. “Attention, all members of the faculty, students and staff. Due to several schedule anomalies in this year’s curriculum, we will be reorganizing the exam session. Over the next months, we will be holding an additional series of tests, to ensure the fact that our students are prepared at all times for anything that is thrown their way.”
I almost choked on my soup. “Exams? Are they serious? Why now of all times? It’s not even end of term yet.”
It was probably very unattractive, but my lovers didn’t seem to mind. “Well, no,” Brendan replied, “but we are getting close. And to be honest, Selene, I’ve been expecting this.”
From his spot in front of me, Knox nodded. “You haven’t truly had a tough time at the academy in terms of schoolwork. That was always going to change.”
I was tempted to throw something at him, but miraculously, I held back. He wasn’t wrong. I’d had trouble at Chimera Academy since my arrival, but it hadn’t been the actual classes that had given me problems.
Compared to my recent kidnapping, pregnancy and treasonous plans, such concerns seemed trivial.
“You will be receiving a detailed schedule on your personal systems, which you can access through your back-links,” Commander Trevor continued. “It’s highly advisable that you look it over as soon as possible.”
“This is kind of odd,” Pollux said with a scowl. “Why would Commander Trevor make a specific announcement about that? We check our back-link communicators on a regular basis.”
Brendan pursed his lips, suddenly looking troubled. “It would have been easy to have teachers convey this information to us while in class. This isn’t just a regular exam.”
I abandoned my soup, already suspecting where this was going. Ninety-nine percent of the time, any anomaly that happened at the academy had something to do with me.
“Every student will receive a special assignment and an individual supervisor,” Commander Trevor continued. “You will report to the person in question tomorrow.”
I felt tempted to break something or worse, burst into tears. I had a bad feeling about this too, and problems with the staff were the last thing I needed.
But I didn’t get a say and I wouldn’t be able to find out more either, at least not for now. The announcement ended and everyone in the mess hall was left to speculate over what little information Commander Trevor had given us.
“This won’t end well,” I said with a sigh. “Whatever is going on, it has to be connected with my mother’s class.” Things had changed since King Philip had suddenly decided to introduce Terran Sociology in the curriculum and not everyone was thrilled about it.
“It might be, yes,” Pollux replied, “but we can’t really judge until we know more. Either way, it’s going to be all right. We’re going to help you study.”
“I’ve taken exams before,” I replied. “I know how they work. That’s not our main concern and you know it.”
“Well, yes, but it doesn’t hurt to have some extra preparation. For anything or everything.”
