Chapter 50: A Discovered Crush
Chapter 50: A Discovered Crush
Every academy teaches lessons. Some just happen to be life and death.
~ Rebel Beast
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Have you ever had that feeling deep in your gut that told you something was about to change?
That quiet shift in the air where you just knew you were standing on the edge of a life-altering moment.
You could never explain it to anyone else. No one would understand. They’d probably think you were crazy. Yet you could feel it deep in your soul.
Something was coming.
The only question was whether it would be good or bad.
Yes.
That was exactly how Aria felt.
An hour had gone by since Rhydian Drakhar and Caelis Cobryn made their appearance in front of their lawn yet she was unsettled.
Rhydian and Caelis were not your typical beasts, and she’d do well to avoid them like the plague. It had been a mistake on her part to stare at them the way she had earlier. Even with the distance separating them, their eyes had locked onto hers as though they had felt her watching.
Aria could only hope she hadn’t unknowingly challenged or marked herself in some beastly way. The last thing she needed was some unhinged predator deciding she had become an entertaining hunt simply because she’d dared hold eye contact.
Although, now that she thought about it, what were the dragon prince and the famed basilisk even doing at the residence? Were they here to gloat over the attack? Or were they simply counting how many humans were left alive before deciding who to finish off next?
Aria shivered.
Thankfully, Professor Maverick Nightshade had not let them pass through.
But Aria was not deluded to think the both men couldn’t finish them if they wanted to. After Maverick left them alone eventually, they would be nothing but sitting ducks waiting to be killed. This place wasn’t safe anymore.
"I know the beasts are dangerous but one has to admit," Brittney started, "Rhydian Drakhar is smoking hot."
Aria’s head jerked in the direction of the foolish girl.
"Smoking hot as in when he roasts you alive with dragon fire, right?"
Brittney rolled her eyes.
"I’m just saying, if they weren’t dangerous psychopaths and all, which one would be your type? Oh right..." A sly smile spread across her face. "I forgot. You already belong to Professor Nightshade." She punctuated the statement with a dramatic wink.
"Brittney!"
Aria shot her a reprimanding look, but Brittney simply stared back with an innocent expression that screamed, I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.
If anything, she turned toward the other girls. "What about you two? Which one would you pick?"
Alek said."I’ll go with Caelis. I like the quiet, mysterious type."
"Boring!" Trisha jeered. "Rhydian seems fun. Plus, with a body that sinful? Yeah..." She sighed dreamily, already looking like she was picturing something she probably shouldn’t. "I’d climb that dragon like a tree."
Aria made a face.
"You mean a body riddled with STDs? Do beasts even get infections?" she asked, genuinely curious.
"You are such a killjoy, Aria," Brittney groaned.
Aria shrugged unapologetically.
"Just being realistic, that’s all."
"How about being realistic about your..." Brittney made exaggerated air quotes. "...forbidden attraction to your professor?"
"We are so not doing this again, Brittney."
Right then, a knock sounded on the door and just like that, the room fell silent. The girls looked at one another, each silently hoping someone else would answer it.
Trisha suddenly looked terrified.
"The crows aren’t back... are they?"
"Unless crows in bird form have suddenly learned how to knock on doors, I’d say no," Aria replied, climbing to her feet. She couldn’t help wondering if Trisha was beginning to develop post-traumatic stress disorder after everything that had happened.
Taking a steadying breath, Aria opened the door. Then promptly swallowed.
Standing outside was the werewolf who always seemed glued to Professor Nightshade’s side like they had been attached at the hip since birth. If she remembered correctly, wolves called someone like him a Beta.
The Beta looked unusually stiff, and warning bells immediately started ringing inside Aria’s head.
Surely... he hadn’t overheard everything they’d just been saying, right?
Unfortunately, werewolves were famous for their ridiculously sharp hearing.
Oh, fuck her life.
Dimitri cleared his throat, maintaining a perfectly neutral expression as though he hadn’t heard a thing.
"You should all come downstairs. Professor Maverick Nightshade has something he’d like to discuss with everyone."
It was the way he emphasized Professor that made Aria’s soul leave her body.
He knew. He absolutely knew.
How Aria managed to keep the straight look on her face, she would never know.
"Thank you," she said politely before gently closing the door.
The instant it clicked shut, her expression dissolved into one of pure, unfiltered horror.
"He heard us!" Aria cried, dragging both hands through her hair. "He fucking heard us! How am I supposed to face the professor now?" She rounded on Brittney, accusingly pointing a finger at her. "This is all your fault! If you hadn’t encouraged all those stupid thoughts, none of this would’ve happened!"
She was pacing now.
"Whoa, calm down." Brittney held both hands up in surrender, looking far too amused for Aria’s liking. "What’s the big deal? You’re hardly the first girl to confess she finds him attractive."
Aria froze mid-step.
"...Excuse me?"
Brittney and Trisha exchanged a knowing look before bursting into laughter as though they were sharing a joke only the two of them understood.
"Oh, dearest Aria," Trisha sighed dramatically, "your dating portfolio seriously needs updating. Unfortunately, we’re all one bad day away from becoming beast food, so there probably won’t be enough time to fix that."
"I don’t understand." Aria looked between them, completely lost.
"Professor Maverick Nightshade is ridiculously attractive. What makes you think you’re the first girl to notice?" Brittney gestured as though the answer should have been painfully obvious. "I’m pretty sure that man receives at least one love confession every other day. If not every day."
Trisha nodded enthusiastically.
"If breathing were a crime, Professor Nightshade would’ve been sentenced already."
"So yeah," Brittney concluded with a shrug. "You finding him attractive is probably the least surprising thing he’s heard this semester."
That explanation should have made Aria feel better, instead, her stomach sank.
She wasn’t special.
She was simply another girl with an embarrassing crush on Professor Maverick Nightshade.
...Wait. Why did that even bother her? She wasn’t here to date or fall in love. She certainly wasn’t here to join some imaginary queue of girls throwing themselves at a professor.
Yet that strange, irritating feeling refused to disappear. It lingered beneath her skin like an itch she couldn’t scratch.
Aria let out an annoyed sigh.
"Well, we’re needed downstairs. Let’s go see what this is all about." She walked toward the door. "Hopefully this madness will be over soon."
Before the others could respond, she stepped out into the hallway. However, Aria hadn’t needed to worry about how she was going to face Professor Nightshade.
Because the very first person she ran into in the common room was the witch.
Karen Donovan.