Chapter 247: One Hour

Chapter 247: One Hour

Charlotte’s sword pressed a little lower. I adjusted my wrist to keep its edge away from my face and looked into her red eyes.

"Not as far as I know."

"As far as you know?"

"I don’t expect questions like that when I’m meeting someone." I glanced down at our swords pressed together. "Especially not like this."

Charlotte’s expression didn’t change. Without easing the pressure on her sword, she tilted her head slightly.

"Your expression changed when you heard my last name."

"So you decided to cut me in half?"

"You blocked my attack."

"If I hadn’t, this conversation would have been a little more difficult."

A chair scraped against the floor behind us. Edwin had stood up and was clutching his file to his chest. Livia stared at the swords between us, all her earlier cheer gone.

"President," she said carefully. "This is the council room."

Charlotte kept her eyes on me as though she hadn’t heard her.

I angled my sword slightly to the side and pushed forward. A brief scrape rang out as the steel slid against steel. Charlotte’s foot shifted half a step back, and I separated our weapons, putting some distance between us.

I didn’t lower my sword.

Neither did she.

"You hate me!"

"Yeah, I guess I do," I said, tilting my head. I wasn’t trying to provoke her, but that didn’t make the situation any less entertaining.

"Why?!"

"Because you’re a Bladehaven."

The way her fingers tightened around the hilt told me she didn’t like that answer.

I had never imagined my first conversation with my sister going like this.

In fact, I hadn’t thought about what I would say to her at all. Just a few minutes ago, I had been studying her face, trying to understand why she felt so familiar. Now she stood in front of me, trying to get answers with her sword.

I didn’t want to deal with this today.

Especially not in front of two strangers watching us and Iris in the next room.

"I felt the same thing yesterday," Charlotte said.

"There’s something familiar about your mana. But I don’t know where I’ve felt it before."

I didn’t answer.

Charlotte narrowed her eyes as though she had learned something from my silence.

"You felt it too."

This time, I lowered my sword a few centimeters.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about, Major."

Livia took a deep breath.

"Okay, I think we all need a little—"

Charlotte’s wrist moved.

This time, the tip of her sword went straight for my shoulder. I moved out of its path and pushed her weapon aside, but the sharp edge caught the fabric over my right arm.

A thin tear appeared in my uniform.

I frowned.

I had already ruined one uniform yesterday. There was no need for this one to end up the same way.

As Charlotte prepared to pull her sword back, I turned my wrist. I caught her weapon near my hilt and lifted it, reaching for her sword wrist with my free hand.

Just then, the door to the side opened.

"What are you two doing?!"

Iris stood in the doorway with files in her hands. Her gaze moved from me to Charlotte, then to our swords pressed together.

She was finally looking at my face.

It had taken the council president trying to chop me up, but I wasn’t going to complain for now.

"We’re talking," I said.

Iris’s eyes dropped to the tear in my sleeve.

"Is that what you call talking?"

"I thought the Major’s methods were a little strange, too."

I gave up trying to grab Charlotte’s wrist and pulled my hand back. Iris set the files on the nearest table and approached us.

"President." Her voice was more controlled this time. "Would you lower your sword?"

Charlotte studied my face for a few more seconds. Then she separated her weapon from mine and stepped back.

I let my chaos sword dissolve in my palm.

In the silence, I heard Edwin set his file on the table. Livia opened her mouth, then closed it without speaking.

Iris reached for my arm. She held the edge of the torn fabric and frowned as she checked the skin beneath it.

"Are you hurt?"

"No."

Her fingers remained on my arm for another moment. Then she withdrew her hand as though she had realized what she was doing.

"They told me you’d gone back to your classroom," I said.

Livia suddenly started whistling and busied herself with the papers on the table.

Iris glanced at her, then back at me.

"I had work to finish here."

"I can see that."

Iris pressed her lips together. She clearly wanted to say something, but after looking at the other people in the room, she decided against it.

"Come outside."

She took hold of my jacket sleeve and started toward the door. As I followed her, Charlotte’s voice came from behind us.

"Cassian."

I turned my head.

She had sheathed her sword, but the suspicion in her eyes remained.

"Our conversation isn’t over."

After making sure Iris wasn’t looking, I stuck out my tongue at Charlotte and gave her the middle finger. With Iris beside me, she probably couldn’t retaliate even if she wanted to.

Using my Iris for something like this... I guess I really am a bad person.

Without waiting for her response, I followed Iris out of the room.

---

Iris didn’t release my arm until we were some distance from the council room. When she stopped at a corner by a window, she let go and turned to me.

"Why did you come here?"

"To see you."

"Then how did you and the president end up drawing swords on each other?"

"I don’t know."

Iris raised her eyebrows.

"This time, I really didn’t do anything," I added. "I just didn’t shake her hand and asked where you were. Then I tried to leave."

"Why didn’t you shake her hand?"

"I didn’t feel like it."

Iris looked at my face for a few seconds before putting a hand to her forehead.

"Talking to you can be exhausting sometimes."

"You’ve been ignoring me for two days."

She lowered her hand and looked at me.

Her expression told me I shouldn’t have said that. We had only just started talking again. Making her angry now wasn’t a good idea.

"And you’ve apparently been getting along just fine with other girls," she said.

"If you mean Layla, things between us aren’t what you think."

"How do you know what I’m thinking?"

"Myra didn’t exactly try to hide it."

Iris turned toward the window. A few students passed at the other end of the corridor. I noticed she was waiting for them to move out of earshot.

"You went out to dinner with her," she said at last.

"Yes."

"We both know that, Cassian."

"She asked me for help. That’s what we talked about over dinner."

"What kind of help?"

I thought about what Layla had told me about Felix. Then I remembered how hard she had tried to hit me in the face with her staff.

"She wants to learn how to use her spells better."

That was one of the things we had talked about, too.

Iris turned back to me.

"Shouldn’t you have talked about that at the training field?"

"We could have, but there were special circumstances."

That clearly wasn’t the answer she wanted. She watched me silently for a while, then folded her arms across her chest.

"I see."

No, I had said the wrong thing again.

Predicting the angle of Charlotte’s sword earlier had been easier than finding the right answer in this conversation.

"Iris, that dinner—"

"You can have dinner with whoever you want."

She had cut me off, but her voice wasn’t as angry as I had expected. She sounded more like she disliked having to repeat herself.

"I’m not trying to tell you who you can see."

"Then why won’t you talk to me?"

Iris’s fingers tightened around her jacket sleeve.

"What did I tell you in the corridor?"

I frowned slightly.

"Which corridor?"

"The day you were mopping the floors."

I tried to remember that conversation. I had been holding the mop. Iris had come over and asked why I was being punished. Then I had asked if she was free that evening.

"You had things to do," I said.

"What did I say after that?"

I looked at her before answering.

She had said she could spare about an hour.

"Cass..." Iris looked away and continued more quietly. "I thought I could see you if I finished those things early. I told you that."

And I had told her to forget it and kept mopping.

"Then I heard you’d gone out with another girl."

The silence by the window was more uncomfortable than the one in the council room.

As I looked at Iris, I finally understood why she had kicked my leg that day.

I truly hadn’t understood at the time.

"You were trying to set aside an hour for me," I said.

"Yes."

"And I acted like it didn’t matter."

Iris didn’t answer right away. She pressed her lips together and nodded slightly.

A few things I could say went through my mind. I could explain that I hadn’t wanted to pressure her, or that my arrangement with Layla was a separate matter.

But none of that changed the answer I had given her that day without even looking at her face.

"I’m sorry."

Iris looked up.

"It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see you. But I put it so badly that it sounded that way."

She looked into my eyes for a while. Some of the tension left her face, but she didn’t uncross her arms.

"Sometimes I have no idea what you’re thinking."

"For the past two days, I’ve mostly been thinking about you."

Iris’s lips parted. Then she narrowed her eyes and studied me.

"Are you trying to sweet-talk me now?"

"No. I didn’t listen to a word of today’s lecture."

"That’s nothing to brag about."

"I’m not bragging."

She tried to look serious for a little longer. Then her gaze dropped to the tear in my sleeve again, and she sighed.

"You got into a fight yesterday. And today, the day’s not even over and you’re already facing someone else’s sword."

"I didn’t start today’s fight."

"I know."

I raised an eyebrow.

When Iris noticed, she turned her head slightly to the side.

"I could hear your voices from inside."

So she had heard me from the moment I arrived.

I didn’t point that out.

"Let’s meet tonight," I said.

Iris looked at me again.

"I still have things to do."

"Tell me when you can finish. I’ll wait for you."

This time, she didn’t answer immediately. Her fingers smoothed a crease in her jacket sleeve, then she slowly lowered her arms.

"I might be able to spare an hour after dinner."

"Okay."

"Just one hour."

"Okay."

As Iris kept looking at me, the corner of her mouth twitched faintly. She might have turned her head to hide her smile, but this time, I hadn’t missed it.

"Wait outside the dorm," she said. "Don’t try to come inside."

I nodded.

"And one more thing..."

Iris reached for my torn sleeve and pulled at a small thread hanging from the edge.

"Don’t get into any fights before then."

I glanced briefly at the council room door.

"I’ll do my best."

"Cassian."

"Okay."

Iris finally smiled a little. Even that small change was enough to ease the frustration that had been building inside me all morning.

She turned and took a few steps toward the council room, then stopped again.

"Cass?"

"Yes?"

"Don’t be late."

This time, I didn’t try to stop her as she turned and walked away. After watching her open the door and go inside, I put my hands in my pockets.

I only had one hour.

But this time, I wouldn’t brush it off.