Chapter 198: Fall Trip, Part Two

Chapter 198: Chapter 198: Fall Trip, Part Two

Chapter 198: Fall Trip, Part Two

On the charter bus, Audra Sloane sat beside the window and appeared to be watching Grayhaven pass outside.

In reality, she kept noticing the reflections in the glass.

Cyrus had been resting with his eyes closed almost from the moment the bus pulled away from St. Alder.

Maybe he was carsick.

His complexion already tended toward pale, but this morning he looked even more washed out than usual. Combined with the faint exhaustion around his face, it gave his normally composed appearance a strangely fragile edge.

Audra watched his reflection for another few seconds.

Then she remembered something Warren had told her yesterday after Cyrus left the estate.

People with exceptionally striking appearances seemed, in Warren’s experience, slightly more likely to belong to rare-blood lines.

It was not a rule.

Only something he had noticed after years of researching them.

When Audra first heard that, her mind immediately returned to Halloween at The Full Moon Lounge.

Helena.

Vera.

Rhea.

Daphne.

Even Malcolm, despite being considerably older than the others, had the kind of appearance people remembered.

The idea that every unusual-looking person around Cyrus might secretly be rare-blooded was ridiculous.

Rare-bloods were supposed to be rare.

This was not some comic where strange people automatically gathered in the same neighborhood because the story demanded it.

If everyone at that lounge belonged to one unusual bloodline or another, the odds would be closer to buying ten lottery tickets and somehow winning with all ten.

There were plenty of beautiful celebrities in ordinary society too.

If unusual beauty alone exposed rare-bloods, celebrities would have been investigated constantly by photographers, reporters, and obsessive fans.

Keeping entire bloodlines hidden would be nearly impossible.

Probability was only probability.

Audra had never personally confirmed the existence of a rare-blood individual, so Warren’s observation remained something to remember rather than something she fully accepted.

The bus entered a tunnel.

The windows darkened, and the reflections became clearer.

Audra’s gaze returned to Cyrus.

As far as Cyrus was concerned, she was probably a good friend now.

That description no longer satisfied her.

People had private desires.

Audra was no exception.

The glamourkin ring had previously influenced her enough that she behaved far more boldly around Cyrus than she ever expected.

But if she ignored the ring entirely and asked herself how she truly felt, there was one answer she could not deny.

She did not dislike being close to him.

She wanted more of it.

More importantly, she wanted to know whether she could make Cyrus react to her without relying on the ring at all.

That had become a strange kind of competition in her mind.

Audra had always been competitive.

Studying was the easiest example.

If she was not first, then the work was not finished yet.

That simple belief had kept her inside the family study for an enormous portion of her life.

Winning usually came easily enough because she really was capable.

Over time, succeeding stopped feeling exceptional and became something closer to expectation.

Cyrus disrupted that instinct.

She could not confidently read him.

She could not tell how much he liked her.

She could not even decide whether his occasional closeness was deliberate or simply the result of him being strangely careless about romance.

That uncertainty brought back a competitiveness Audra had rarely needed elsewhere.

At the heart of it, what she wanted was simple.

She wanted to see Cyrus genuinely captivated by her.

The bus emerged from the tunnel.

Daylight returned, making his reflection faint again.

The image in Audra’s mind remained perfectly clear.

Her mood improved as she remembered Gemma’s message from yesterday.

Cyrus had gone to the art club and asked Gemma to draw a beautiful woman who apparently resembled Audra.

Gemma had naturally assumed the portrait was supposed to be her.

Audra had reached the same conclusion.

Why else would Cyrus ask for a hand-drawn portrait when photographs existed?

If he wanted an ordinary picture, all he needed to do was ask.

Audra would not have refused.

A portrait required more effort.

That had to mean something.

From Audra’s perspective, the implication was almost embarrassingly obvious.

Maybe their feelings were already mutual.

Cyrus simply moved too slowly.

She was getting tired of waiting.

Around eight-ten that morning, after roughly half an hour on the bus, the class arrived at the regional rail station.

Everyone passed through the normal ticket and security procedures before gathering near their platform.

Cyrus, having slept during most of the bus ride, looked around and silently calculated how much St. Alder must be spending on the trip.

Charter buses.

Rail tickets.

Admission.

Hotel rooms.

Meals.

Chaperones.

The total had to be painful.

Cyrus carried his bag over one shoulder, his tired expression making him look colder and more distant than he actually felt.

Owen had no difficulty approaching him anyway.

He stepped beside Cyrus.

"Did you sleep badly last night?"

Cyrus nodded.

"I woke up a few times."

The larger problem was that Vera had taken blood from him shortly before they left.

If Cyrus had been able to go home and sleep afterward, his Frostborn recovery probably would have handled most of the fatigue.

Unfortunately, he was traveling instead.

He added, "The nap on the bus helped, so I’m doing better now."

Owen relaxed.

"That’s good to hear."

Then he immediately turned toward another student who looked half awake and asked whether they were feeling all right.

Cyrus watched him go.

Owen took the vice class president role far too seriously.

Cyrus silently gave him credit for the effort.

Then he glanced toward Iris.

The class president was not helping anyone at the moment.

She stood a short distance away, supposedly checking her phone, while her attention followed Owen every time he moved.

Cyrus watched for a few seconds before looking away.

Interesting.

Their train arrived soon afterward.

The class boarded together.

The seating arrangement included several four-seat sections where two pairs faced each other, which worked perfectly for Cyrus’s assigned group.

Cyrus took the window seat on one side with Owen beside him.

Audra sat directly across from Cyrus, while Iris took the seat next to her.

For several seconds, the four of them looked at one another.

Then everyone seemed to realize that nobody had anything obvious to say.

Without studying to provide an easy subject, Cyrus and Audra had surprisingly little ordinary conversation.

Cyrus checked the route.

They had about another half hour before reaching their destination.

He was considering another nap when Owen suddenly raised his phone.

"Cyrus, look at this."

Cyrus accepted the phone.

The screen showed a video.

He stared at it for several seconds.

"Did somebody post us online?"

Owen nodded.

"That’s definitely you."

The footage was somewhat blurry.

It showed the incident from earlier in the week when Cyrus and Owen stopped to help the older man collect fruit scattered across the road.

At first, nothing about the clip looked especially remarkable.

Then whoever edited or reposted it zoomed in.

Cyrus’s face became clearer.

The low video quality created a soft grain over the image, almost like an accidental filter.

Combined with Cyrus’s appearance, the simple clip suddenly looked far more polished than it had any right to.

The view count was substantial.

Owen grinned.

"Your face refuses to have an ordinary day."

Cyrus gave him a flat look.

Owen sounded far too entertained by the situation.

Audra leaned forward slightly.

"What video are you talking about?"

Cyrus handed her Owen’s phone.

Their fingers brushed during the exchange.

Audra appeared not to react.

Iris leaned closer to watch too.

The video finished.

Audra’s expression remained calm.

Owen patted Cyrus lightly on the shoulder.

"You might become internet famous."

"You’re in the video too."

Owen immediately shook his head.

"The edit zooms directly onto you. I’m basically background furniture."

Cyrus had no response to that.

Audra checked the post more carefully.

"The views are already slowing down. It looks like someone casually recorded the incident, and your face made people share it."

Iris nodded.

"That seems about right."

Cyrus studied the screen again.

A different concern briefly surfaced.

Then he dismissed it.

The original video was blurry.

Even the enlarged section only showed his face somewhat clearly.

More importantly, the Frostborn village he came from barely had modern electronics.

What were the chances that someone from there would randomly discover a short viral clip from another city?

Even if the video were reposted thirty thousand times, Cyrus felt the odds might rise from practically impossible to only slightly less impossible.

He was more concerned about Isolde and the others eventually leaving the village themselves.

Running into one of them on a street somewhere was still a much more realistic threat than someone scrolling through social media in a mountain village with no internet infrastructure.

Audra spoke again.

"If the video bothers you, there are formal ways to request removal."

Cyrus shook his head.

"There’s no need. People will forget it in a few days."

Even Cyrus, who barely followed online trends, understood how quickly attention moved.

Today one topic became popular.

Tomorrow everyone cared about something else.

A face alone was unlikely to keep a random good-deed video circulating forever.

Audra studied him.

A faint line appeared between her brows.

She did not argue.

Instead, she pulled out her own phone and quietly sent someone a message.

The train continued onward.

Outside, towns and stretches of open land passed in rapid flashes.

Half an hour was long enough to get bored but not long enough to settle into anything serious.

Some groups talked.

Others played games.

A few students slept.

Cyrus tried closing his eyes again.

Almost immediately, the same strange sensation returned.

Someone was watching him.

He opened his eyes.

The feeling disappeared.

His gaze naturally went toward Audra.

She was sitting perfectly straight and looking out the window like an expensive porcelain doll.

Cyrus had no evidence.

Still, he suspected her.

Since sleeping no longer seemed worthwhile, he looked toward Owen.

Owen had put away his phone and taken out a book.

Cyrus recognized the cover.

It was Warren’s rare-blood field guide.

He leaned slightly closer.

Owen had reached the section about elves.

"I still can’t get over the possibility that some of this might actually be real," Owen said. "The author must have gone through a lot to collect all this."

Cyrus nodded.

"He certainly did."

Now that Cyrus had personally met Warren, the statement carried more weight.

The older man had the build of someone who looked capable of surviving half the adventures described in the book.

Across from them, Audra’s mouth seemed to lift by the smallest amount.

Cyrus noticed but said nothing.

His eyes returned to the page.

According to the book, elves often experienced ordinary emotions more faintly than humans did.

They tended to be restrained and difficult to excite.

But when they became genuinely attached to something, the strength of that attachment could become several times more intense.

When Cyrus first read that section, he had not thought much about it.

Recently, however, he had learned considerably more about human relationships.

The description now sounded suspicious.

If elves really existed, did that basically mean they were naturally prone to becoming intensely attached?

Or maybe people who became terrifyingly attached had a little elf blood somewhere in the family tree.

Cyrus looked out the window while his thoughts wandered through increasingly useless territory.

Then Audra called his name.

"Cyrus."

He looked across at her.

"What were you going to ask?"

Audra did not answer immediately.

Sunlight finally broke through the clouds outside.

Golden light spilled through the windows and fell across both of them.

Their eyes met.

This time, Audra looked away first.

She watched Cyrus’s reflection in the glass instead.

"Have you ever been to Bellhaven?"

"I haven’t been there before."

Bellhaven was the neighboring city they were visiting.

Its best-known attraction was Bellhaven Marine Park, a sprawling ocean-themed park that was supposedly large enough that even two full days were not enough to see everything.

For Cyrus, the details barely mattered.

Almost anywhere outside his normal routine still felt new.

Beside him, Owen remained absorbed in the field guide.

Iris had leaned back with her eyes closed and appeared completely uninterested in the conversation.

Audra, meanwhile, felt warmth reach the tips of her ears.

She disliked that she had looked away first.

She was supposed to be testing Cyrus.

Instead, one moment of eye contact had made her retreat before she could read anything from him.

If she had held his gaze for two more seconds, maybe she would have seen the affection she believed he was hiding.

Audra looked at Cyrus’s profile.

Then her attention caught on something near his collar.

A small pink mark showed against the pale skin below his neck.

Audra’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Had an insect bitten him there?

Before she could look more closely or find another subject to continue the conversation, the train announcement sounded.

They had arrived.

The train slowed into the station.

Students began standing and reaching for their bags.

Cyrus got up with the others.

When he reached toward the luggage rack, he took down his own bag, then casually pulled Audra’s down as well and handed it to her.

Audra accepted it.

Another small ripple moved through her chest.

Cyrus rarely said much.

He rarely showed much either.

Maybe that was exactly why details like this mattered.

Perhaps his feelings had always been hidden inside small actions.

Audra followed him from the train with an expression softer than she realized.

As Cyrus stepped out of the station’s shadow and onto the platform, sunlight caught him directly.

For an instant, pale light edged his figure and turned his already striking appearance almost unreal.

Audra watched his back without looking away.

Whatever uncertainty remained between them, she would turn every small sign he gave her into another reason to keep moving closer.