Chapter 35: Together

Roxanne placed her foot on the first platform of the towering structure, the ground already far beneath her, platforms rotating slightly under her weight while the crowd’s roar rose behind her. Liam yelled up that she shouldn’t look down, and she immediately looked down anyway, drawing a groan from him below that she couldn’t help laughing at despite the tension coiling in her chest.

The first platform shifted the moment she committed her weight, her foot slipping, stomach dropping as she caught the railing hard. Panic flashed through her for a single second before Kai’s voice cut through it, calm and steady from below.

"Roxanne."

She looked toward him. He wasn’t shouting for her to climb down. He was simply watching. "Breathe."

She inhaled, and the words settled her the same way they had during every training session leading up to this. Don’t panic. Don’t fight the movement. Adjust. She shifted her weight, felt the platform steady beneath her, and kept climbing.

At the gap separating the next two platforms, she hesitated, and Kai called out that her left foot should go first. She looked, saw the left platform sitting slightly lower, and jumped without second-guessing him. She landed clean, and the crowd cheered as Liam shouted that she was his favorite teammate, prompting her to yell back that he said that too much.

"Because you keep earning it!"

The next section swung harder than any before it, and she gripped the railing tight, aware of Kai tensing below her, ready to move. He never did. He simply trusted her to handle it, and somehow that meant more than if he’d climbed up after her.

A quick glance sideways caught Joanna climbing the parallel structure, nearly level with her. Neither said anything, both pushing harder, and Roxanne’s hands began aching as her legs trembled with the effort of the final stretch. Joanna reached the last platform first and stretched for the lever, but Roxanne noticed the platform beneath her rotating, remembering the pattern from earlier sections. She waited half a second, watched Joanna pull, watched the platform shift beneath her and force her to catch herself, and used that exact moment to leap across onto the final platform herself.

Joanna’s face went slack with shock as Roxanne grabbed the lever and pulled.

The gate crashed upward, and Lucien’s voice rang out below. "Move!"

The four brothers sprinted through instantly, disappearing from view for half a second before Roxanne remembered she still had to get down herself. The climb down looked even worse than the climb up, and Liam’s voice carried up from below, calling her name, insisting they weren’t leaving without her. Something about that landed deeper than she expected. They were waiting, not because she was fragile, but because she belonged with them.

She climbed down as fast as she could, and when her feet finally hit solid ground, Kai was already holding out his hand. This time she took it without a moment’s hesitation, and he pulled her the last step before they ran together, closing the gap toward the finish line.

All five of them crossed together, nearly at the same instant, and the academy erupted around them. Roxanne bent over with her hands on her knees, gasping for breath, while Liam grabbed her shoulders and shouted that they’d won. She told him to put her down, and he refused, until Lucien pulled him back and told him to give her room. Roshan checked the scoreboard first, breaking into a smile.

"First place."

Roxanne looked up and saw it for herself. Moonstone Team, first. She thought about every whisper she’d heard leading up to this, about being only protected, about being the weak link, and none of it mattered anymore. She’d earned this.

Liam was still bouncing with energy, asking if she’d seen the shortcut she’d found, and when she corrected him that it was her shortcut, he insisted it belonged to all of them because she’d been there to find it. Roshan told her, with surprising sincerity, that her call at the final section had given them the lead, and when she pointed out he was actually complimenting her, he warned her not to get used to it. Lucien stepped forward next, telling her simply that she’d done well, and when she pushed for more than that, his mouth twitched.

"Very well."

"Much better," she said, laughing.

Then she looked at Kai, who hadn’t said much of anything yet. He just gave her that quiet, steady look he always did. "You trusted yourself."

"I did."

"Good."

As the crowd started thinning, Roxanne noticed blood on her palm, a scrape she hadn’t even registered getting during the climb. Kai noticed before she could say anything, taking her wrist gently and telling her she was bleeding. She waved it off, insisting it was nothing, but he pulled a small first-aid packet from his pocket anyway.

"You carry those around now?"

"Apparently."

He cleaned the scrape with a level of concentration that felt almost ridiculous for something so small, and she pointed out he didn’t have to do this, to which he simply said he was still checking. She called him bossy, and he reminded her she’d said that before, and she told him he still was, watching as he finished wrapping her palm, his fingers lingering a second longer than necessary before he let go.

"Don’t get it wet."

She looked at the bandage, then at him. "Thank you." No teasing this time, no argument, just something quieter and honest, and he simply nodded in response.

Standing slightly apart from the group a little later, Roxanne watched the academy still celebrating around them and thought back over everything that had just happened. She’d taken Kai’s hand. She’d listened to Roshan. She’d followed Lucien’s plan. She’d gone back for Liam without thinking twice. And when the group needed someone to lead, they’d trusted her without question.

Nobody had carried her through any of it. Nobody had rescued her from the challenge itself. They’d simply believed she could handle it, and she realized that for so long she’d assumed letting people in meant giving them the power to hurt her, a lesson Dorian had taught her without meaning to teach anything useful at all. Maybe that wasn’t actually true. Maybe trusting someone didn’t mean giving up who she was. Maybe it meant knowing she could stand on her own and still choosing to stand beside someone anyway.

Joanna approached shortly after, her team having lost, visibly frustrated but composed enough not to make a scene. "You were good," she said.

"Was that difficult to say?"

Joanna ignored the jab. "Don’t get comfortable. This isn’t over."

"I know."

Joanna glanced toward the four brothers before looking back at Roxanne one last time. "You have them beside you now. Let’s see what happens when you have to compete without them." She walked away without waiting for a response, and Roxanne let her go, the rivalry clearly far from finished.

From a distance, Dorian had watched the entire exchange, his attention locked on Roxanne rather than Joanna, on the way Kai had wrapped her hand, the way Liam had made her laugh, the way Lucien trusted her, the way Roshan kept watching her throughout. He remembered when she used to look at him that way, and the feeling that followed wasn’t one he liked at all. When Arabella asked if he was coming, he didn’t answer right away, his eyes still on Roxanne, who didn’t even glance toward him once.

"Yeah," he finally said, distracted.

Before students dispersed, the officials announced updated standings, confirming the Moonstone team remained at the top, followed by news of the next stage arriving soon. Liam groaned dramatically about barely getting time to celebrate, and Lucien reminded him he’d already been celebrating for several minutes straight.

Roxanne looked at the scoreboard one more time, her name listed clearly beneath the Moonstone team.

Lucien Moonstone. Roshan Moonstone. Liam Moonstone. Kai Moonstone. Roxanne Silver. ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Her name sat there because she’d earned every letter of it.

Liam threw an arm around her shoulders, declaring she was stuck with them now, and Roxanne looked at the four of them, Lucien already bickering with Liam again, Roshan reading through the next competition notice, Kai watching her quietly.

For the first time, being surrounded by them didn’t feel like being trapped.

It felt like home, and that scared her more than any competition ever could.