Chapter 42: The Festival Games

The academy barely looked like itself by the time Roxanne walked through the grounds with Isla, festival banners strung between every building, students decorating booths, music drifting from the main courtyard while food stalls went up around them. Isla looked around with pure delight.

"Tell me this isn’t the best thing that’s happened since we got here."

"It’s definitely better than combat class."

They passed a group practicing wolf races, one student nearly crashing straight into them, and Roxanne laughed harder than the moment probably warranted. A few weeks ago she would have been thinking about Dorian right about now. Instead she was wondering which food stall to try first.

Liam appeared out of nowhere. "There you are."

"Why does that sound dangerous?"

"Because you’re about to have fun."

"I was already having fun."

"Not enough." Before she could ask what that meant, he snatched her registration card straight out of her hand, and she looked down to find he’d already entered them into the Festival Partner Challenge.

"You signed me up without asking."

"You’re welcome."

"I’m going to kill you."

"After we win."

The first event turned out to be a ridiculous partner obstacle course, wrists tied together while they navigated low barriers, weaving posts, and a narrow balance beam. The whistle blew, and Liam took off running immediately, yanking her forward.

"Slow down!"

"We’re racing!"

"We’re attached!"

They stumbled together more than once, Liam catching her the first time she nearly went down, asking if she was okay before she promised to make him regret this entirely. Eventually they found a rhythm, Roxanne calling out the movements as they went, left, jump, and Liam following each instruction without hesitation until they crossed the finish line near the front of the pack. He celebrated like they’d won the whole festival, and Roxanne, despite herself, was laughing right along with him.

"You are ridiculous."

"And you had fun."

She couldn’t argue with that.

Scent Identification came next, and the festival had layered the academy with hundreds of overlapping smells, food, perfume, wolves, flowers, smoke, all of it hitting her the second she stepped into the booth area. Roshan appeared beside her.

"Too many?"

She nodded, and instead of doing the challenge for her, he simply reminded her how to narrow it down. Ignore everything else. Pick one. She closed her eyes, breathed, focused, and worked through them one at a time until she identified the final scent correctly.

"I knew you’d get it."

"You really did."

"You usually do better once you stop trying to notice everything."

"You know me too well."

"I’m learning," he said, and something about the way he said it stayed with her longer than she expected.

The strategy challenge came next, a large outdoor maze with three checkpoints to reach. Lucien immediately suggested the eastern route, and Roxanne studied the map before shaking her head. Liam whispered that she was about to challenge the eldest brother.

"This route looks shorter, but that checkpoint’s a dead end," she said, pointing out the pattern. Lucien studied it carefully, and instead of insisting on his own plan, he simply agreed to hers.

"We’ll take Roxanne’s route."

They reached the checkpoint first, and she looked at him, surprised. "You actually listened."

"You were right."

"You make a good teammate," he added, and coming from Lucien, that landed like something worth far more than it sounded.

The final activity was a public combat demonstration, and Roxanne found Kai’s name posted beside hers on the schedule. "Of course."

"Problem?"

"You’re going to embarrass me."

"I’m not."

"That’s what you said before you nearly broke my arm."

"You survived."

"Barely."

He almost smiled at that as they stepped into the arena together, this time coordinating rather than competing against each other. The instructor walked them through the sequence, and they moved through it in near-perfect rhythm, her blocking, him moving, her following, him ducking, her turning, the crowd starting to react as they synced up completely. Liam shouted something about it being his team, which Roxanne ignored entirely.

Kai attacked, she countered, and he caught her wrist and spun her into the final position, landing her perfectly against him, their faces suddenly close enough that the crowd noise seemed to fade around them. His hand stayed at her waist, and neither of them moved for a beat until the instructor called for a reset.

They separated fast, Roxanne’s cheeks warm, Kai looking entirely composed, which somehow made it worse.

Joanna approached shortly after, giving Roxanne a slow, appraising look. "You really enjoy having the Moonstones around you." A pause. "It must make competitions easier."

Before Roxanne could respond, Kai spoke first. "She earned every point."

"Her scores speak for themselves," Lucien added.

"Actually, hers are among the highest today," Roshan said.

"And she’s still beating you," Liam finished, grinning.

Roxanne burst out laughing while Joanna’s expression tightened, and she finally looked directly at her. "You should probably worry less about who stands beside me and more about who’s standing against you."

Joanna walked off without another word, and this time Roxanne didn’t feel shaken at all. She felt supported, though importantly, she hadn’t needed rescuing to win the exchange.

Dorian had watched all of it happen, Roxanne laughing with Liam, Roshan handing her a drink, Lucien treating her like an equal, the two of them moving in sync during the combat demonstration. Arabella noticed him staring.

"You’re doing it again."

He didn’t answer.

"Staring at her."

"She’s changed," he finally said.

Arabella scoffed, insisting Roxanne was just enjoying the attention, but Dorian knew that wasn’t true. She wasn’t looking at him at all. She wasn’t performing happiness for anyone’s benefit. She was simply happy, and that bothered him more than anything else he’d witnessed all day.

When the games wrapped up, the announcer called everyone into the courtyard to reveal the standings. The Moonstone team sat at the top, and then came the individual scores.

Roxanne Silver, highest female individual score.

The courtyard erupted. Isla hugged her tight, Liam threw an arm around her shoulders and reminded her he’d said they’d win, and she pointed out he’d nearly made them lose entirely, which he waved off as details. Roshan handed her another snack, Lucien gave her a proud nod, and Kai simply told her she’d earned it.

"We all did," she said.

He smiled.

The festival coordinator stepped forward one more time to announce that tomorrow the Founders’ Festival would officially begin, followed by the final attraction: the Royal Dance Competition. Roxanne’s stomach flipped instantly, because tomorrow she’d be standing in front of the entire academy with Kai.

Liam started in immediately. "Try not to fall in love on stage."

"I hate you," she said, throwing something at him, and he laughed.

Kai walked past her a moment later, quiet enough that only she heard him. "You won’t fall."

"How do you know?"

He met her eyes. "Because I’ll be there."

Her heart gave that same annoying flutter it had been giving all week, and she looked toward the festival lights switching on across the courtyard, feeling something she hadn’t expected to feel about tomorrow.

Anticipation, instead of dread.

Somewhere across the courtyard, Dorian watched her smile, and something in his chest tightened at exactly what he was losing.