The Heinous Prodigies Book One: The Lost Dreamer

Chapter 11: Stars Set Fire to Eyes

“From a Himmel Street window, he wrote, the stars set fire to my eyes.”

                                                                                           -The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

Days, Eden thought, It’s been 2 days. The Consor test was to be held today. I would have faced death-defying situations to prove my loyalty to Will.

Eden almost jumped out of her bed. There were two things wrong with the thought: one, it was an exaggeration to call it death-defying because clearly most people survive from the test, successful or not. Of course there was the common case of idiocy where one accidentally slips into the grasp of the beast they were supposed to defeat and ends up in a pile of rags. Hopefully, with Will’s training, she wouldn’t end up like those idiots. Hopefully. Two, her loyalty to Will. It sounded so wrong in her mind as if she belonged to him and him to her. She did not belong to him. He did not belong to her. Simple as that.

The king had told her he talked to a warlock that one of his guests brought to the celebration after the great display of affection his son showed her. Eden touched her cheek, flushing. She could still feel Ariance’s lips on it as if it were a lingering ghost that didn’t want to leave. I still can’t believe he kissed me. The king had given him payment on the same night for his services and the warlock got started with his work immediately after the party, brewing whatnot and doing whatnot for their portal back home.

Eden had helped around the castle for the past few days. She could’ve spent her days there reading but the king was too selfish to lend her his books. He argued that she was going to ruin them with her ‘clearly careless’ hands.

Will, on the other hand, was nowhere to be found for the past few days. She had tried searching the possible places he could have been: the throne room, the battle arena, the backyard, the front garden but even when she checked the stablemen’s quarters (where he decided to sleep instead of their assigned room), he still wasn’t there.

She began to worry that he had disappeared and found a quicker way to teleport back to the Sanctuary. But, when she got too anxious about being left alone, occasionally, she’d see him by the windowsill or sitting at the kitchen counter or somewhere else unpredictable. It was like he sensed she was getting anxious.

The longer the days go by, the more she realized that Will may—just may—have at least the tiniest sliver amount of sheer goodness in him. Nobody was born mean. If someone was, then she hadn’t met anyone who was. But then again, he’s a mixture of hate and anger—a blood of Hades and Ares.

It was close to midnight when she last looked out the window. She had never seen so many stars out in the sky.

Small bags of the trinkets Ariance gave her were set beside her bed. It was hard to decline his gifts and in the end, she had no choice but to accept them.

He was friendlier than Eden expected. If someone were like him back at the Sanctuary, it’d make her want to rethink about her decision to get out as soon as possible. He was a diligent listener and a compassionate companion. He told her his opinions about the princesses of the other countries. He praised them and never did mention any criticism. He seemed blind to the world of cruelty just as her mom had been. Eden was assured he was going to be a great king someday.

Her room neighbours were all asleep. Their snores reached the inside of her room. Eden wondered how they could sleep so well at night.

A knock came on the door.

Eden sat up from her bed. She waited for Ariance’s voice but it didn’t come.

The knock came again.