Child of Legend - A Shadow and Bone Fanfic

Chapter 40

As the days rolled by classes lulled into each other, the faint sound of chatter far away yet somehow so close.

The gardens of the little palace were a personal favourite of mine, the blooming flowers and peacefulness of the area, that was the main reason mostly, the peace and quiet.

Many of the other Grisha didn't have a use for the gardens other than to run off with each other late in the evening, away from prying eyes, but during the day it was empty, mostly.

I ran my hands across the leaves of a few trees lightly as I passed underneath when the crunch of an apple caught my attention.

At the base of a far tree stood the pirate prince himself, chomping on an apple, fresh from the low lying branches of the tree.

"Sour," he commented as I tried to ignore him.

He didn't take kindly to my decision, throwing the half-eaten apple at me, I caught it before it could make contact with my head, "What do you want?" I sighed throwing the apple into a bush to decompose.

"Are you settling in alright? No one's giving you any grief?" Nikolai inquired.

I scoffed, "Didn't think you cared."

"Whatever you want to think just know, I didn't kidnapp you, Rena."

"Well you didn't rescue me either so what the hell did you do?" I accused him, all my fury blending together. "Was it not your men that held a knife to my throat, your men who attacked me, your men who threw me onto another ship, away from my father, it was your men, was it not?"

"Rena-"

"No, Nikolai. It was, it was your men, it was you." I took a deep breath, "I shouldn't exist, I was born of a mistake, an impulse tumble. This is a war between option A and B, except now people are looking at me like I'm a third, both option C and D combined. I can't do this, I won't."

"As a Grisha your loyalties are to the crown," he tried to reason.

"And as a human being, someone with a heart and a damn mind of their own my loyalties are to myself, number one and always."

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I spent the next few days trying to avoid both my mother and Nikolai to the best of my abilities, confrontation wasn't my forte.

It was easier than I had suspected, during the class study sessions in the library she was always at the same big round table underneath the glass dome, the sun lighting her work. She was always so absorbed in her book that I think she hardly noticed all the students coming and going, and by the time we left she was still there, looking mildly more irritated and frustrated.

Unfortunately for me I also had the amazing experience of trying to also ignore both Toyla and Tamar which was considerably harder. Considering his size Toyla was well able to sneak up on people, and Tamar was like a ghost until she wanted you to see her, Alina should take some notes, Oretsev was the easiest to avoid, mostly because he seemed to avoid me aswell.

One morning as I pulled my shirt on over my head to get ready for the day I heard someone cough behind me, I whirled, my hands raised, ready to summon.

It was my father, well what I guessed was his phantom illusion, "Saints almighty. Ever hear of privacy, I was changing," I accused him neatly folding up my nightgown.