Arcane

Chapter 20

Keahi

I wake up when I hear someone unlock the door. I don't remember falling asleep, but it must have been hours ago judging by the light streaming through the windows.

The last time I slept this well must've been years ago. Malia is still cradled in my arms and doesn't seem to hear the noise. She's a deep sleeper, that's for sure. She looks innocent like this, and I take in the view for as long as I dare before pulling my arms away. I carefully place her head on the blanket and I slip away.

"Bye, Princess." She doesn't stir at my parting words and my heart feels colder with every step I take away from her. Last night was an escape from reality but now things have to get back to normal. Normal; we hate each other.

-

I stay busy on Sunday, training with Eteri to distract myself from the fact that she is not the girl I'm dumb enough to want to spend time with. Still, my mind stays with a certain pair of blue eyes.

"What is wrong with you today?" Eteri asks after slamming me to the ground again. She's won every fight this afternoon which is an obvious tell that something is wrong with me. She steps off my chest and offers me a hand.

"Nothing. I just don't feel like training." I get up without accepting her help.

"Well, if you're in the mood for something else you should have said that," she says suggestively, stepping closer with a coy smile. Placing her delicate hands on my chest, she blinks up at me before standing up on her tiptoes. For a second, our breaths are mingling, lips brushing against each other like a faint whisper.

I let her do her thing but can't seem to muster up any actual enthusiasm. Even when she kisses me or pushes me back onto the mat to sit on my lap. She straddles my hips and pushes herself down on my crotch, whining softly as if she was really getting off of this. Yet, I feel nothing. No reaction.

Only when my hands make contact with her waist does a bolt of electricity shoot through my body, starting from where my fingertips touch her and going straight to my brain. Suddenly, I'm no longer making out with Eteri.

Instead, Malia's on top of me. The memory of holding her waist on the railing floods my mind and I carefully tug her closer, heat enveloping my body like I've never felt before. I'm just in the mood for this when Eteri's scream rips me out of my fantasy.

"Ouch! What the hell?" she shrieks, holding her skin where my hand had rested.

"What?"

"You burnt me!" she exclaims.

"Oh, sorry," I answer, feigning disinterest while my mind is running a mile a minute. Fuck, did I seriously just fantasize about smooching the princess? And get turned on by it too? Gods.

"Either tell me what's wrong or I'm leaving," Eteri threatens, oblivious to the fact that she's not occupying a single thought of mine. I shrug, her departure sounding rather good to me. I'd rather be alone than explain myself anyways.

Taking my silence for the hint it is, Eteri leaves the room in a hurry, leaving me to my chaotic thoughts. What is happening to me?

-

My last class this Monday morning just ended and I'm beat. Training today got canceled which is good. I didn't get a minute of sleep last night and don't think I could have made it through the afternoon. I feel faint and even more short-tempered than usual.

Keahi, why didn't you get a blink of sleep, you may ask. Well, that would be a certain 4.11-foot, black-haired nightmare's fault. Nightmare because Malia has been haunting my mind, successfully robbing me of my last nerve.

Seriously, what is wrong with me? Why can't I stop thinking about how her whole, stupid face lit up when she laughed or that annoying way her eyes seemed to glow when she saw the moon for the first time in five and a half years?

Gods, and why was the feeling of her waist still tattooed below the skin of my hands, or the trail her fingers had left on my arm imprinted into my muscles? I feel like I am losing my mind.

I'm walking down the hall when I hear someone jogging toward me. Expecting Eteri, I don't turn around.

"Hi there," the very voice that my ears have secretly been longing for calls, making my head snap to the side.

"What the hell are you doing?" I snap at her and her smile fades. Instantly, a voice in my head is screaming at me to take my words back. To make her smile again and drink it in. Then I mentally kick myself, horrified at my train of thought.

"I don't know. I saw you and thought-" She seems nervous, but I don't give into my urge to back off. Instead, I roll my eyes.

"You thought what? We could talk? Hang out? Be friends?" I laugh while her cheeks burn up red.

"There's no need to snap at me. Just because you can't handle it when people are around you," she shoots back.

"At least I'm enough for people to genuinely want to be around me," I hiss, digging really deep. Malia stops in her tracks, stunned, her brows furrowing as she looks at me. There's a flash of hurt in her eyes and she takes a step back as if suddenly needing the distance.

The next second, her face shuts down, expression going cruelly empty and unreadable. It's no use though, her pained features had already permanently burned themselves into my mind, sure to torment me the next time I close my eyes.

I hit her right where it hurts.

The satisfaction I would normally feel after a blow like that is now replaced by regret when I meet her eyes. They are cold enough to extinguish the fire I felt a moment ago. She glares at me without a hint of emotion on her face until, ever so slowly, the corners of her lips twitch upwards. It's not a happy smile, it's an evil grin that makes her unrecognizable.

She shrugs, more to herself than me, and turns on her heels. I watch her walking down the hall leading to her dorm when I realize that is not where she is going. The vent.

She has already turned the corner by the tie realization hits and I run after her. I see her walking into the tiny room and storm in behind her. She'll expose me, especially now that she is angry. Teachers will block my only way out.

They'll take away the only thing that keeps me sane.

"Stop!" I order her but she ignores me, stepping onto the container. Rare panic seizes my chest, my sleep-deprived brain unable to stay reasonable.

"Please, I'm sorry!" I try but she doesn't care anymore. I hurt her and am in no position to ask for favors. Still, I keep trying. "Malia!" I grab her wrist and she finally acknowledges my existence, turning to stare down at me.

The eyes meeting mine now are not the same gentle ones I saw in the library; they are filled with the kind of rage I've never seen before. Not even in myself. I don't have much time to wonder what she's thinking because a head-splitting ache inside my skull forces me on all fours. "Please," I breathe out before the lights go off.

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Yay, someone finally snapped:)

Lmao have a good day and don't be shy to lmk how u like it so far<3