CHAPTER 26
"Grief can be the garden of compassion." ~Rumi
APRIL 5593AG
"The manipulation of barriered portals involves the control, modification, or bypassing of magical barriers," Master Baldasar growled in a deep voice, "that are used to protect or secure portals between different locations or realms. Here's a breakdown of how this concept works."
They were studying how to control and manipulate barriered portals. Hazel sat next to Ira Yscar, a classmate who had a penchant for eating like a sparrow. She was anorexically thin, and Hazel wondered if she did it on purpose, starving herself.
Ira had beautiful chocolate brown hair that turned burgundy in sunlight. Her eyes were caramel-coloured, and she was very ferocious when riding her dragon.
Her fraternal twin, Tsar Yscar, was equally fierce, if not more so, always eager for battle when they were training during spar sessions.
Apart from training in the stadium, they usually went to mountains to practice the moves they had learned from the dragon warriors during matches.
Hazel and Boro portaled to Ruyaal Range in the evenings to train together. Sometimes the twins joined them, along with the snarky and sharp-tongued Hexa Weiss.
Hazel couldn't fathom how she was Anklef Weiss' sister. Him being so polished, while she was anything but.
She was Hazel's senior at school. Hexa and Boro were classmates, studying war engineering together. However, Hexa enjoyed getting under Hazel's skin, especially during their practice fights.
Tonight, they had a training session scheduled, and the very idea of Hexa being there made Hazel furious, like an angry bull ready to charge. Hexa always had something mean to say about Hazel and frequently disagreed with her battle strategies.
Ira was chewing gum obnoxiously, and it was grating on Hazel's nerves. She gnashed her teeth and tried to focus on jotting down what Master Baldasar was saying onto her parchment, but her mind kept wandering.
Hazel and Ethan had been meeting regularly for the past four months, sometimes twice a week and occasionally three times. Hazel was getting used to having Ethan in her life, even though their meetings were brief.
In the last month, Hazel skipped several classes to sneak away to Kaatim and meet Ethan in the afternoon. They always met at the time he suggested beforehand (for safety reasons). If Ethan suspected the Dark Army might patrol later that night, he would arrange to meet Hazel during the afternoon instead.
She always wore a black cloak during her excursions in the daylight to cover her silver hair.
She could have declined, but she really wanted to meet him. Hazel enjoyed their conversations. No matter how much they talked, they never seemed to grow tired of each other or run out of things to say.
Boro had been making excuses for her. He told Master Baldasar that Hazel had stomach flu whenever she missed a class.
He was steadily lying for her, even though she wouldn't tell him why she had to miss such important lectures.
It wasn't about 'why', but rather 'who'. Ethan was the reason she was skipping school and taking risks.
She was aware that if her mother found out she was not attending her classes, she would get really, really mad.
Hazel had come close to being caught as well. Master Baldasar was in the castle last week to meet Prince Saljam, who was also a Draco General along with Anklef Weiss, working under the War Commander. He had run into her mother and inquired about Hazel's health, leaving Lady Lechner bewildered at the line of questioning.
YOU ARE READING
WHISPERED SINS
Romance"I used your blood to bind you to me. There's no escape. You're chained to me until your last breath." She hated him so much that she wanted to poison him, rip the mask off his cruel face, and stare into his eyes as she plunged the dagger repeatedly...
