Emblems

Chapter 26: Reversal

She stood as well, and leaned against the bookshelf. Under her gaze, he fidgeted, hands tugging at the hem of his shirt before reaching into his pocket and finding the one thing that has never left him through his childhood. Nicholas returned it to me. He isn’t that cold-blooded killer.

He played with his shuriken, turning it over and over in his hands. “You know, I just feel like putting this aside and forgetting about it,” he told her. It was more of a contemplative thought, but she jumped on his case the second it left his lips.

“What?”

“Now that we’re going to be Emblems and stuff… my past doesn't seem so important anymore,” he explained.

Her eyes widened. “But I thought you—”

“Wanted revenge? Yeah, I thought so too. But after meeting the Delegates, this,” he showed her his shuriken, so that the light reflected off its edges, which were sharp enough to cut wood, “just doesn’t have meaning.” Amber looked like she wanted to say something, but shut her mouth. After a beat, he held it up again. “Hey… do you want it?” The words left his mouth quickly, lightly, as if on a whim. “You’ll have more use for it than I do, since I totally suck at long-range weapons. A gift of… friendship, I suppose?”

Looking away, Amber pushed away his offered hand. “I don’t need it.”

“Consider it like a piece of me will always be by your side.” He thrust it out again and wiggled his eyebrows, trying to get her to agree.

“It won’t be a piece of you if you have no more use for it,” she said quietly.

He froze at her words, looked down, spun the shuriken around his index finger once and then shoved it back in his pocket. His words had left him, for some reason. Amber, too, seemed content to let the silence stretch out. He racked his brain to search for something that would mean no, I don't agree with that, but what really came out of his mouth was: "I think I have a new family now. At Camp with my kouhais and here, with the other Emblems. I don't need a reminder of my past. And I think that to truly belong here I need to give up my past, get over it so that I can move on."

"Yeah... And Leone is part of that 'new family', or something?" He didn't like that sarcastic tone in her voice. 

But he smiled anyway. "Of course," he said. "Leone is a great person. I'm surprised that Nicholas isn't that close to her. If he was, he might start smiling a little more. But you...?" 

"Cannot stand her," Amber supplied without even hesitating. "Just like Nicholas. Her smiles are fake."

"Are you sure?" he questioned. "I mean, I can't say anything about that, but I can vouch that she really cares about us."

"Does she care about us, or the Emblems?" Amber shot back. "Does she really love Nicholas, if she dumped him with the Beasts when he was a toddler?"

"You don't know Leone, Amber," he told her, his tone rising into something hard, defensive, like a wall. "You haven't even talked to her outside training yet. Get to know her before you make assumptions like that."