Biba smiled at me, but it was the fakest one that I had ever seen. She placed her hand on my chest tentatively like she was afraid touching me would burn her fingertips.
“I’m just tired, okay? I’m going to the library to study for a while,” she told me, starting to move to walk around me.
I stepped to the side to block her, making her jolt to a stop with a confused look on her face. I leaned down closer to her face as my eyes narrowed, hearing her breath stop.
“I don’t mind sharing you with Arvo, but if you stray too far away from my bed, there will be hell to pay,” I said in a low, stern voice. As threatening as I looked and sounded, I desperately hoped that she would heed my warning. I didn’t want to lose her.
She was the first girl who had ever captured my attention and care like this. Before her, I didn’t feel attached to any girl, no matter how often I slept with them. All of those relationships had been shallow and easily discardable. The thought of casting her to the side made my heart ache in a manner that I hadn’t ever experienced before. If anyone could break me, it would be her. That was why I had to be cautious toward her.
“I’m not going anywhere, Zephyr,” Biba told me. She looked shaken by my threat, but I still couldn’t tell if she meant those words or only said them to put me at ease. I wished that she was easier to read.
“I hope not,” I said quietly, my throat tightening slightly. I couldn’t let her drift away. If I was going to lose her, I was going to toss her aside as far away as possible so that she couldn’t hurt me. I was used to protecting myself from enemies, but I wasn’t used to protecting myself from people I cared about. It was a whole other level of danger that I wasn’t used to.
Biba parted her lips to speak, but she snapped her mouth shut before walking around me to leave my suite.
I stood still, listening as my door swung shut and silence filled the room. Part of me wanted to chase her down, to demand her to tell me the truth, but I stopped myself from doing that. I gave her a choice. Her fate, our fate, relied on what she chose to do next.
CHAPTER 13
SOL
The last thing that I expected on my brisk walk through the school’s hallways was to run into Biba. She seemed a bit frazzled as she jumped back from me before we clashed into each other at the corner of the hallway.
“Biba,” I breathed out, feeling my heart rate spike at the sight of her. I hadn’t seen her since we briefly talked in Wachsbrunnen.
Biba pitched a quick look over her shoulder before looking back at me. Her body tensed even more as she shook her head.
“I can’t talk to you right now,” she snapped before trying to move past me.
I caught her arm, drawing her back toward me. I looked toward the direction she came from and realized that she probably came from Zephyr’s room. It was odd that she seemed so on edge after leaving him. I couldn’t help but wonder if there was trouble between them. I hoped that I hadn’t caused it.
“I need to speak to you. Alone,” I replied. She was the only person that I trusted.
Biba looked unsure at first, but she finally nodded.
“Come on. Let’s go to the archives,” she said before heading down the hallway, leading the way.
I quickly followed her, glancing around for any prying eyes. They seemed to be everywhere nowadays. When we reached the archives, I stood across from her, surrounded by file boxes and loose papers on the ground by our feet. It seemed like someone had been digging around in here, and I had a feeling about who it was.
“What have you been looking for here?” I asked her.
“Anything that I can find,” Biba said as her eyes swept over the boxes. They then paused on one box, and her teeth pressed into her bottom lip thoughtfully. “I found your father’s file.”
“I doubt there’s much information in it,” I commented. A lot of the former Kings’ business was kept a secret. She wouldn’t find the clear truth on a document.
Biba crossed her arms over her chest as she sat on the edge of one of the tables. Her eyes were heavy on mine, nearly piercing.
“What happened to your father, Sol? What happened after he and the other Kings left the school?” she asked me in a forceful, desperate voice. “I need to know what you know. It’s dangerous if I don’t.”
She hadn’t confirmed or denied that she would help me get back in with the Kings, but I couldn’t deny the opportunity to help her out. Maybe if she had more information, she could gain more trust from the Kings and convince them to let me back in.