I Didn’t Know

Chapter Twenty-Two: A Desperate Plea | Part 1

Thirtyx paced.

They’d taken Rhea into the kitchens, and from there to Twins-only-know where. But he had no better option than to hope she’d reappear in the same spot.

Of course the school had protocols to lock her down if necessary, but by Thirtyx’s memory, this was the first time they’d been used. Thirtyx had hoped the attackers had spared the heirs so far because they were children, not because such protocols were a great deterrent. How naive he’d been.

But it wouldn’t do him well to dwell on that. Just like it wouldn’t do him well to continue replaying, over and over, the sight of the arrow protruding from Benn’s gut. Of Benn falling to the ground. Of his blood running over Azirenne’s hands.

None of that served him well, but he couldn’t make his mind do anything else. So he paced.

The rest of the students had trickled away once it was clear the projection wouldn’t restart, so Thirtyx’s footsteps echoed through the dining hall, amplifying his loneliness. He’d been bracing himself for something like this since the attacks on Grimmary started, but he wasn’t sure it had helped. Perhaps nothing could have prepared him for the reality he currently imagined. The empty dorm room. The unfilled seat beside him in his history classes. The strength he’d have to find for Rhea while he was crumbling himself, holding her hand as she prepared for a future without her brother ruling by her side.

No. Benn was still alive until the palace announced otherwise—although Thirtyx had to admit his odds seemed pretty bleak. The arrow lodged somewhere below his stomach, tearing through any number of vital organs. Even if the auditorium had medics onsite, Benn’s species was a closely guarded secret. Would anyone know to fix him? Bringing a healer from the palace would take ages—ages Benn didn’t have, judging by the amount of blood spilled.

The doorknob jiggled.

Thirtyx leapt so close that Headmistress Azirenne nearly collided with him when she stepped through it. “For the Twins’ sake, Venmagalion,” she snapped. “Give him room to breathe.”

How was Azirenne back so quickly? Him? Did that mean—

Benn stepped out from behind the headmistress, followed by Rhea. He was upright, walking, and by all measures Thirtyx could see, completely intact.

Thirtyx’s knees buckled, and he hit the floor.

“Hey, hey. It’s okay. I’m here. I’m fine.” Benn crouched beside him, a hand on his shoulder. “It wasn’t me. They hit a decoy—a Legionnaire in a really good glamour and a ton of wards. Everyone is alright.”

Even as Thirtyx’s brain connected the words, his breaths came in gasps. Rhea knelt on his other side and rubbed his back for as long as it took his breathing to slow.

“I’ll leave you to fill him in, Mr. Grimmary. I have a terrible teleportation headache to attend to,” Azirenne said stiffly. As she marched across the dining hall, Thirtyx noticed her dress was conspicuously devoid of the blood he’d seen spreading across it earlier.

“A decoy?” Thirtyx managed as his friends—his miraculously alive friends—helped him to his feet.

“Rhea didn’t know. Hells, I didn’t know,” Benn sighed. “The palace got some intel that I might be a target, so they arranged this whole thing as a trap—the openness of the venue, deliberate holes in security. They never intended for me to be on that stage. I was a bar from Wydewood the whole time.”

“And they didn’t tell you?” Thirtyx asked as they headed toward the stairs.

Benn shook his head. “We pulled off the road, and Bavarren entranced the carriage driver while Azirenne filled me in. Then, a couple Legionnaires showed up to guard me, and they teleported to the venue. Apparently, the school told Grimm they would fill me in days ago. I think that was intentional to keep the info from you.”

Thirtyx’s emotions were too weary to feel the anger that should have evoked, so he merely nodded.

Rhea growled in frustration. “But that means I also didn’t know and genuinely thought my brother was dead!” She paused on the stairs and looked back at Thirtyx with pleading eyes. “They took me to an inert room to tell me. The palace wanted to be on the attacker’s trail before word spread that it was a setup, so they wouldn’t let me contact anyone. I just had to sit there, all by myself, knowing you were out there agonizing.”

“The school knew we wouldn’t keep this plan from Thirtyx unless they physically stopped us,” Benn said wearily. “And we all paid the price.”