~x~ Chapter 49 ~x~

Both Crispin and I turned when we heard the bubbly voice echo in the training room. I jumped down just in time to catch Trace launching into me and I wrapped my arms around him securely to support him on my hip.

"Hey, Trace. You aren't causing the guardians trouble, are you?" I teased with a light tone.

Trace shook his head fervently. "No. Al is here with me."

"He insisted on finding you as soon as possible." Ali sighed, running a hand through his hair.

As he moved, I watched as the muscle in his arm flexed and couldn't help but be somewhat startled. He was wearing a black t-shirt so his arms were relatively bare and for some reason, I couldn't tear my eyes away. He wasn't too muscular, but his muscles were evident nonetheless. This wasn't the Ali I remembered. He hadn't been lanky back then, but he hadn't really developed any noticeable muscles back then either. He didn't attract girls with his muscle power. It had been through his charm, winning smile and natural playboy-like character.

"He'd been pressurising the guardians about it since this morning apparently. We all agreed that I'd escort him to find you after all your lessons are finished," he carried on, not noticing my ogling for which I was glad. It would've been really embarrassing if he had caught me staring like that. Not to mention with Crispin and Trace with us. I blushed a little when Crispin sent me an all-knowing smirk and shifted Trace so that I could hide my embarrassment.

"Why did you want to find me so badly?" I directed the question at Trace. "Did something happen?"

I was surprised when he suddenly grabbed my face in his small hands and kissed my lips, his eyes gleaming with happiness and gratefulness. Seriously, what was it with people and kissing me to show their gratitude? A simple thank you would suffice. Nonetheless, I felt my heart warm and melt a little at the gesture and I smiled softly at him. I leaned forward and kissed his forehead.

"What was that for?" I murmured.

"You were right!" he beamed. "My big brothers aren't scary at all! They're the best brothers in the world. I'm not scared anymore. There was nothing to be scared of, just like you said."

"So you won't go running away from them anymore?"

"I won't!"

"They'll be delighted to hear that." I told him, rubbing my forehead gently against his making him giggle.

I glanced up to see a strange smile on Ali's face. It was a soft smile, but it wasn't just that. There was an odd fondness and awe and wonder about it and I wasn't sure what to make of it. Rather than thinking too hard about it, I just brushed it off and took it in stride as something that had changed about him over the years.

"Where's Maxwell?" he asked, glancing around curiously before his eyes landed on Crispin.

"He's taking a little break while we're having a little chat about training and the like."

It was a lie and Ali spotted it instantly but it couldn't be helped. As much as I loved Trace and had shown him that little trick using a bit of magic before, I couldn't risk having him overhear anything strange. Now that he was on close terms with Quinn and Jacks, as a young kid, he would definitely innocently talk about everything he'd seen and I didn't need the twins to spot anything strange about me. It was bad enough having Drew give me bizarre stares almost all the time.

"Will you be visiting again later?" Trace cut in, peering up at me with hope.

"Of course I will. I'll visit whenever you want me there, Trace." I reassured him. "How would you like to see your brothers again tonight?"

"That would be so cool!"

"I'll let them know." I laughed as I looked up at Ali. "Would that be okay?"

"I don't see why not. It should be fine but I'll run it through Guardian Belikov first."

"Cheers, Guardian Castile." I smiled gratefully at him.

"Trace, we shouldn't disturb them any longer. Let's leave Valentine to train." Ali reached out to remove Trace from my arms and I was once again caught by the flex of his muscles. Ali had really grown in the past six years. He wasn't a boy anymore… he was a man. He was a man now…

As though that sudden revelation struck a switch, I was acutely aware of him. I jumped when he gave me a pinch in the side and squealed. All three of them stared at me as though I had grown another head and I glared indignantly at Ali.

"That was mean." I complained, smacking him playfully.

"I'll see you later," he chuckled, giving me a wink.

I watched as he strolled off carrying Trace easily as the two conversed about something.

"So you and Castile, huh?" Crispin drawled and I jumped again, snapping out of my thoughts about why I was suddenly so aware of Ali.

I whirled around to see Crispin perching casually against the pile of mats and rubbed the back of my neck in embarrassment. "You noticed that?"

"I'm observant. You two seemed like you'd had some kind of a connection from day one."

"I'd known him since we were kids. He was my best friend."

"Just your best friend?"

"Honestly? I don't even know anymore." I scoffed. "I guess it's not just Ali who's been caught off guard by my change over the years. It just took me a little longer to notice his properly. I'd been so caught up with everything else that I didn't really notice until now."

"And what have you noticed?" Crispin arched his brows in curiosity.

"That Ali's not a kid anymore. He's grown up."

"Does that change anything?"

"Of course not!" I protested far too quickly and he looked unconvinced but didn't press it.

"Going back to my other question, you never did elaborate on what's going on with you and Cooper? You mentioned something about a compromise."

"We have a compromise, not a relationship, but it seems that the whole school has the wrong idea."

"You haven't clarified it for the rest of us."

"True and Eric's kiss after the tattoo ceremony didn't help any." I sighed. "We're not dating. I rejected that idea since I don't know him well enough but I thought that if I agreed to this compromise, it would stop his hounding. If anything, it's gotten worse. That guy really doesn't like to lose."

"He has almost always been able to get what he wanted, Val. It's no wonder that he's curious about you."

"Well, he's just going to have to learn that even the best of us don't always get what we want." I scoffed. "Now, as much as I like talking to you, I'm going to use this quiet time that I have to do some work. I love my friends and all, but even I need my quiet time once in a while."

"You guys have been pretty much glued at the hips right from the start." Crispin agreed with a chuckle.

"I'm not complaining, they're great for accepting me so quickly despite how troublesome I am. But it makes hiding stuff about my work a little harder."

"You may be troublesome, but I think we've established that you're a good girl at heart."

"Pfft, hardly." I scoffed with the roll of my eyes as I jumped off the pile of mats. "Thanks for the conversation, Crispin."

"It was important for the both of us to explain and clear some things."

"And that is precisely why Joey was being nice and letting us talk alone."

"If the privacy hadn't been important, Maxwell would've fought relentlessly to be here."

I couldn't help but laugh at that. "See you around, guardian."

"Try to stay out of trouble, Valentine."

"I'll be good." I reassured him with a laugh as I left the room.

I headed back to my room first so that I could grab my laptop before trying to think of a private place where I could quickly contact my manager. Eventually, I settled for hiding out in Rosette's office where took my shoes off and curled up on the rest bed before settling down to review what my wonderful manager had planned for me.

A couple of hours flew by and I headed back to the dorms to meet the others for dinner and so that I could drop off my laptop. Dinner was pretty normal and as guessed, Quinn and Jacks really did join me at the Elementary Division and this time they actually remembered to ask Trace if he wanted to join us for the out of school dinner. To say that Trace was excited would've been an understatement. He was so happy that it took the twins half an hour at least to get him into bed and another half an hour to lull him to sleep.

Surprisingly enough, the next day went by with a flash. Shopping with Rosette and Maria wasn't as dreadful as I'd feared. Though they were a little demanding with what they wanted me to wear for the dinner with the royals, they were relatively laid back with the general shopping and didn't pressure me too much which was nice. They did however succeed in buying me a jewellery box filled to the brim with jewellery pieces and as they bought each item, I had found myself wondering when I would have to occasion to wear them. I obviously couldn't wear them all to the dinner from the sheer amount that they bought.

Thankfully, because the royal quartet and my girl friends knew that I had the dinner coming up, they didn't question the shopping trip at all and no one else really noticed my outing so there was no need to come up with an excuse.

By Friday afternoon during my free hour, I still didn't see Eric. I was somewhat surprised by his sudden lack of appearance since he'd been turning up out of the blue pretty incessantly before. As much as I wanted to clear the situation, I didn't think I was ready to confront him yet. I didn't want to feel that hopelessness again the way I had on Tuesday when he cornered me. I had yet to figure out how he managed that and knew that until I did, I was going to continue being pretty useless against him.

My body stiffened when a hand wrapped around mine and twirled my body around. As I turned, I lashed out with my fist, fully prepared to knock the living day lights out of whoever it was that grabbed me. I managed to stop myself short of breaking Drew's nose and smiled apologetically up at him as I stopped my dance routine.

"Sorry, it's a habit of mine." I murmured.

"That's alright. I had a feeling that it might startle you."

I arched my brows at that. Did he want me to break his nose? If I hadn't stopped in time I really would've. "Then why not just call out to me first so I know you're here?"

"It's not every day that I get to see that kind of strange expression," he chuckled.

"What expression?"

"The 'is he on drugs?' expression."

"I can't imagine why." I commented dryly and pulled my hand from his.

I was surprised when he didn't let go and he tugged my hand closer to his face. I blushed when he flattened his hand against mine and he seemed to stare at the difference in size.

"You have tiny hands."

"You're just tall and by default have bigger hands than me."

"I'm a guy, I'm supposed to," he scoffed. "How did these tiny hands kick my ass?"

"These 'tiny hands' are about to whoop your ass to kingdom come if you keep emphasising their smallness."

"I've struck another touchy subject?"

"Another? What was the first?"

"Your pride of wanting to beat that other team."

"That's not really a touchy subject. That was just plain fact. It had to be done and who better than a girl to really thoroughly annihilate them?"

"You're pretty lethal."

"With certain people, you have to be. There's no reason to beat around the bush."

"You dance pretty well without music playing," he complimented, suddenly changing the subject.

This time, I did manage to pull my hand away and gave my head a gentle tap. "The music is all in here."

His eyes twinkled with excitement and anticipation. "Routine for a new song?"

"I do like dancing in my spare time, you know."

"Ah, but if it wasn't for a new song, then you would probably have music playing, won't you?"

I pouted as he hit the nail and crossed my arms. "You and your damn perceptiveness."

"If you let me know the tune, I could help you with your routine. You usually have a partner, right?"

I shot him a startled glance and my mouth gaped open slightly. "How did you know that?"

"I've seen pretty much every single one of your music videos. From what I've seen of your practice so far, this seems to be for 'Risqué'."

"Seriously, you know a scary amount about me."

"And yet at the same time I know nothing at all," he muttered under his breath but I heard every word.

"You know, I've been wondering this for a while. Why are you so interested? I mean, I get that I'm probably pretty interesting considering my skills as a fighter and all, but that's not really enough to catch your attention this much."

"Do I really need a reason to be intrigued?"

"Normally, I don't think I would care." I admitted truthfully. "But you're a special case. The level of your interest is kind of abnormal, you know."

"Why?" he asked, tilting his head slightly to the side in confusion.

"Well… it just is, alright?" I argued stubbornly. I couldn't tell him that I knew just how intrigued he was about me because I'd been speaking to Crispin and my family about him. If I were to say that, he would start asking all these questions about how and why I was so close to the guardians and suspect me even more. That I didn't need right now.

"I meant why you care that I'm interested. You normally wouldn't care, right?"

"Are you here to help me or interrogate me?" I retorted cheekily in defence to try and divert the conversation.

He gave me a full-on smirk and I couldn't help but glare at him for it. "I can multi-task. You already know this."

He had me cornered like some prey but for some reason, I just didn't feel threatened by him. I knew that if I was really distressed, he would back off. He would be able to see it. He'd be able to tell if I was truly distressed. While I wanted to hide the truth from him at all costs, his incessant questioning wasn't really upsetting. If anything, I knew that a deep part of me was cheering at the fact that Drew was this interested.

That was how I really knew for sure that I had to get away from Eric Cooper. When I was with him, he would corner me and I would want nothing more than to get as far away from him as possible. I wouldn't be cheering in the back of my mind because of his attention. Strangely, I'd be cringing away from it if I could. This was nothing like that initial attraction to a cool looking guy. Sure, I was somewhat attracted by his looks at first, but not anymore.

Now that I thought about it, I was really stupid to think that agreeing to this compromise would get him off my back. Why did I even think that he could be like those guys from back at the human school who would back off after just one kiss?

"Kylie?" Drew murmured, his hands holding my face. I blinked and noticed how close he was. He was bent down so that we were at eye level and was so close that I could even feel his breath fanning my face.

"You know, I think I don't even need a whole hand to count the number of times you've said my name since it's so rare." I joked.

"What can I say?" he whispered, staring at me with that intense gleam of his again. "It just doesn't seem right."

My breath caught in my throat and my mind completely blanked. All I could think about was how he knew. He might not have been certain, but deep down, some part of him knew the truth. He just didn't who exactly I was. But there was no doubt that Drew Ozera knew that I wasn't who I said I was. I couldn't fool him. I hadn't managed to convince him to believe in my lie the way I had with everyone else.

I stared back at him, wide eyed. Tears began gathering due to the dryness of my eyes. I really did need to change my contacts soon. Despite the pain of keeping my eyes open, I just couldn't tear them away from his captivating eyes. I couldn't recall ever being this close to him before. Then again, if we were, that would probably have caused a scandal, now or back then.

His eyes weren't just blue. They were the type of eyes that changed colour slightly depending on the light or his emotions. At the moment, they were a somewhat darker shade of blue than usual. It didn't make them any duller. If anything his eyes seemed more empowering now than ever before. Usually, his eyes shined brightly like crystals regardless of how much light there was.

I pulled away from him, unease settling in my pit of my stomach. I might not particularly like Eric but it wouldn't be fair on him if Drew and I were caught being this close. When I was at a more respectable distance from him I could breathe normally again.

Gathering my wits once more, I arched my brows at him. "What are you doing here? You're banned from training."

Drew took my change of topic in stride and didn't push it which I was thankful for. "I might not be able to train, but I can still watch. Who better to steal moves from than you and the renowned best guardian pair in this academy?"

"Hey, no stealing moves." I protested, punching his arm lightly. "I worked hard perfecting and developing them. I'd be in trouble if you got any better at fighting."

"I think your position as the best fighter in our year and maybe even the school is pretty safe," he grunted, rolling his eyes at me. "Your recklessness to try just about any move is kind of terrifying in itself. It makes you pretty unpredictable. You tend to come up with moves that I thought was impossible."

"You've clearly not watched enough combat movies." I smirked at him. "Recklessness to try just about any move, huh?"

"Not many of us flip over people as much as you do."

"That is true. You guys should try it sometime. It comes in handy in the stickiest situations."

"So, why the dance routine rather than training? Not that you need so much extra training."

"They weren't to know when they arranged my schedule at the beginning that I would be such a good fighter." I scoffed. "Besides, one could never have too much training so long as it's in moderation. Fighting against both Maxwell and Jensen really helps refine my skill."

"Your skill needs refining? Tell that to someone who can tell the difference."

"I would, but they're usually too insane to take note of what I'm really saying."

His face fell and apology gleamed in his eyes. "Are you constantly thinking of the worst?"

"Of course not!" I blinked in surprise, wondering why he would say that. "I think of myself as a pretty optimistic person, thank you very much."

"Then why don't you accept the idea that you are strong enough?"

"Because none of us ever are." I told him emphatically. "It doesn't matter how many times we've survived against them. One mistake is all they'll need. I can't afford to slacken, not even a little."

"The security of the world doesn't rest on your shoulders alone. You have to remember that."

"I know that." I let out a heavy breath and ran my hand through my hair, suddenly feeling stressed for some reason. "I do know that. I really do. But I just can't rest easy."

"Is there a particular reason why? You certainly don't come across as someone who stresses out constantly."

"I don't do it constantly," I retorted with a snort and he shot me an amused glance. "But you have to admit, the security around this place is as good as it can get but it definitely isn't enough. Not considering how many Moroi there are here, especially with so many of you royals attending one school. You'd think that since there are so many royals here concentrated in one place, they'd have more guards here."

"St. Vlad's has more guardians stationed here compared to any other Academy."

"That's not enough!" I snapped, throwing my hands up.

Emotion coiled through me. Stress had never been good for me. When I was really stressed about something, Eric being the cause this time, it would really drain me and make me more retaliate than usual. I would become easily influenced by my emotions. The need to break it off with Eric had been weighing heavily on my mind since I spoke to Christian and Crispin.

It'd been two days now.

Not to mention, while Drew probably had no ill intentions, his suspicious gaze and questioning was taking a toll on me emotionally. Everything just boiled and scrunched together into one massive clump. I couldn't get my emotions in check. I couldn't untangle the stress.

I was a state.

And I hated it.