~x~ Chapter 54 ~x~

I wasn't really sure how long we stayed like that, just hugging each other. "I need to get back to the dorms soon. I'm going to miss the curfew."

"Just send Joe a message saying that you're going to get back late."

"I can't just abuse my connections like that, Ali."

"Sure you could. I did."

"You tried." I corrected with a laugh. "And got your ass kicked by Aunty Jules every time for it."

"It's so unfair that I was the one getting beaten up when you were always there with me."

"I had my fair share of lectures!" I protested.

"Lectures are better than getting your ass kicked."

"I beg to differ." I scoffed. "Seriously, though, I need to get back. I promised Martin that I'd be good."

"That's a shame. I thought we'd get to sneak around the Guardians on patrol like we used to."

"How about during the holidays? That way there aren't many students around and Martin would have less to worry about." I suggested.

"You're staying here during the holidays?" Ali sounded surprised by the idea and I pulled away to look at him.

"Why wouldn't I? This is my home after all. Did you think that I was going to get the hell out of here once I had the chance?"

"I saw how happy you were out there with your friends, Kai. It wouldn't be strange for you to want to spend the whole holiday with them considering how you're basically confined here for the rest of the year."

"I'm happy with them but I'm happy here too. I'll go out a few times to visit them of course but that doesn't mean that I need to live out there. Besides, it's kind of inevitable that I'll get to see my friends out there anyway because of my job."

"Has it been confirmed with Martin then? Your schedule and stuff."

"For the next few months, yeah. My manager has crammed in as much as she could since we have no idea how much time I'll have once school starts again."

"I'm glad that you managed to make the most of your voice, Kai. You've always loved singing."

"I guess it was the one thing that I actually had confidence with." I admitted sheepishly, rubbing the back of my head.

The main reason why I ever got into singing was because Ali had told me that he loved my voice when I sang. The first time was back when I was five. We'd just been having one of our relaxed evenings at the house while my parents were off having a meeting with the other Guardians. Since that first time Ali told me that he liked my voice, I'd enjoyed singing even more. It was the one thing I was absolutely confident with when I'd left the Academy.

My voice had somehow led me to various people who'd made my life outside of the Academy possible. For the first three years, I'd somehow managed with the money I brought with me. At the beginning I had slept at my middle school's infirmary since it was basically impossible for me to find a place for myself. I was only ten after all. Two weeks in, I got caught by the doctor who had come back to get something from his office. He'd heard me singing in the music room and told me to stay with him and his wife, Rosette.

I met my band thanks to my voice too. I'd been singing a cappella on the streets when I was 13 to earn money to pay for school and living expenses. Back then, the others were high school students searching for a lead vocalist. One thing led to another and I joined their band. Not long after that, our current manager discovered us and promoted us so well that we were almost an instant hit.

"If you want to get back in time for curfew then I guess I should let you go now." Ali sighed in disappointment.

"Why don't we watch a movie tomorrow? We could start on that collection of yours." I suggested. "I want to go to the house anyway to check something."

"Have you let Marin know about that?"

I shook my head and stretched. "No, I'll drop him a message when I get back to the dorms."

I was startled when Ali suddenly reached out towards my face. His thumb brushed my bottom lip gently and I noticed his eyes darken in a mixture of fury and another emotion I couldn't name.

"It's going to heal in no time." I reassured him.

"I don't care how much time passes. If I see him, I'm going to kick his ass." Ali declared vindictively.

"Then let's hope that you never see him. The poor guy won't see what hit him."

"He's not some poor guy, Kai. He's a bastard that needs to beaten to the point of death."

"Alright, Alster, I'll take your word for that."

"How can you not feel the same way?"

"I do, just not as viciously. I agree that I need to beat the crap out of him at least once. And if any of you beat me to it then I'll have to kick your asses too."

"I haven't seen you in action yet."

"Yes you have. In fact, I recall that you nearly punched my face in anger for the fact that I was in action." I corrected.

"I didn't get to see much since I was rather preoccupied with the Strigoi. And I'm not the only who was angry about that. Juliet was too."

"She threw a folder in my face that morning when we got sent there."

"Are you talking about what happened after the fight broke out in the cafeteria with O'Connor?"

"Yeah. I just turned around and bam there it was." I grumbled. "Anyway, you're stalling me. I need to go, seriously."

"Alright, just one last thing then. Put my number into your phone so we can decide when and where to meet tomorrow."

I pulled my phone out and handed it to him. He quickly typed in his details and sent a message to his phone so that he'd have my number. "See you tomorrow, Ali."

"Stay safe, Kai."

"You too, Ali. Let's hope none of the kids suddenly wake up so you can get a good sleep. You'll need it if we're going to start on your movie collection."

"I'm sure your amusing commentary on how stupid some of the characters are will keep me awake," he teased.

"Hey, I wasn't that bad."

"Let's not start on that. We'll be here all week if we do. I personally don't mind but you want to get back by curfew, right?"

"Right." I agreed. I tugged him down and gave him a kiss on the cheek before unlocking the door. After making sure there was no one around, I sprinted down the corridors and back to the dorms to avoid being late.

"You're safe." Joe told me as he shut the door behind me. "You sure do know how to cut it close, Kai."

"Ali caught hold of me just as I was coming back." I explained to him.

"Is he better now?"

"I think so… You never know with Ali. Sometimes he'll seem like he's fine but then he just might suddenly explode again. The most important thing is to make sure he doesn't see Eric Cooper."

"I don't think it's just Alistair. If Juliet sees him she just might kill him on the spot without reservation."

"I don't think she'd kill him on the spot, more like bash him until he was unrecognisable." I scoffed.

"That does sound like something she'd do," he chuckled in agreement.

"Are you going to see Martin after you've checked everyone's in their rooms?"

"Why?"

"If you do, can you tell him that I'm going to the house tomorrow? Ali will be there as well since we're going to start on that movie collection of his."

"Keep your phone on and be prepared to sneak out, Kai. We might want to drag you out tonight."

"Are you serious?" I blanched. "I don't think I can handle the collective lecture…"

"You better prepare yourself. Considering what's happened, I don't think you can avoid the lecturing."

"I can't?"

"You can't. Don't bother getting too comfortable in bed until you get a text from one of us."

"Alright, got it." I sighed. "Let me know soon though otherwise I might fall asleep."

"We'll let you know in about half an hour."

"Got it." I made sure no one was looking before leaning forward to give him a kiss on the cheek. "See you later maybe."

He chuckled and ruffled my hair before giving a nudge on my back. "Up you go, kiddo."

I headed upstairs to my room and collapsed onto my bed. The day had been far too hectic for my liking and as much as I loved my family unit, I preferred not to have to sneak out later so that I could sleep now.

I must have dozed off because I shook awake when I heard the buzzing of my phone. Grumbling, I read the message and grumbled again when I read the summon. It seemed that I wasn't getting to sleep yet.

I looked out my window to see Ali waiting against the wall with his arms crossed. "Psst!" I hissed to catch his attention. My heart melted when he glanced up with a cheeky smile that I knew and loved so much.

He gestured for me to jump down and I glanced at him sceptically. Glancing around to see which branch I could use, I gave a sigh and lifted myself up to slip through the window. Kicking off from the ledge, I launched down towards the branch I had my eye on to slow down my fall before dropped softly onto the balls of my feet.

"Nice jump," he praised, draping an arm around my shoulders. "I was planning to catch you though."

"That's not really my style." I retorted cheekily. "Shall we go before someone sees us?"

He stepped away to drape a jacket around my shoulders and we walked side by side towards the Ivashkov house. The door was barely open when a hand reached out and yanked me inside.

"You stupid child!" Maria chastised as he fist whirled towards me.

I squealed and hastily got into a defensive stance, blocking her fist with my palm. "Maria!" I protested. "Violence isn't the answer."

"Says the girl who has progressively beaten various people through violence." Joe teased.

"Hey, they attacked me first."

"That's no reason to jump head first into danger, Kai." Martin chastised.

"This time really worried us, Skylar. Don't do that again."

"I really am sorry. I'll do my best to make sure something like that will never happen again." I reassured them sincerely. "Oh, and since we're all here, Ali and I are going to watch a movie here tomorrow. That's going to be alright, right?"

"It should be fine. Joe, you are on guard around here, aren't you?"

Joe gave a nod. "Other guardians shouldn't be coming around the house tomorrow."

For the next hour, the others continued to chastise me mercilessly for my so-called reckless behaviour regarding Eric Cooper. Eventually, they finally let me get back to the dorms so that I could rest. Ali walked me back and we agreed to meet at 11 at the same tree as the other night. Before going to bed, I caught sight of the box that Aunty Jules had given me last week. Since things have been so hectic so far, I hadn't had the chance to see what was actually in the small safe yet.

Carefully, I typed in the code into the electronic keypad and tipped the box upside down so that its contents fell onto my bed. Various things sat on my bed: a cheque book, two letters, the Ivashkov family crest that I remembered seeing several times as a child and the family head's ring which I supposed belonged to me now…

Thinking back, I remembered that the crest was passed down from generation to generation at the coming of age ceremony. I wasn't too surprised to see the crest but I was somewhat startled to see the ring. Why would they have kept it in such a tiny and rather flimsy looking safe? Surely they would have kept it somewhere much safer? Or maybe my parents thought that since it was such a casual safe no one would bother to look for the ring in here. Either way, it was a good thing that it wasn't lost over the years or stolen.

Putting the cheque book, a strange looking key, crest, and ring back into the box, I decided to take a look at the two envelops. One had my father's handwriting while the other had my mother's. 'OPEN THIS FIRST' was written in bold marker and capitals to emphasise the importance of opening that letter first.

Before I could open the letter, a yawn broke through my lips and I decided against reading the letters now. I would wait until tomorrow when I had the whole day to do it and mentally and emotionally prepare myself for whatever information my parents had wanted to leave me.

That night, memories of my time here in the academy six years ago raided my dreams so that when I woke, all I could see in my mind were flickering images of my old life here. A combination of grief, loneliness, joy and fulfilment coursed through me. It was a really strange sensation and after a while, I decided not to dwell too much on it. Groggily, I got out of bed to go into the bathroom and got ready for my usual wake-up jog.

I got back to the dorms in good time to have a shower and get changed into lounge wear before heading off to meet Ali at the tree at 11. He was earlier than me this time and I found him leaning against the tree, gazing up at the sky. "Morn', Ali," I greeted chirpily. "I hope you brought food with you."

"The fridge in the house has been stocked."

"Is there coffee?"

"Yes," he chuckled, his eyes gleaming with amusement at my almost desperate tone in need for coffee. "You like coffee?"

"I can't live without it."

His eyes trailed down to my hands and his brows scrunched together. "Why are you holding a box?"

"Mum and Dad left it for me. There's a bunch of stuff in there that I thought I'd look over at the house before we get started on the movie."

The first thing I did when I got into the house was make a straight bee-line for the kitchen. I put the box down and set the kettle to boil. "Coffee?"

"Thanks, Kalster."

While we were waiting, we kept the conversation light and discussed what genre of movie we should start with. Once the coffee was made, I sat with him on the sofa in the lounge with coffee cup in hand. I bent down and placed the cup on the floor and reached for the box before sitting back up again.

"When did you get it?"

"Last week when Aunty Jules caught me. She was holding onto it until now and I haven't really had much of a chance to look inside until I saw it last night."

"You don't mind me being here? I could wait in the kitchen, Kai."

"It's cool. If I get confused, I can ask you faster or if I fall into a pit of memories and burst into tears you can snap me out of it. You know what I'm like if I get too caught up."

"You tend to lose sight of your surroundings and drown in whatever state of mind you get yourself into."

"Right, so it's better to have you with me." I concluded simply.

I unlocked the box again and took out the two letters. I put the box to the side and got started on the first letter. It began with warm and playful greetings from my parents and I could just picture them sitting with me right then as though they were never gone in the first place. I continued to read the letter which contained an essay with their concerns and advice about life. On the third page, there was a list of what should be in the box. I cross referenced it to see that everything matched and breathed out a relieved sigh when it did. I continued to read the end of the letter.

I tilted my head in confusion when the words jumped out at me. According to the letter, the key that was in the box corresponded to something that they had shown me a couple of times back when I was a kid not long before they passed away. Behind the lock, there was supposed to be the second part of the will and another top-secret letter for me to read.

I tried to remember just what the key was meant to fit into but after ten minutes, I came up with nothing and gave a frustrated sigh. Something they'd shown me before? What on earth could that have been? So far, memories which were relatively immediate before the attack on the school six years ago were somewhat foggy because my mind seemed to want to block it out. Eventually, I gave my mind a break and stopped trying to force the memory to reappear.

Carefully placing the letter back into the envelope and putting it into the box, I moved onto the next envelope and as mentioned in the letter at some point during the essay, this was the first part of the will. I spent a good amount of time looking over it to commit its contents to memory.

"Ali, this is really daunting…" I complained. "I now possess the ring belonging to the head of the Ivashkov family. There's no stronger proof of my being the head of the Ivashkovs than this…"

"Try not to overthink it, Kalster. At the moment, you don't need to be concerned with the politics of that just yet. Technically, the Ivashkov princess isn't here, right?"

"Geez… I can't believe something so important is in my possession though. I'm going to have to protect this to my dying breath."

"Kai, what you need to protect isn't the ring. It's your own life," he told me sternly. "The ring can be remade. You can't."

I felt like a small child under his stern gaze and gave a sheepish smile. "Right, that too."

"Have you had breakfast yet?" he asked, changing the topic.

"Not yet, no."

"Why don't you put everything back into the box and take a break while I make us some hot breakfast. You can set up the TV and put a film in so we could start on the films over breakfast."

"That's a fantastic idea."

We followed Ali's plan and by the third film, we were settled on the sofa together for lunch too. Half way through the third film, the scene triggered the memory that I was desperately searching for that morning and I squealed. Luckily I didn't have my plate on my lap since I shot up from the sofa and grabbed the box as I dashed upstairs to my old room. Hastily, I unlocked the box and snatched up the key before flattening myself to the floor so that I could wriggle under my bed.

"Ali, can you please get me a flashlight?" I hollered when I heard him come up the stairs.

A moment later, he was on the floor beside me and he handed me his phone with the flashlight switched on. Anxiously, I opened the small door in the wall under my bed and for a moment simply stared at what was in front of me. I stared and stared, refusing to believe my eyes until the image of a pile of ash was ingrained into my mind.

Panic and fury coursed through me.

In my haste to get out from under the bed, I banged my head but that didn't matter much. I vaguely heard the door being shut, presumably by Ali, and he yelled after me.

"Kai? Kai! Slow down!" he called out.

I ran, snatching up the box from the floor and sprinted out of the house. Disregarding the fact that I was bare footed since I hadn't stopped to put my shoes on, I headed straight for Martin's office.

"Are you 100% certain that no one but our family unit has been in the house?" I demanded fiercely as I stormed in frantically.

Martin shot me a disapproving glare which faltered when he saw my expression. He hastily ended his call and turned to me.

"Valentine? What's happened?" Joe asked, turning his head so that he could see me. I knew why he used my false name since the door to the office was still wide open and we couldn't know if someone was about to walk past. Ali rushed in and shut the door behind him.

"Joey?" I stared at him in surprise. "I thought you were patrolling?"

"Crispin's on that now. Why do you look so frantic?"

"Someone's been to the house."

"What?" Joe demanded sternly.

"Kai, explain." Martin commanded, gesturing at the seats.

"I've finally opened the box Aunty Jules passed over. Inside was a key – this one – and I opened the vault under my bed."

"You have a safe under your bed?" Joe cut in.

"I presume that only I should know about it since its existence hasn't been written anywhere so far as I know. The letter my this mini safe said behind that lock should be the remaining section of the will and a very important letter."

"What's the urgency?"

"There is nothing but a pile of ash in that vault." I told them quietly but fervently. "Someone has somehow incinerated both items. I opened the vault to find nothing but ash."

"Alistair, I need you to gather everyone, please. Tell them to drop whatever they're doing and come here immediately, this applies to Jenson as well. I'll send work for Brooks to patrol the area for now." Martin told him, one order after another. Ali wasted no time, dashing off to complete his tasks, while Martin got on the phone to give Guardian Brooks his task.

I waited until the doors were closed again and until Martin got off the phone before speaking again. "Do you know why they split the will to be guarded in different places?"

"Can I see how much of the will you have?" Martin requested.

I unlocked the small safe and handed him the will. "The crest and ring of the Ivashkov family have been passed down too."

"The Ivashkov ring?" Joe whistled. "I haven't seen that in a long time, little sky. It's finally found it's rightful owner."

"I'm not the rightful owner just yet. Not until I reveal my identity as the run-away Ivashkov princ-"

I broke off when I heard the smallest hint of a gasp coming from the door and panic shot through me once more. Swirling around, I threw a blast of wind at the doors, forcing them open. A bewildered but determined looking Drew Ozera stared at me and I stared back at him, my mind going blank.