Chapter 4: The Prince and the Lord

The three of us ducked and covered our ears when Mr. Dawson’s voice filled every inch of our dorm. “You are to change into your uniforms. Once you are dressed, make your way back to the main building. The second-years will be available to direct you to the dining hall.”

We didn’t waste any time.

“How do they know our sizes?” I asked, taking in my reflection in the mirror.

“Master Bavol turned into a lioness right in front of us not even two hours ago,” Celestria reminded me. “With skills like that, making sure our uniforms fit is probably a piece of cake.”

I hadn’t thought of it that way, but she was right. The academy was filled with people who had magical abilities. Learning details about our lives must’ve been the easiest part of their job, especially when it came to someone like me. If there was a file on me at the administrator’s office, it probably held a single piece of paper with three words on it—~ordinary farm girl~.

“Ready?” Kenley asked.

I folded my old clothes and placed them on my bed. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

Once Kenley opened the door and we stepped out into the busy hallway, Celestria put herself between Kenley and me. “Best friends?”

“Best friends,” Kenley and I said in unison.

Celestria smiled. Then she looped her right arm through mine, her left through Kenley’s, and together we made our way back to the main building.

The dining hall had high ceilings, held rows upon rows of long, wooden tables, and was jam-packed with students. It made me feel a little claustrophobic because I’d only ever eaten in the company of my parents. By the time we got our trays—each piled with as much food as I’d usually eat in a week—there was hardly anywhere left to sit.

Eventually, we found an empty table at the back of the dining hall and sat down.

Less than a minute into dinner, Kenley dropped her spoon, peas scattering all over the table. “Girls!” she squealed, then dropped her voice to a whisper. “The prince is here.”

I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed them before, because in the center of the room sat five of the most handsome men I’d ever seen. Instead of enjoying the delicious food like the rest of us, a gaggle of at least twenty girls hovered around them, watching their every move and giggling at their every word.

“The prince, his crew, and their fan club,” Celestria said, a bored expression on her face.

Their presence made me so nervous that food kept getting stuck in my throat, but royalty didn’t seem to faze Celestria, because she kept stuffing chunks of poppy seed bread and mouthfuls of rabbit stew into her mouth.

“Hey, he kind of looks like you,” Kenley said.

“Who?” I asked.

“The prince.”

They studied me for a second.

“Oh my gosh! You do,” Celestria exclaimed.

“Scary alike,” Kenley agreed. “I’m not sure why we didn’t notice it the moment we met you.”

Trying not to be too obvious, I glanced over at the prince’s table. His thick black hair, his blue eyes, and his tan skin did resemble mine. He had an air of confidence about him that I didn’t possess, but other than that, we looked almost identical.

“You’re telling me that I look like a boy?” I asked. “Thanks for that.”

“Don’t listen to them. You definitely don’t look like a boy,” said a guy in an Oswalda uniform. He had a smear of stew on the tip of his chin.

Kenley raised her eyebrow. “Are you flirting with my roommate, Willow?”

The guy’s cheeks turned red, but she didn’t seem to notice. “This is my cousin. Willow, this is Celestria and Hollis.”

Being a part of a group was new to me, so I wasn’t quite sure how to act or what to say. Still, I knew that Kenley just put Willow on the spot, and he didn’t enjoy it.

“Nice to meet you,” I told him and gave him a friendly smile.

The smile didn’t stay on my face for long, because the moment the prince stood up and his companion came into view, I found myself struggling to breathe.

It wasn’t just that the guy was handsome and he knew it. It wasn’t his golden hair, sun-kissed skin, and broad shoulders either. It was his gray eyes that made the room tilt. He must’ve felt me stare, because he turned his head and looked straight at me.

I’d seen those eyes before, many times. They’d been present in every dream I’d had for the last year.

My heart skipped a beat, and even though I didn’t want to, I looked away.

“Who is that beside him?” I asked, pretending to be more interested in the contents of my tray.

“That’s Lord Hunter,” Celestria said. “The lost princess’s betrothed. Beyond handsome, but very much off limits. Also, a certified ladies’ man and full of it. Stay away from him.”

“I hear you loud and clear,” I said. Just then, two more guys joined our table.

“This is Bartley and Johnny, my roommates,” Willow introduced his friends to the rest of us.

“This is Celestria and Hollis,” Kenley said again. She left herself out, so I assumed they’d already met.

That evening, my friend count went up to five. We talked about our goals and hopes. I couldn’t explain it, but we just clicked. It was like the missing pieces were finally coming together.

“My parents have my life all planned out. I’m here to grow my powers. Once I do that, I will be taking on my title,” Celestria said, sounding a little disappointed.

“My father works for the queen, so like Celestria, my future is already planned out,” Johnny told us, raking his fingers through his black hair. Unlike Celestria, he seemed happy about it.

“Whether my powers kick in or not, I want to end up in the army. Move up the ranks. Maybe even become a general one day,” Kenley said.

Bartley wasn’t sure what he wanted his future to look like just yet. As for me, I told everyone that I wanted to stay at the academy for as long as possible, find my purpose, and maybe travel the world one day.

“I’m just here to do better than my cousin,” Willow said and poked Kenley in the ribs.

We laughed. They were quickly becoming the jokesters of the group.

A loud whistle echoed through the dining room.

“Attention,” Administrator Dawson spoke. “Tomorrow morning, all first-year students are expected at the arena at dawn. Your training will be hard, so we don’t want to waste time on those who won’t be able to handle it. We’ll test you to see who is going to make the cut and move forward. Please return to your chambers and get some rest. You’ll need it.”

The students stood up and flooded out of the dining hall.

“Who’s going to be able to sleep after hearing something like that? Definitely not me,” Willow said, saluted us, and followed after his roommates.

Without meaning to, I glanced at the prince’s table, but the prince and the boy with the gray eyes were gone.

“What do you think they’ll make us do tomorrow?” I asked once we made it back to our room.

“They’ll give us a test,” Celestria said. “Honestly, I don’t know too much about it, except that…”

Kenley and I looked at her eagerly.

Celestria bit her lip, then gave in. “I don’t want to scare you, but I heard the test could drive you mad.”

It was warm in the room, but I shivered anyway.

“In some cases, the masters can fix it,” Celestria assured us.

“~Some~?” Kenley repeated. “And what happens if they can’t?”

Her silence told us everything we needed to know.

I finally understood why people were so scared to attend the academy and surrender themselves to the masters.

The last few days had left me completely drained, so when my head finally hit the pillow, I was ready to follow Mr. Dawson’s orders and go right to sleep. Instead, I ended up tossing and turning all night, imagining all the ways in which tomorrow could turn into a disaster, thinking about how unprepared I was, and replaying the moment Lord Hunter looked at me back in the dining hall.