Stolen Hearts; Chapter Fourteen

"Oh come on! I'm not exactly your average student. Let me out of this damn room," Cala whined in a strop, arms thrown wide and dramatically pleading justice. It had been subdued enough staying inside the school grounds for the first few days that, even after her most recent visit to the Rebels, she just wasn’t prepared to spend a whole day in bed.

"Cala Hunt, if you do not get yourself back into bed this instant I shall chain you down myself," The nurse said sternly. Cala mentally raised an eyebrow in scepticism but couldn’t help smiling and returning to her bed. Climb back in it however, she would not.

Although she still got the odd awkward glance from wayward students the whole castle itself seemed to have relaxed over night in regards to her presence. Cala couldn’t help feeling elated as she realized she’d finally been accepted by the school.
There was a gentle static crinkling from behind her which swiftly grew into a splitting whip crack.

"Oh! Dear me, Simon you scared the living daylights out of me," The nurse exclaimed. Cala spun around on her bed to see Simon stood next to her nurse dressed in a faded pair of jeans and a ragged plain white top, his hair in its usual naturally blasé state.

Simon nodded mysteriously in Cala’s direction before turning back to the young nurse.
"How’s our wounded princess doing?" Simon asked, his voice teasing. Cala grimaced inwardly at the implication towards her past title.

"A princess indeed, she hasn’t let me alone for two minutes. Wants to leave already and I wont have it, not after what they did to her. I swear, lord knows what the minister was thinking, giving out an order like that," she exclaimed her expression grave.

Simon grinned, deep, warm and infectious. "I guess I’ve come to relieve you from your duties for a while then," Simon joked, locking eyes with Cala who tried hard not to blush as she involuntarily remembered Sam’s words of warning the night she had decided to change. "That’s if she’ll have me?" Simon continued, aware of the nurse’s curious glance and Cala’s temporarily distracted gaze.

Cala nodded, she’d welcome the company regardless of who it was and surely she could handle Simon. The young nurse didn’t need a second offer and was out of the room faster than you could say jack rabbit.

Simon ambled over; Cala didn’t miss the way he scanned the room once over quickly before slumping into the sofa by the side of her bed.

"I would ask if you’re ok but something tells me that would be a rather stupid question," he smiled lazily.

Cala grinned "I would ask if you’re ok but something tells me you don’t need looking after," she chimed back. Simon laughed, the foreignness of it sounded stunning to her ears and he stared at her curiously, shaking his head as he did so.

"Maybe," he muttered straightening his face once more.

"You weren’t around yesterday," Cala commented remembering him disappearing off the willow’s swing. Simon shrugged in reply and Cala though he’d just managed to build a solid stone wall between them in a single gesture.

"This place can be as much my cage as it is yours," he offered, providing her with a metaphorical window through that solid wall, all be it a foggy one.

Cala looked at him then, a million questions running through her mind and her brow creased in frustration or maybe fascination as she thought of them all at once.

Then he smiled that knowing smile, one she knew instantly was his smile.
"Slow down, you’ll give yourself a headache," he murmured, so quietly she almost missed it, getting up and walking easily and elegantly over to the window to the left of Cala’s bed. He flung the curtains wide open to expose the monstrously beautiful view as Cala jumped up off her quilt eagerly to join him.

Did he just get inside my head?
Cala swore she saw a smile twitch lingeringly at the corners of his mouth, but she couldn’t be sure. Even so she redoubled the walls protecting her mind from intruders. It was a serious weakness to leave your mind open yet the majority of soldiers never learnt how to close theirs. Simon knew though and he was damn good at it, Cala narrowed her eyes suspiciously, she’d never classified anyone as a threat until she met Simon.

"It was my birthday last night," she said interested in his possible replies.

He smiled tightly "Had fun did you," and he seemed to flinch unconsciously but only ever so slightly.

As the sunlight hit his torso Simon’s white t-shirt became somewhat see through. Cala stopped a second, trying to take in what she could see. A white scar ran from his right shoulder down to the middle of his spine. A perfectly straight thick line that passed over a tattooed pair of black tattered wings, placed high up on his shoulder, fist sized.

He wasn’t lying when he said he was Black Nation then. Cala thought.

Simon spun around; perhaps he felt her watching him but it was unlikely and once again Cala felt a cloud of suspicion pass over her mind. She didn’t feel abashed though, even under his fierce scowl he was looking like a school boy scorned. The intensity in his hoary eyes didn’t catch her attention either.

Cala walked over and gently pushed on his left shoulder to get him to turn around and face the window again. He hesitated slightly before turning reluctantly back towards the view. She could watch his face in the reflection of the glass out of the corner of her eyes as she slowly lifted up the back of his top to revile the scar in all its glory and watched as all his muscles visibly tensed under her touch.

"How?" she whispered, placing her hand across its origin. Knowing straight away that it could not be healed, whatever blade had done it had been laced with acid. He flinched but did not move, seemingly restrained to his position.

Simon stared straight ahead, his jaw clenched and his eyes stony. Thinking if it was anybody else behind him right now he wouldn’t have let them anywhere near his scar but at the same time her touch seemed to have shifted a large screen in his sub-conscious and Simon was suddenly unsure of just what had happened. He scrunched his eyes tightly shut but just as soon as it had come the feeling had passed, but it had been there. Dear god had it been there!

He’d wanted to hurt her; shocked at the realization he started to pull his top down again but not before Cala noticed a couple of baby scratches on his arms, quiet obviously recent.
"Because of my family," was the answer he gave stiffly hoping she didn’t read the hidden feeling of terror in his eyes after what he had just felt pass.

It was all he knew Cala needed. She knew better than anyone what would have happened. Whether his family were alive or dead it didn’t matter, they had betrayed the Black Nation in some way or another and Simon had paid for it. Someone had cut across his mark, banishing him. It was a big fall as well. His mark was high; his family must have been powerful.

Cala said something then that she would never dare say before but times were changing and she always had had a habit of being reckless.
"The Rebels would have you,"

Simon spun around frowning gently and with severe curiosity, "What would you know of the Rebels?" his voice was low and seemed to rumble and glide through the air at the same time.

Cala laughed outright, she couldn’t help it "What would I know?" she teased back and took his place in front of the window, raising her chin in natural defiance to the world. It was his turn now to be able to see through the back of her top.

"They got you pretty good didn’t they," He muttered, thinking at first he was talking about the scars from the whip she just shrugged, before realizing she didn’t have any scars.

She felt his hands rest gently on her back, one on her waist and the other slowly raising up the back of her new pale top. Cala’s heart rate leapt into her throat as he ran his fingers smoothly across her back, from shoulder blade to shoulder blade. His breath was warm against her bare neck but a sudden chill fell down her spine like iced water. She saw his eyes widen in the windows reflection, knowing he was tracing the lines of her own tattoo which smothered the top half of her back, covering it completely in a pair of black tattered wings.

"I’d get rid of it if I could," she muttered darkly, and it wasn’t a lie.
"Sssh," he whispered, realizing how fast her heart was beating while his hands were on her. Cala was extremely conscious of the hand on her waist, not sure whether she knew what she was doing anymore. All her senses leapt into overdrive like his touch had somehow flipped a switch inside herself.

Simon didn’t take the hand off her waist but pulled her top back down with his right hand and placed it on the other side of her hip. He leaned forward so his lips were centimeters from the back of her neck and his breath danced across her skin.

"There’s a dance in two weeks time," Simon whispered gently grinning charmingly and boyish as always. "Come with me," he said fervently and there was a confidence in his voice.

Cala really didn’t know what she was doing anymore; she could feel her mind slipping as if she had been drinking. She shook her head slightly and sharply as if to escape it but locked eyes with him accidentally in the windows reflection, transfixed by his gaze.

"Sure," she answered her voice slightly slurred, not completely aware of what she had agreed to but content to stand and stare into his eyes as long as he wanted. He smirked again, cheekily this time, somewhere deep inside her she almost groaned knowing she’d just let him play her and looked at Simon who knew he’d played her, and succeeded. What the game was however, Cala was yet to establish.

He seemed to reach behind him for something his silver eyes glinting dangerously but they darted away suddenly and he dropped his hands to his sides, walking closer too the window. Cala followed his gaze; there were two blacked out figures on the schools boarders by the canyon, only just visible; their shields shrouding them in darkness.

One figure, the smaller of the two, was inside the schools energy barrier stood facing the other. The other figure was on a winged horse, a young one, but they were on the outside of the schools barriers hovering out above the canyon. A mile drop beneath them.

"Who are they?" Cala muttered. Simon shrugged, deep in thought.

"That’s not a good sign though, whoever it is," He said darkly.

Cala nodded in agreement.
I smell treachery She hissed silently.

"It won’t be long now. The Black's will declare an all out war with the White Nation. Conscription will come back and the Rebels will finally join in the war,"

Simon faced her at the last sentence; now that was something he didn’t know. "The Rebels? Are they big enough already?"

Cala smiled smug she knew things he didn’t "They’ve been big enough for a while now. Just been waiting for things to well and truly kick off,"

Simon seemed to consider this for a minuet "The Black Nation will declare a full on war in eighteen days," He sated as if paying her back for the information with some of his own. Cala started slightly.

How does he know that?
She decided not to ask though as Simon turned away from the window to face her again. Well it wasn’t really that she decided not to ask, it was more that as soon as he locked her eyes in his again the thought vanished without resistance. The two figures had dispersed the flyer heading up stream towards the Black Nation and the student transporting to god knows where in the castle’s grounds.

"You’ll be out of here by tomorrow, don’t worry about it," He smiled, wiping the previous conversation aside. "I’m going away tonight for a couple of days. I’ll be back for the ball though,"

Cala nodded, not sure of what to say. "I’ll show you how to dance," he winked and with that, transported hastily away before anything else could be said.

Cala turned back out of the window, the clouds were rolling in, and there would be another storm tonight. She realized then what her plan was going to cost her. What it was going to cost everyone.

She could not leave this school standing, it offered far too many opportunities for enemies within to gain allies, recruit capable soldiers, sabotage others and build up strength within the safety of the grounds. It wasn’t practical in war times to let your enemies train in your own facilities. Even Xandu had been right; this school must fall before the war ends. Her new home must fall.

(: Had some huge writing session over the past few days, the result of being confined to ones room with all the rain and thunder. Already written three more chapters :) They'll be up soon.
Thanks for such nice comments!
Lullabye's xxxxxx