Nightingale Academy

Amaranth had to resort to dragging me to lunch. He held me firmly by my right wrist and his arm circled around my waist: This way he could pick me up easily when he walked down and up stairs. He put me down before we entered the cafeteria and steered me towards our usual table. He picked me up again by my waist and plopped me down between Azure and Haven who immediately cooed over me.

“Are you feeling better, Lilith?”

I grunted, unhappy that I was in public.

“Have you regained your appetite?”

I grunted again and stared down at the table.

“I knew my brother would get her out and breathing air again.”

“No doubt.”

“She doesn't look happy....”

“Probably on her period.”

“Hush your dirty mouth, Hayden.”

“I was just making an inference.”

“Well, make another inference and philosophise me shoving a box of tampons down your oesophagus.”

“That deep?”

“Deeper.”

“Damn.”

Needless to say, the conversation between the two siblings irked me and I was happy to see Amaranth back with his tray. He pushed Hayden closer to Wynona and sat directly across from me, sliding the tray in front of me. I looked down at the vegetable soup and scrunched my nose. I looked back up at him to show him the displeasure etched across my face, but he shook his head emotionlessly and beckoned me to eat with a slight upward twitch of his eyebrow. I lightly sighed under my breath and picked up the silver spoon. I began at the edge of the bowl and slowly drank the soup from my spoon, while the icy aura of his eyes sent chills running up and down my spine.

About halfway done with the bowl, I looked back up at Amaranth and he beckoned me to continue. Haven's high-pitched voice rang through my left ear while Azure's alto resonated with Haven's and pounded my opposite eardrum. My head was starting to hurt and I could feel myself pale. I dropped the spoon onto the tray and ignored Amaranth's stare. I got up with the tray and drained the rest of my soup in the kitchen sink and lined my silverware and bowl in the opposing sink.

I slipped past the table and made my way out the cafeteria and towards the music room. It would be quieter there and with my head still pounding, I didn't care to tell Amaranth where I was heading or wonder whether he would follow me or not.

Amaranth decided to follow me and quickly caught up, slipping his arm around my waist and quickened my pace by lifting me off the floor slightly. Instead of bringing me to the music room he glided up the staircase leading to the roof.

“I assumed that your senses are probably sensitive right now so the greenhouse and all its pollen is out of the question. The roof was the next best thing,” he said, slipping us through the last door and onto the roof.

I nodded, not bothering to correct him, and sniffed in my slightly stuffed nose and sat on one of the benches, pulling my legs to my chest and resting my chin on my knees. I breathed in the air and sighed it back out through my mouth. Amaranth gracefully sat next to me and I closed my eyes. Quietly, I made a mental checklist of Amaranth's powers. Super strength has been a reoccurring one. I may be light but no one has been able to hold me in the air so lightly by just my waist. He was fast too. Is doesn't take much to be faster than my short and stubby legs, but he seems to be faster than others even though he looked like he was holding back.

I opened my eyes when the icy stare became unbearable and my eyes unwillingly gravitated to his. He slid his hand up my back and placed his arm across my shoulders.

“You're going to get sick again if we stay out here too long.”

I nodded but made no motion to get up. I gazed back out to the sky and watched it darken. I looked back at Amaranth and analysed him carefully. He was much more paler than when I first met him. In fact, his dark, olive skin had paled quickly. He was almost the colour of paper now and the rouge colour in his lips stand out more. Soon, he'll be paler and more delicate looking than me. I inwardly giggled.

“What's making you smiley about all of a sudden?”

I looked up at Amaranth in surprise, but instead of stumbling over my words, trying to make up a reason, I took one look at his flabbergasted expression and laughed. He looked puzzled and his eyebrows were knitted together, forming a unibrow. His dark red lips were puckered out and the tip of his nose was scrunched. I looked away and coughed into my hand, starting to choke with laughter. He patted my back lightly, but I continued to laugh.

With this sudden expression of happiness, I felt giddy and I looked back at Amaranth with a grin and leaned up close to his face. I pecked his cheek and smiled again when I pulled away. “Thank you for taking care of me, Amaranth. Even though I was a pain and all.”

He had stiffened to my sudden close proximity and he visibly stopped breathing, but he smiled after a few lagging seconds and chuckled. “Indeed you are quite the pain.” I hit his arm and he laughed. It obviously wouldn't hurt him even if he had felt it at all. “But, I certainly don't mind....Just, try not to get sick for a while, okay?”

I nodded and he lightly touched my cheek with his fingers. He leant down and kissed my forehead. “Let's get you inside now.” I nodded and he picked me up as he stood up. He set me back on my feet and wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

I didn't start walking with him like I should have. Instead, I held my ground and stared at the ground with a puzzled asphyxiation. I was brutally curious and I just had to ask. This is my only chance. If I stop now, I won't ever be able to gain enough courage to ask again.

Amaranth looked back and and asked me what was wrong. I cut him off as if I never heard him.

“Amaranth, I just need to know,” I started, finally looking up to look at him. “Will you ever....that is to say, one day will you tell me...tell me what you really, truly are?”

A wave of emotionlessness washed over his face and he stared dully back at me. Monotonously, he answered, “It would be in your best interests not to speak of this again as would it be best for you to not know-”

“But,” I swiftly cut him off again. “Will you tell me one day?”

His expression faltered slightly. I stared dead ahead at him, into his eyes, resonating my own icy state into his.

“Lilith Globe,” he took both my hands and held them in his before brushing my fringe out of my eyes. “It is an irrevocable fate that you carry in your hands and, undoubtedly, one day I will tell you because it is undeniable that I would ever be able to separate myself from you. I am a selfish creature by nature, as are humans just the same, and you will always be mine, Lily. Always.”

He brushed a stray tear off my cheek and I blinked hard to fight the tears back before I timidly asked him, a small smile pulling at the corners of my mouth, “Is that your way of telling me you love me?”

He smiled back at me, mirroring my expression and leant down till our noses were almost touching. My eyes slowly drooped closed as my heart beat sporadically inside my rib cage. Our lips were centimetres, millimetres away and then....