Three weeks later.
"I hope you know you're going to fail."
I looked up from my notes.
Beth was sprawled across her bed, one leg hanging lazily over the edge while she munched on a packet of crisps. Her own textbooks lay untouched on the floor.
"Fail what?" I asked.
"Everything."
I stared at her.
"You've been staring at the same page for twenty minutes." She said wistfully.
"I've been thinking."
"No." She pointed a crisp at me. "You've been daydreaming. There's a difference."
I picked up the nearest pillow and threw it.
She caught it without looking.
Show off.
"You see?" she grinned. "Violence. Another reason you're going to fail."
I laughed.
The sound startled me.
Not because it was funny.
Because it had been a while since laughter had come so easily.
Our room looked like every student dormitory should three weeks before final examinations.
Books were everywhere.
Flashcards littered the floor.
Beth's socks sat idly on the table.
Outside, The Academy was unusually alive.
Students drifted across the courtyard with notebooks tucked beneath their arms. Someone was playing a guitar near the fountain. Two professors argued over examination timetables as though that were the greatest crisis the Academy had ever known.
I wandered toward the window.
A werewolf boy jogged after a human girl, laughing as she waved his notebook above her head.
He caught her.
She shoved him.
He kissed her cheek.
Someone walking past groaned dramatically.
"Get a room!"
The couple laughed and kept walking.
Nobody stared.
Nobody whispered.
Nobody called the guards.
Three weeks ago, that kiss might have earned them a death sentence.
Today...
It barely delayed people on their way to class.
I smiled to myself.
Funny how revolutions looked nothing like the stories.
No trumpets.
No fireworks.
Just people... living.
"Earth to Night." Beth snapped her fingers loudly "You've disappeared again."
"I was just thinking." Her fangs flashed.
"Dangerous habit."
She tossed one of her history books onto my bed.
"Can you quiz me on Chapter Twelve? They've rewritten it and now I have to relearn three hundred years of lies."
I picked up the book absentmindedly.
The old heading had been covered with a crisp white correction page.
JEAN AND FURLA Founders of the Democratic Movement.
My fingers lingered there.
A few pages later...
Another heading.
MARREN AND DARIEN Martyrs of Article Nine.
I swallowed.
For a long moment, I simply stared.
They finally had their names back.
There was a knock.
Beth looked up and smirked.
"I bet you fifty crowns."
"On what?"
"That'll be Jordan."
I walked to the door.
When I opened it, Jordan was standing there holding a bouquet far too big for one person.
At least...
he had been.
Half of it was currently trapped between the door and the handle.
One rose had fallen onto the floor.
Jordan looked down at it.
I rolled my eyes "You know, I actually miss the days of that sneaky disappearing thing"
I burst out laughing.
He sighed dramatically. "Lupine teleportation" He reminded me drily and then sulked "You have always wanted me to use the door. And by the way, I practiced this entrance." His completely frozen over eyes still had a way of giving me goosebumps.
"You clearly needed more rehearsal."
He bent to pick up the rose before stepping inside.
"Oh please don't tell me you are actually reading for Trig.." His characteristic indifference had somehow quadrupled, multiplying his charm.
"Well some of us are not like you"
He laughed gently. God. He was so handsome I could kiss him.
"You know you can actually kiss me. I'm all yours"
I pulled him closer, flowers and all "Damn that stupid mindcraft." I whispered before letting my lips sit on his. He tasted like candy, all shades of mine. I could kiss him for eternity.
Beth snorted so loudly she nearly choked.
We pulled apart with a grin. Jordan finally noticed her.
"I forgot you lived here."
"Rude."
"I meant... I always notice you."
"Worse."
He winced.
"I'm making this difficult."
"You usually do."
I rescued him by collecting the flowers.
"They're beautiful. Thank you."
His shoulders relaxed.
"You're welcome."
For a second neither of us said anything.
Then, almost shyly, he reached for my hand.
No hesitation.
No checking the corridor.
No making sure no one was watching.
He simply held it.
I realized I still wasn't used to that.
He leaned down and kissed me. Again
It wasn't desperate.
It wasn't stolen.
Just another kiss.
Simple.
Ordinary.
Legal.
When we pulled apart, Beth clapped twice.
"Lovely."
She deadpanned.
"I've become the unwilling audience to a romance."
Jordan didn't even look embarrassed.
"You'll survive."
"I sincerely hope so."
He reached into his jacket and pulled out an envelope.
"This came today."
I frowned when I saw the logo.
Moon Sol Records.
"Oh please don't tell me they want you back all of a sudden" They had dropped him months ago when he rejected his fated mate, Minata Strauss.
Jordan smiled "Funny enough, they do. I am hot stuff, afterall" I resisted the urge to slap that arrogant smirk off his perfect face.
Beth sat upright.
"They what?"
Jordan shrugged.
"They apologized."
I opened the letter.
The offer was ridiculous.
More money.
More creative control.
An international tour.
My eyes grew wider with every paragraph.
"Jordan..."
"I know."
"They dropped you."
"I remember."
"And what about Derrick Vale, the so called Devil's Eyre "
Jordan snapped his fingers "Disappeared. Vanished right into thin air. Devil knows where"
"Good for him " I muttered.
"And now they've remembered I'm still very much profitable" His voice held no bitterness, only a certain nonchalance.
I looked at him.
"So what are you going to do?"
He shrugged again.
"I already told them no."
"Just... no?"
"They asked if I'd reconsider."
"And?"
"I said no again."
I blinked.
"You didn't even negotiate?"
"What for?"
I laughed.
"They're Moon Sol."
"I know who they are."
"They made your career."
Jordan shook his head.
"No. Bloodstone did.They signed me when everyone else decided I was too controversial to touch." He smiled " I'm not very good at forgetting who stayed."
Beth pointed at him.
"You."
"What?"
"You're disgustingly loyal."
"I've heard worse."
She rolled her eyes.
"I hope Night appreciates the level of emotional maturity she's accidentally dating."
"I do."
Jordan squeezed my hand.
Beth's phone buzzed.
She glanced at the screen.
Then another notification appeared.
Then another.
Suddenly she burst into laughter.
"What?"
She turned the phone toward me.
"Night."
"What?"
"Someone just posted that your freckles symbolize the triumph of democracy."
I stared at her.
"My... what?"
She kept scrolling.
"Another person says Jordan looked hotter during the trial than at the Bloodstone Awards."
Jordan looked offended.
"That's impossible."
Beth ignored him.
"Oh, here's my favourite."
She laughed so hard she had to wipe her eyes.
"'The Tishian Treaty fell because Jordan Files couldn't keep his tongue to himself.'"
My face burned crimson.
"Beth!"
"What?" she gasped between laughs. "I'm just reporting the news."
Jordan had the decency to look slightly ashamed.
"Slightly," Beth corrected. "Very slightly."
She kept scrolling.
"You two are everywhere."
I groaned.
"We helped rewrite three hundred years of history..."
"And," Beth interrupted solemnly, "...the internet has thanked you by turning you into memes."
Even Jordan laughed at that.
Outside, the afternoon sun spilled across the Academy grounds.
Students hurried to lectures.
Someone shouted for a friend to wait.
Somewhere, music drifted lazily through an open window.
Life had resumed.
Not because the past had been forgotten.
But because the truth had finally been remembered.
And somehow...
that felt like the better beginning.