CHAPTER 30
1459 Words
ADINNA’S POV
The smell of milk still clings to my hair, faint but stubborn, even after two showers. I can still feel it dripping down my skin as everyone laughed. I told myself I wouldn’t think about it again, but my mind is cruel. It replays the moment like a favorite song on repeat.
I pull the blanket tighter around me and stare at the ceiling. The dorm feels smaller tonight. Quieter. I’ve washed my sheets, wiped down every surface, and tried to erase any trace of the day. But no matter what I do, I can’t scrub away the sound of Jace’s voice asking me if I thought I was special.
Maybe I did. Maybe, deep down, I wanted to be.
The door bursts open, breaking through my thoughts. Riley’s voice fills the room before I can even sit up.
“Okay, I have news,” she announces, dropping onto my bed like she owns it.
I blink at her, too tired to care. “You have your own bed, you know.”
“I know,” she says, grinning.
I roll my eyes and shift, trying to make room for her. She’s practically bouncing. Her curly brown hair is tied up with a ribbon that probably matches the outfit she picked two hours in advance.
“What is it this time?” I ask, dragging my voice through the fog of exhaustion.
“The Solstice Ball!” she says, like it’s supposed to mean something.
I stare blankly at her. “The what?”
Her jaw drops in mock horror. “Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of it.”
“I haven’t,” I admit flatly.
“Adinna!” she gasps, clutching her chest dramatically. “It’s the event of the season! Every pack, every academy, every important wolf will be there. There'll be dancing, music, and food. Like, actual food that isn’t cafeteria mystery stew. And there's...”
I cut her off with a look. “Why are you telling me this?”
She leans forward, eyes glinting with mischief. “Because you’re coming.”
I blink. “No, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are.”
“Riley, I don’t even know what this Ball is supposed to celebrate.”
She sighs as if I’ve committed a crime. “It’s the Winter Solstice, duh. A night of renewal, unity, and fated connections,” she wriggles her eyebrows at me.
“Fated connections?” I echo.
Her grin widens. “You know… mates. People meet their mates there all the time. Or dance with them if they’ve already found them. It’s all romantic and glowy and magical.”
“Sounds like a nightmare,” I mutter.
“Oh, come on! It’s one night. You could actually have fun for once.”
“Fun,” I repeat, deadpan. “You mean being in a room full of people who already think I’m a joke?”
Her expression softens a little. “They’ll forget about the whole Jace thing soon enough.”
“No, they won’t,” I whisper. “Jace will make sure of that.”
Riley hesitates, then sighs. “Yeah, he’s something else.”
I don’t respond. The image of his sharp and cruel smirk flashes in my mind, the kind that makes you want to punch him and cry at the same time.
She nudges my knee gently. “You shouldn’t let him get to you, you know.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” I mumble.
“I’m serious, Adinna. He’s just a guy who thinks he can mess with everyone because he’s powerful and all that.”
I glance at her. “That’s your analysis?”
She grins. “A solid one.”
Despite myself, I laugh softly. It feels strange, like my body forgot how to do it.
Riley seizes the opportunity, leaning closer. “So? You’ll come to the Ball with me, right?”
“I said no.”
“Please?” she begs. “It’ll be me and you. You don’t even have to dance if you don’t want to. You can just stand there and look mysterious. Wolves love that brooding thing you do.”
“I don’t brood.”
“You totally brood,” she says, laughing. “Like, constantly.”
I glare, but she doesn’t back down. She never does.
The thought of going to some crowded event where everyone’s pretending to be perfect makes my stomach twist. I imagine walking in, heads turning, whispers spreading like wildfire. That’s her. She's the girl Jace humiliated.
Still, there’s a small, traitorous part of me that wonders if he’s there?
No. I shove the thought away. I can’t keep doing this to myself.
“Riley,” I say quietly. “I’m not ready to be around everyone yet. Not after everything that's happened,” I trail off.
“Too soon?”
“Very.”
She bites her lip. “Okay, okay. I get it. But still… you can’t hide forever. You’ve been locking yourself up in this room for days. You need to breathe again.”
I sigh. “I am breathing.”
“Barely,” she says. “You’re surviving, not living. And that’s not the way things should be.”
I stare at my hands. The skin on my knuckles is still red from when I clenched them too tightly that day. My reflection in the window looks like someone I don’t recognize with my tired eyes, dull expression, and hair pulled back in a lazy knot. I look like a ghost of my past self.
“Riley, I just… don’t think I belong there,” I admit softly.
She frowns. “Belong? What are you talking about? You belong anywhere you want to be.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is,” she insists. “You just have to believe it again.”
I laugh bitterly. “Believe what? That I’m not everyone’s favorite target?”
She sighs and stands, hands on her hips. “You’re impossible.”
“Thank you.”
“Not a compliment.”
I grin faintly.
She studies me for a moment, then softens. “Look, you don’t have to decide now. Just think about it, okay?”
“Fine,” I say, mostly to end the conversation.
Her smile returns instantly. “Good. Because I may or may not have already signed us up.”
I stare at her. “You what?”
She grins wider. “Don’t look at me like that. I knew you’d say no, so I took matters into my own hands.”
“Riley!”
She shrugs. “You’ll thank me later.”
I groan, throwing a pillow at her, but she dodges with a laugh.
“Relax,” she says. “It’ll be fun. Trust me.”
“I don’t trust you.”
“Lies. You love me.”
“Questionable.”
She gasps dramatically. “You wound me.”
I roll my eyes again, but the corner of my mouth betrays me with a tiny smile.
She starts chattering about what we’ll wear—glittering dresses, moonlight shades, the perfect shoes. I half-listen, half-drift into thought. The word Ball echoes in my mind, twining around the memories I’ve been trying to bury.
Jace’s face. His voice. The way his hand lingered on mine before everything shattered again.
I hate that I remember how warm his touch felt. I hate that I still wonder if he meant what he said and if, for a second, he wasn’t pretending.
I force the thought down. It doesn’t belong here. Not now.
Riley keeps talking, excitement spilling over every word. I nod when appropriate, pretending to listen. She doesn’t notice my silence; she’s too busy planning her outfit.
When she finally leaves, promising to wake me early tomorrow for “dress scouting,” I collapse back onto the bed. The dorm is quiet again.
Outside, the night hums faintly—the wind against the windows, the rustle of distant trees. I close my eyes and let the stillness press against me.
A Ball. A night of celebration, renewal, and fate. It sounds like something out of a story that doesn’t belong to me.
And yet something stirs inside me. A faint, flickering pull.
Maybe it’s curiosity. Maybe it’s the part of me that refuses to stay broken.
Or maybe it’s just the hope—dangerous and small—that this time, when everyone looks at me, it won’t be with laughter.
I sigh and pull the blanket over my head. Sleep doesn’t come easy, but when it does, I dream of moonlight, music, and a hand reaching out through the crowd.
And I can’t tell if I’m running toward it or away.
- Writer
