Royal Guard Book 1: The Servant

Chapter 7 - Ivy - Truths and Secrets

I watched Olivia dash out of the classroom and I shook off Hutch's grasp on my arm. Mihri was still turned around, acting like nothing had happened.

Rupley , the ever helpful guard, awkwardly made his way up to the front of the class. "Uhhhhhh okay? I guess I'm subbing now? Uhhhh..." He grabbed a wooden yard stick and held it like Debrot does her cane. "No one else leave! Alright? Just, uh, keep doing that. Yeah."

I marched up straight to Mihri's desk. I ripped her chair out from under it, with her still seated. My one hand still gripped the back of the chair as I leaned over her. Mihri looked up at me calmly.

I growled. "What did you say to her?"

"Ivy, I'm not going to play the pronoun game here. You're going to have to be a bit more specific-"

"Autumne," I snarled.

"Oh, well I can't exactly quote myself word for word since I work in the moment, but I can tell you it was just the truth." Mihri brushed her hair off her shoulder.

I narrowed my eyes.

"Oh come on. For all of your brooding and hotheadedness, you're not an idiot, Ivy. Autumne is obviously failing. But the only reason she was transferred here in the first place was because her grades were slipping at Regenwood. Her parents thought that a more competitive environment would encourage her to put more effort in. But I guess that hasn't been the case."

"Mihri-" Kyomi reached out to her, but her friend pulled away.

"No, what were you expecting? For us to baby her? If she can't handle this kind of pressure, then there's no hope for her to rule a kingdom. She should step aside before that kind of weakness affects her people." Mihri was eyeing the rest of the class now, selling her speech to a wider audience.

"Oh okay , so if Common wasn't your first language and you had just moved across the entire country, then you would be grateful for me to humiliate you. Since I guess the only other option to babying is acting like a bitch ." I shoved Mihri's chair back. She stumbled a bit, but caught herself and stood up. Mihri was a good six inches shorter than me, but she met my eye with a ferocity. Good.

"I get that your parents didn't give you enough attention as a child, Ivy-" I set my jaw. "-but at some point you need to grow up. Autumne does too. If she needs to go off and cry in a corner in order..."

I didn't even hear the rest of the sentence. "This isn't about me," I cut her off.

Something sparked in Mihri's eyes. "Oh, but it is. With you it always is."

Someone's hand gripped my shoulder. Probably Rayna. I didn't care enough to look. All I could see was Mihri, and those poisonous words that spilled from her blood red lips.

"You take every chance you can get to make a show of yourself. This isn't chivalry. Autumne's gone. You're just doing this for yourself now. You just want to be noticed. To be interesting ." She was hissing now. "Why wouldn't you? Your mother would rather spend her time being Headmaster, splitting her attention among a hundred other kids, than preparing you for the throne. And you had... what was it?" My breath was coming out ragged now. There was no classroom. No knight, three steps from us, yelling at me to sit down. No hand on my shoulder. Just Mihri's pitch black eyes, smirking red lips, her taunting voice echoing around in my head. And my heart pounding in my ears. " Two fathers that left you?"

She was on the floor before I registered what happened.

Mihri gasped, clutching her nose as blood dribbled down her chin. My knuckles were throbbing from the punch, but it was numbed out. Everything was numb. Everything was blurred at the edges. Slowed down. Silhouettes of my friends lagged closer in my peripheral. But my heartbeat was still in my ears. Only Mihri was in focus. Only her voice I could hear.