Fire and Shadows (DarklingxOC) (Shadowandbone fanfic)

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

When I arrive at dinner, Mila and Dimitri are standing close tot the doorway. Mila with arms crossed and an annoyed expression on her face, and Dimitri trying to calm her down.

I frown, wondering what's going on and walk over to them.

"Hey guys. What's wrong?" I ask, making their heads turn towards me.

"When we arrived, there were people already in our seats, so we wanted to wait on you to find new ones." Dimitri explains.

"We sit there every day," Mila starts, clearly annoyed, "and they think it's okay to just stroll in here and steal our spots. Yeah, I don't think so." She says, with a lot of hand motions.

"Yeah, that is weird, but it's not the end of the world. Thank you for waiting on me, though."

"It's nothing. Let's go find somewhere to sit," He turns to Mila, "expect of course if you would prefer to just sit on the floor."

She glares at him, while I try to hide my laughter.

We start walking towards the table, when we pass our usual seats and Mila stops.

Dimitri turns around and grabs her arm.

"Mila," He warns her, "don't cause a scene."

"I won't, I just want to ask some questions."

She breaks free of his hold and taps one of them on the shoulder. A girl with short blond hair turns around and looks at us questioningly.

"Hi." Mila starts, in a sweet voice. "I was just wondering why you decided to sit here, I

mean, it's not as if your name's written on it."

"Uhm... actually it is." She says, pointing towards a small name card on the table.

Kira

"Oh... Sorry to bother you." Mila says, before walking away, with Dimitri and I on her tail.

"See," Mila says to Dimitri, "I didn't cause a scene."

Dimitri just rolls his eyes.

We walk by the whole table, reading the name cards.

"Found it." Mila exclaims, once we arrive at the end of the table, right by Aleksander's chair.

We all sit down at our assigned seats. Dimitri on Mila's left, and me on her right, right next to him.

At least his seat's empty.

I look around the room and see Alina walk in with Nadia and Marie. They look at the table confused as to why there are people in their seats. They start walking around and notice the name cards. And of course, their seats are right next to ours. With Alina in the middle, Marie on her right and Nadia on her left.

A Heartrender, who I think is named Ivan, stands up and gives a run through of all the deaths in the first and second army. I space out and start thinking about the name cards.

I mean it's weird that after months of having the freedom of choosing where we sit, that was suddenly taken away from us. And that my seat is right next to Aleksander's. Not that I don't want to sit next to him, it's just we have to keep this whole thing a secret and that was easier to do when we were at different ends of the table.

I snap out of my thoughts when Ivan sits down and the servants come around handing us our food. The room suddenly falls silent and I look up to see Aleksander entering and sitting down next to me. Once he's seated and starts eating people start talking again. He looks up and gives me an award-winning smile that I return with a small smile of my own and a blush rising on my cheeks. Mila nudges me in the ribs, making me turn to her with a glare.

"Stop flirting with him, people are going to notice." She whispers to me with a smirk. I turn beet red and start eating. Sometime during the meal, Aleksander's hand found his way on my leg, which I didn't minded.

Once I'm done eating, I go to stand up, but a hand on my knee stops me.

"I'll see you later, Pchelka." Aleksander says, a small smirk dancing on his lips. All I can do is nod, before standing up and leaving with Mila and Dimitri.

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Once Mila, Dimitri and I have split paths, Alina runs up to me.

"Oh, hi Alina. How are yo-"

"What were the Darkling and you talking about?" She interrupts me, walking at the same pace at me.

"Um, nothing. Juts some things about my last lesson, that's all." I lie. I can't tell her. She would freak out.

"I don't like you being so close to him." She states.

"Well, he's my teacher. I can't really do anything about it." I explain.

"Actually you could do something about it." She starts. I lift one eyebrow, questioningly. "You could return to Baghra."

I sigh, frustrated.

"What are you? Like Baghra's own personal saleswomen." She rolls her eyes. "I'm not having this discussing again with you, Alina. What do you have against General Kirigan, anyways?"

"He's evil, Anya." I scoff. "He's a shadow summoner. Look what the last one did."

"That wasn't him, though. You can't hate him because of something he didn't even do." I say, before quickening my pace and entering my room.

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A couple of weeks later

I was standing in front of Aleksander's office, the tears in my eyes threatening to spill. I wanted to enter, but the guards wouldn't let me. They kept saying Aleksander wanted to be left alone, but I wasn't going to leave.

"Please." I say, for the hundredth time.

"Orders are orders, miss."

Finally, I break down. A sob escapes my lips and then another.

"What is that noise?" I hear Aleksander ask, while opening the doors. "I had asked to be left alon-"

I look up at him, my eyes already red.

"Saints, Anya." He exclaims, running over to me and holding me up.

"But sir-" One of the guards start.

"When I say I want to be left alone that counts for everyone, except her." He explains to the guards, before leading me inside and closing the doors.

He leads me to his bedroom, which is attached to his office and places me down on his bed.

"What's wrong?" He asks, kneeling in front of me.

"There were some girls at training that were making fun of me." I explain, in between sobs.

I felt like a child. Crying because some girls bullied me. But I can't help it, it makes me think of the orphanage.

"Come here." He says, sitting down next to me and hugging me.

We didn't move for what felt like hours, but I didn't mind.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed!