Argent Eye II

21

I sat in the lecture theatre, listening to Irina teach. Kate was sitting a few rows behind me, but I could almost feel her eyes burning into the back of my skull like a hot branding rod. Last night, I'd got home and gone straight to bed, locking myself in my room.

When I woke up, I wasn't as upset about Kate as I had been before. I was more pissed off than anything. Of course, I could still barely look at her. I wasn't sure how I would ever get over it- at least, not any time soon. She'd arrived at the lecture after me, but ignored me as she walked by and sat down. I ignored her, too.

I found it hard to concentrate on Irina's lecture, knowing that Kate was there, but I tried my best to make notes. At least if I wasn't exactly registering everything at the moment, I could look back at my notes another day.

As soon as the lecture ended, I noticed Kate rush out, not stopping to talk to anyone. I'd barely put my things away and she was gone. I caught eyes with Irina, who'd also noticed. I walked down to the front.

Irina smiled gently. "How are you feeling today?" She asked, still a little concerned.

I shrugged. "Better than yesterday, I think." I said. "I don't feel like I need to cry every five minutes." I chuckled.

"It will get better." She said, her hand on my shoulder.

I tried my best to smile. Everyone had left the lecture theatre, except then someone came in.

It was Peter.

"I've had it." He said, walking up to us. His eyes were wide.

"Huh?" I frowned, and I could see Irina was just as confused as I was.

"I've been going out of my mind for the last eight months trying to understand all of this." Peter continued. "Please, I need to know."

Irina and I exchanged a glance. "Okay." I said, still a little shocked at Peter's sudden outburst. "What do you want to know?"

"Just... I need to know what happened last year." He said, sighing.

"Why the change of heart?" I said, remembering what he'd said about it before. That he didn't want to know.

"I've been trying to get over it all, but I've come to the conclusion that I can't get over something that I don't understand. I think that if I just knew what you were, and what happened, I could perhaps start thinking about getting over it. It's been driving me crazy." He actually laughed. He wasn't angry. I'd say he was here spontaneously, like he'd suddenly made up his mind and decided to come before he changed it again.

I nodded. "Okay." I said. "I guess we'd better start from the beginning."

___________

Peter listened for the whole thing, not interrupting me once. We'd taken a seat at the front desk- Irina, of course, wasn't there last year, so this was just as much of an enlightenment to her as it was to Peter, despite what rumours she may have heard. Even after what I'd already told her, this was the first time she'd hear the whole story, from beginning to end. I started from the night I was stabbed, to Ronan to Argents to Haydn. From ice to metal. The prophecy. Everything. Of course, I didn't go into details about the recent Argent events- there was absolutely no need for Peter to be involved in any of that.

"So yeah." I said, having just concluded with me drawing the darkness and the light out of Haydn. "That's about it, really."

Peter nodded slowly. All three of us sat in silence for a while, letting it all sink in for him. "So this Haydn... he's gone?"

I nodded. "Yep." I said.

"Okay." He said. "And you two didn't know each other before this year?" He motioned between Irina and I.

Irina shook her head.

"No." I said.

"But you're both... Argents?" He said Argents like he still hadn't quite got to grips with the word. I knew how he felt, when I'd first learned about them.

"Yes." I said.

"And how did you figure out that Irina was an Argent?" Peter was looking at me.

I couldn't really go into those details without mentioning the fact that shit was going down.

"I noticed Millie's eyes." Irina said. "One is silver."

Peter narrowed his eyes at me. "Oh yeah, so they are." He said, as if noticing for the first time. Ronan had said that people wouldn't see the strange eye colours if they didn't want to, so clearly Peter hadn't wanted to. He then looked back at Irina. "But you don't have that?"

Irina then smiled a little, and for a second one of her eyes flashed silver. Peter's eyes widened. "Oh... so, wait- why is yours hidden?"

"Usually the silver eye disappears from sight after a few weeks." Irina said. "But Millie is an exception. We think it has to do with the fact that she can control all the elements."

"Oh." Said Peter, as if it were obvious. "So it's not normal to control all the elements?"

Irina shook her head. "Just Millie."

I smiled.

Peter nodded, then after a moment he slapped his hands down on his knees. "Okay, well, I think I need a moment to digest all of that." He stood up. "But thank you, for telling me."

"You're welcome." I said.

"If you have anymore questions, you know where to find us." Irina said.

Peter smiled, nodded, and then left.

___________