Page 33 of The Kingdom of Ruin

“Me incolumem serva, me his moenia serva.”

Waiting with bated breath, I watch the smoke thicken around me until I can barely see a single piece of furniture in the room. A vortex starts in the center, coiling outward until the smoke sits around the room like a bubble. Just as I think it, it pops, the tendrils of the smoke clinging to the walls before disappearing from sight.

Holy shit.

I did it.

Giddiness tingles through me as I do a little happy dance, beyond pleased with myself that it worked exactly as Morgan explained.

I can do this. I can fucking do this.

I smile so big my jaw begins to ache. It feels so foreign on my face, but I wear it with pride. I really was doubting myself, and it was holding me back. The subconscious self-doubt really is coming out to play, but there’s no space for it in my mind with everything else going on.

Stepping back toward the bed, I finally shake out of my cloak, tossing it aside without care when a vibrating buzz echoes through the room. My gaze darts to my nightstand, my feet rooted to the floor for a split second before I rush toward it.

My cell phone dances inside the otherwise-empty drawer, the screen filled with a flash of blue, and my heart races rapidly in my chest. Snatching it up, I gape at it for a moment, but before I can answer it or end the call altogether, it stops. My heart sinks along with it, regret getting the better of me, but a moment later the screen is alive again with the same image.

“I’m going to kill you,” I snipe, pressing my cell phone to my ear as my free hand presses against my chest.

“Hey to you, too.”

My eyes narrow like she can see how mad I am. “What are you doing?” I push, stress continuing to boil inside of me.

“Hey, Sis. How have you been? I’m missing you so hard. Do you miss me too? Oh, Addi, you shouldn’t.” Her teasing calms me a little, but my body is still tense as I edge toward the window and peer outside.

“I told you not to call,” I grumble, despite loving the sound of her voice in my ear.

“You say a lot of things I don’t listen to,” she retorts, and I scoff, a smile creeping back across my face.

“You were supposed to listen to that, Nora.”

“Well, Dad said I could.”

I roll my eyes. “Of course he did.”

Silence descends over us for a moment, and for the first time in what feels like forever, it comforts me. There is no awkwardness, no wondering what someone’s intentions are, nothing but a serene sense of relief that only comes from two people in my life: Nora and my Dad.

“How are things?” she asks after a moment, and I sigh, trying to piece together a sentence that would even make sense.

“Good, quieter without you here,” I murmur, not wanting to get into the drama that seemed to follow me over the first few days. She would love it. She’s the biggest gossip I know, and there’s no point filling her in on things that are done with now.

“I miss you.”

My heart aches at her words. I’m two years older than Nora, a fact I never let her forget, even though sometimes it feels like we’re twins. She’s a part of me, sometimes that feels more true than anything else in this world, and hearing her voice only confirms how much I miss her now that we’re apart.

“I miss you too.”

“Good. Now don’t give me any of that crap and tell me what’s going on.”

Moving away from the window and the view of a few students strolling along the pathways, I take a seat on my bed. “It’s…I don’t know what’s going on, if I’m honest. So much is happening all at once. I’m just focusing on putting one foot in front of another. I can’t really say it’s not what I expected because I had no idea what to expect, but it has a way of catching me off guard.” The truth falls from my lips effortlessly, even though I’m not being specific about much. She always has a way of making me loose-lipped.

“Have you gotten in trouble?”

“Define trouble.”

Her laugh echoes in the air and I can picture her falling back in a fit of chuckles.

“You have. I love it!”

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