Page 148 of Akarnae

Alex ran up the stairs and across the room before knocking on the door and waiting for the muffled invitation to enter. When it came, she straightened her spine and opened the door, fully expecting to see Jarvis with the headmaster. Instead, the only person in the room was—

“Darrius? What are you doing here?”

“Alex,” he said, smiling at her. “It’s good to see you up and about. Are you feeling better?”

“Good as new,” Alex answered, looking around the room and wondering where Jarvis and Marselle were.

“I’m pleased to hear it,” Darrius said. Noticing her distraction, he asked, “Is something wrong?”

“Huh? Oh—sorry, Darrius,” Alex apologised, turning her attention back to him. “I’m just looking for someone.”

Darrius made a show of glancing around. “It doesn’t appear that anyone is here but me, Alex. Are you here to see me?”

She smiled and said, “I wish that was the case, since at least IknowI like you. You haven’t been AWOL all year, unlike… some people.”

Darrius’s eyes were full of understanding. “Come and take a walk with me.”

It wasn’t a question, and she frowned slightly in confusion. “I really shouldn’t. I’m supposed to be meeting Headmaster Marselle here. Right now, I thought. But… well, clearly he’s not here. Have you seen him by any chance?”

“I have, as a matter of fact,” Darrius said. “I believe he’s waiting for you in his office. Allow me to escort you there.”

Alex was happy to accept, because even though she had been outside the headmaster’s office twice, she still wasn’t sure what floor it was located on.

“Thanks, Darrius. That’d be great.”

He opened the door for her and led the way up the stairs. Up and up they stepped, until finally the staircase ended at the very top of the Tower.

Darrius led her through the somewhat familiar antechamber and stopped in front of the closed door. He pressed a code into the TCD display beside it and the door sprung open. Alex was just about to ask how he knew the password to the headmaster’s office when she glanced into the room and her mouth snapped shut.

She followed Darrius inside and looked around the small space. Realisation dawned on her so hard and fast that she almost had to sit down. She covered her reaction by walking unsteadily over to the other side of the room and leaning against the wall.

“It didn’t look like this last time,” she said quietly, looking out the familiar window and down into the endless cloud-filled sky. “During the first Lockdown, I mean. It was more like a boardroom then, with a glass wall looking out over the entire academy. It looked like a headmaster’s office. I guess you get to pick and choose what you want, huh? One of the perks of the job?”

Her throat was clogged with emotion. It took her a moment to realise that she was angry—at him, definitely, but mostly at herself. She felt stupid for not making the connection sooner. It had been so obvious, in hindsight. But she’d been so overwhelmed by the weirdness of everything else that she hadn’t even paused to question his identity. If she’d stopped to think for just a moment, the truth would have been glaringly apparent.

“This is my private study,” Darrius told her simply. “We’re now back in the Library, having walked through a doorway connected by the code I used with the TCD. A password isn’t necessary to reach my other office, which is always accessible to others—except in the case of a Lockdown. That office is used for my more formal duties as Headmaster of Akarnae.”

“All this time?” Alex asked, her voice almost a whisper. “All this time, and you never said anything?”

“I don’t suppose you’d believe me if I told you it was for the best?”

“You lied to me,” she said, ignoring his question.

“I did not,” he said calmly. “I merely withheld certain information.”

“Importantinformation,” she said, her anger rising.

“I don’t believe that to be the case,” he returned, still completely calm despite her darkening mood. “How would knowing my identity have benefited you in any way?”

“You could have helped me get back home,” she answered. “That was all I ever wanted.”

“Which is precisely why I didn’t reveal myself to you,” he said, taking a seat on the edge of the couch that she’d once woken up on many months ago, on her first Library ‘adventure’.

“You had no right to do that.” She felt resentment burning in her chest. “You should have told me.”

“You weren’t ready to leave,” Darrius said, his eyes sad. “Even if you didn’t know it at the time.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded.

---