Chapter 290: Another One
Electra’s POV
The stone bench under me was cold, but I barely felt it.
I was somewhere between dozing and full-on sleep, head tilted back, eyes fluttering shut every few seconds. The breeze in the courtyard was soft, almost comforting, and the sunlight was just warm enough to trick me into thinking I was safe, undisturbed, and alone.
That illusion, of course, didn’t last long.
"Electra!"
Roxana’s voice rang across the courtyard like a slap.
My head jerked up, and my spine followed, shooting me into a half-sitting position as I blinked blearily at the source of the noise.
She was standing a few feet away with a broom in one hand, the other on her hip, and her eyebrows raised so high they could’ve flown off her face.
"You here to nap in public or actually help us clean this damn place?" she shouted again, loud enough that at least two students passing by turned to look.
I blinked again, then yawned and waved weakly.
"My bad," I said with a small, sheepish smile. "I was just... resting my eyes."
"Resting your—" Roxana let out an exaggerated sigh and turned away, muttering something about "privileged princesses."
Penelope, who was crouched a few feet away pulling weeds from the base of a courtyard statue, looked up and offered me a small, understanding smile. Irina just frowned from where she was sweeping near the fountain, her eyes narrowing as she studied me.
"You okay?" Irina asked, a little quieter than Roxana but still clearly concerned. "You don’t look great."
I rubbed my eyes and tried to sit up straighter.
"I’m fine," I said, though the words felt like lies the moment they left my mouth. "Just tired. Weak, I guess."
Penelope stood, dusted her hands off on her skirt, and walked over to me with a concerned tilt of her head.
"Electra, maybe you should go back to your room," she said. "Seriously, you don’t look like you can even stay awake, and this," she motioned to the broom in Roxana’s hand, "isn’t going to end anytime soon."
Irina nodded in agreement. "You’re clearly running on empty, and let’s be honest, it’s not like Astor gave us light work. We’ll be out here for hours. Go rest, and we’ll come find you after."
I shook my head.
"No."
They all blinked.
"No?" Roxana repeated, squinting like she wasn’t sure she heard me right.
I pushed myself to sit up properly this time, ignoring the way my back protested and the way my shoulders slumped no matter how straight I tried to hold them.
"I’m the reason you’re all out here in the first place," I said. "I’m the one who got sick, and I’m the one who needed hiding. You broke rules because of me, and Astor punished you for it. So no, I’m not going back to my room while you suffer."
Irina sighed. "It wasn’t your fault—"
"It was," I cut in gently. "Even if you say it’s not, we all know it was. You wouldn’t have had to sneak me out of the infirmary if I hadn’t been burning up like a bonfire. You wouldn’t have lied to Astor, or risked expulsion, or gotten assigned courtyard duty like we’re all in middle school again."
They didn’t argue this time because they knew I wasn’t wrong. I pulled my knees up and hugged them loosely, letting my chin rest on them as I looked toward the statue in the middle of the courtyard.
"I’ll stay here," I said. "I may not be able to sweep or pull weeds or lift anything heavier than my own arm, but I’m not going back to that room until we can all walk there together."
There was a short pause.
Then Penelope gave a small smile and shrugged. "Okay."
Irina sighed, but didn’t push. "Suit yourself."
Roxana didn’t say anything, but I noticed how she didn’t roll her eyes this time. She just went back to scrubbing the moss-covered steps of the fountain with renewed energy, muttering about "elites making better cheerleaders than workers."
I leaned my head back against the bench again, but this time I forced myself to stay awake.
I watched them as they worked, saw how Penelope’s hands turned red from scrubbing stone, how Irina’s braid kept falling loose as she swept, and how Roxana’s shirt had started to stain at the hem from dragging her brush too close to the dirty water, and I felt useless.
Angry even at the fact that I was still so physically drained.
I hadn’t even been able to get Astor to reverse the punishment. I’d tried, gods knew I’d tried. I’d marched into her office for a second time, fully ready to flex whatever royal weight I still carried.
"These girls saved my life, and you want to talk to someone about consequences? Talk to me!" I had threatened, but Astor hadn’t budged.
She just looked me dead in the eye and said, "It was your parents."
And that shut me up.
She told me that Queen Jella and King Vale, yes, both of them, had requested a formal punishment for the girls who removed me from the infirmary without medical permission. Claimed it was necessary "to prevent future reckless behavior."
I almost laughed in her face. It was ridiculous and infuriating.
They’d wanted me dead days ago, and now they were punishing my friends for saving me and ruining their big plans.
I hadn’t even known what to say. My anger hadn’t been enough to do anything, so now here we were.
Three girls sweating under the sun, cleaning a courtyard like criminals, while the princess they protected sat on a bench trying not to fall over from exhaustion.
It was stupid, and I hated it, but I stayed.
I continued watching Roxana try to kill a patch of moss with more violence than necessary when the voice slipped into my head.
"There’s another one."
At first, I wanted to pretend like I’d imagined it, but then, I heard it again, clearer and louder this time.
"There’s another one."
E.
I blinked and sat up straighter on the bench, heart skipping. I hadn’t heard from her all day, not since last night, when I told her firmly that she needed to never speak to me in public unless it was literally life or death.
"E?" I muttered under my breath, barely moving my lips. "Seriously? We talked about this. You’re not supposed to pop in like that when I’m surrounded by people unless it’s absolutely necessary. You want everyone to think I’ve finally lost it?"
She didn’t respond to my complaint. Figures.
Instead, her voice came again, calm but filled with something that made my skin tighten.
"There’s another Phoenix. I can feel it."
I froze, and my eyes slowly scanned the courtyard. Penelope was cleaning the statue base, her face pink from the sun and scrubbing. Irina was wrestling a broom, and Roxana was now aggressively kicking at a pile of leaves like they personally offended her.
All familiar and all normal, but E wasn’t wrong about these things, not ever.
"There’s... what? Another Phoenix?" I whispered, trying not to move my lips too obviously, and my gaze slid across the courtyard like I was just idly people-watching.
"Yes. I can’t pinpoint them yet, they’re weak, like they’ve been hiding their energy, but they’re here, and they’re watching us."
The hairs on my arms stood up, and I straightened, doing my best to look casual even as my heart was beating faster.
"You’re sure?" I asked quietly. "Are you sure it’s not just some leftover energy from me or Seraphina?"
"No." Her tone was firmer now. "This one’s different and stronger in a darker way, and they’re not just a half-blood or an accident like you. This one feels... pure."
I swallowed.
Pure? That didn’t sound good.
"Where?" I asked, trying to keep the tension out of my voice as I looked toward the nearby pathway, where a few students were walking by, heads down and hands full of books or their cellphones.
"I told you, I can’t see them exactly. I’m still recovering too, remember? But I can feel them watching, and they’re not happy. Something about their energy feels off. Bitter and angry."
I stood up slowly from the bench, brushing invisible dust off my pants just to have something to do. I turned around, eyes scanning the nearby windows, the balconies above, and the pathways behind us, but there was nothing.
Everyone looked normal.
Too normal.
I bent down slightly, pretending to check the laces of my boots as I whispered, "Should I be worried?"
There was a beat of silence.
Then, E finally said, "Well... considering they’re a full-blooded Phoenix and not part-human like you... yes. We should probably be a little scared."
I stopped tying my laces and stood up quickly.
"Great," I muttered. "Just what I needed."
The idea of another Phoenix walking around campus with anger in their chest and their eyes on us was not comforting, especially not with everything going on already. I was barely hanging on as it was, and now I had to deal with another possible threat?
Just great!