Mhorfell Academy and the Night Stealer (A Spin-Off) [Book 3]

Chapter 20: Unburying Arrows

Chapter Twenty: Unburying Arrows

MATAPOS KONG magpaabot ng bilin, kalaunang ikinubli na ng mga malalaking pinto ang bulto ni Dash Nawrey, nakasalampak ang mga balikat, nakayuko't tila hubong lumabas. Sa tuluyang pagsarado ng mga pinto at ang dagundong na nilikha nito, dito na rin umarangkada ang panghihinang pilit kong kinukubli kanina pa. Nasa bingit na ko ng pagbagsak nang hatakin ng isang malakas na kamay ang braso ko.

"You did good, Sky," she said stoically as if she wasn't supporting the weight of a full-grown man of almost 200 pounds. "Thank you... for doing what I can't do."

She may be referring to me, yet a gaze filled with longing, sadness, and pain pointed at the doors Dash just left with. As I slightly struggled to regain my footing, I stared and waited to see if regret would ever come to grace her expression. But not even once did it come. The woman simply looked at the farthest edge of this spacious gallery, so still, so melancholic, yet also so content. It's as if she has long made peace with whatever's to come.

"Are you alright?" I asked. Ang bobo ng tanong pero ewan ko. I just had to.

Impit itong ngumiti nang 'di pinuputol ang tingin sa mga pinto. "Of course not. All my life, I have seen people leave with those doors. So easy and fast did they come, easy and fast would they go," Dereen breathes shakily. "Ilang beses kong in-imagine paano kung si Dash naman 'yon. At kahit na ba hindi 'yon ang nangyayari ngayon, to see him like that somehow..." Her voice trailed off, her mouth hangs open as she finds the next words.

Sandali itong napayuko't muli tumingala nang may mapait na ngiti. "It somehow feels like I am already living it. Or... perhaps I already am."

"Nonsense, that man is insane about you," I unconsciously snorted at how pessimistic she was after years of marriage and kids. 

When the comment did not work as I'd hoped, "How long did you know? About his identity, I mean," I inquired consciously, carefully reaching for her hand to release myself when I finally regained balance.

"The first day we met in the Mhorfell Academy," Dereen answered with a shrug. "The first day Alex introduced all her reapers to us."

I instantly paused. "You didn't tell Alex? Or Alexander, for that matter?" Muntik na naman magbadya ng panlalambot ang mga binti ko. Dios mio naman itong mag-asawa na 'to!

She turned to me lazily. "And? He is not a threat to anyone except our enemies," she said casually, rolling her eyes as if I questioned her ability to assess situations. "And if he ever comes to do something funny back then, believe me, I would be the first to cut him down."

"Concealing his identity is enough for a reaper to be excommunicated or, worse, executed, you know that, right?" I looked at her thoughtfully. "Alex's friend or not, you could have been implicated." It's not that I am insisting that Dash must be punished. I was only curious if Dereen knew the consequences when she decided to keep a stranger's secret and, at the same time, practically betray her best friends for not disclosing it to them.