Chapter 4

ELVIRA'S POV

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My flame stays yellow a beat too long, flickering like it's deciding which color to turn into. My hands curl into fists while I wait for the final color of the flame. Then red blooms in the center and floods outward until the whole thing burns crimson.

Red.

I have the red flame. A bit of relief crashes through my body so hard my knees actually shake.

"Congratulations, Elvira," Sir Albert says warmly. "You'll find your mate soon enough."

I pulled my arm back and rolled my sleeve down, while fumbling with the buttons... A smile awakened on my face.

"Keep your tattoo clean; don't pick at it. Somewhere in the next seven to ten days it'll turn scarlet. When it does, come straight back here and put your wrist to the flame again… that's when you'll get your vision of your mate."

"Thank you." Those were the only words that left my mouth.

I left the building lighter than I've felt in months. I've already memorized the map to the common room. I headed to the common room for my free period, mostly because my head was spinning too fast to sit still anywhere else.

I have a mate. Somewhere out there, the universe already decided.

You take a risk choosing your own person. Things go wrong, feelings fade, people change. An Amores doesn't get that gamble and doesn't need it. Whoever the moon goddess has chosen for us is, it's already unbreakable.

The common room was mostly empty. I claimed a table by the window, pulled out a notebook to look occupied. I undid my cuff and inspected the new mark in the light. Pale pink it was, deeply embedded in my skin. It was numb under my fingertip. Not swollen, not sore. It was just there now. Permanent.

I traced the edge of it with my thumb, half expecting it to fade the way a normal mark would. It didn't. It just sits there on my skin, patient as the flame it came from… waiting for its own week to pass.

"I see you got your prophecy mark."

I startle so hard I nearly knock my chair over. Standing in front of me is a boy with coal-black hair, matching dark eyes, pale skin, and a lopsided smirk that suggests he already knows he's got my attention.

"I'm Eliano," he says, offering his hand. "You're the new girl, right?"

"Elvira," I corrected him while shaking his hand. "Nice to meet you, Eliano."

"Do you mind if I sit down with you?"

"Go ahead, please."

He dropped into the chair opposite me, satchel thumping onto the table. His arms slung casually over the backs of the empty chairs on either side of him. Gold lettering on the leather catches my eye — EW.

"You're the Eliano Wolford," I say. "Your great-grandfather founded this academy."

He grimaces like I've insulted him without me knowing I did. "Unfortunately."

"I’m not proud of the family name?"

"My family's a pack of assholes with big affluence," he says flatly. "But sure, I'll take the discount on the school fees."

I don't know what to say to that, so I just nodded. He leans in towards me.

"What color tattoo did you get in your prophecy, if you don't mind?"

Heat crawls up my neck for no good reason. "I got red."

He sits back, smirking wider. "You are an Amores; that is nice. Bet you're dying to find out who your mate is, right?"

"To be honest, I’m a little nervous."

"I clearly understand how you feel. But there's no rejecting your mate whenever you meet him."

I know that's true, and it still doesn't kill the small anxious voice wondering what happens if my future mate rejects me just because of the way they feel about me.

"What was yours?" I ask.

Something shutters behind his eyes. His mouth flattens.

"Tell me, you don’t know already?" A bitter edge creeps into his voice.

"Should I?"

He huffs, with a sad look on his face. "You really are new; that’s why."

He rolls up his sleeve without another word. I look down at his tattoo; it was the same shape as mine, except his has never been pink at all. It's white. Moon white, the color of something that's been drained of everything except itself.

"You're—"

"Mosaic," he cuts in. "I got a white tattoo. I can't marry, and I can’t have a mate ever. I’m bound to serve the moon Goddess after I graduate from here, and I have to do it alone, for the rest of my life, whether I like it or not."

He tugs his sleeve back down like he's closing a door.

"I'm sorry," I say quietly.

"Don't be Elvira." His voice goes hard. "It's fine."

It was very clear that he wasn’t fine. I sat there fumbling for something better to say and came up empty.

"Sorry for the mood-killer," he says eventually, snapping back to something like his old self. "What've you got next on your timetable?"

He stays with me the whole free period, dry-commenting his way through my timetable, telling me exactly which teachers to avoid and which ones to charm. He's sharp-tongued, quick with words and comebacks. By the end of the hour we spent together, I genuinely liked him.

"We should do this again," he says when the bell finally rang. "Period two tomorrow."

I checked my timetable. It was time for Alchemy class.

"We've got Alchemy together, Elvira," he says, already smirking at my confusion. "Anyways, I will see you later, new girl."

He strolls off as if nothing in the world could touch him. He was entirely unbothered by the fact that he just told me his own future involves permanent, mandatory loneliness. I wanted to ask more questions, but I didn't get the chance.

I met the girls at the Pentagon, and the second I was at their table, Daphne pounced.

"What color did you get?"

"Red."

They all shriek at once.

"I told you!" Anika crows. "You've got a chosen mate… this is huge, Elvi!"

"I believe you're over the moon right now," Lexa adds.

Anika loops her arm through mine and steers us toward the cafeteria, which genuinely could serve as an aircraft hangar. It was enormous… it needed to be, apparently, to feed close to three thousand students in the academy.

As we eat, the girls run me through the gossip. Who's dating who, who's mated, who's carrying the black and white tattoo. There's only a couple with that mark. Eliano's one of them, they tell me… except I already knew that.

I spotted him in the queue. Our eyes met, and he offered a brief nod and took his tray somewhere alone, like he always does.

"But the real mystery," Daphne says, leaning in like she's about to tell me state secrets, "is who The Three are going to end up mated to."

"The Three?"

Blank stares meet blank stares. Apparently, they all know this except me.

"Three boys, hottest guys in the school by a mile," Daphne says. "They started here last year. Everyone talks about them since then."

"They've been inseparable since birth, basically," Lexa adds. "They’re from old-money families, all on the Governors' board with the Wolfords. They’re practically royalty."

Anika takes over. "Last year, when we all got our flames, the weirdest thing happened. All three of them got a double prophecy. Two colors at once."

My eyebrows shoot up. I know how rare that is.

"All three got red," Lexa continues, dropping her voice like it's classified. "And then either blue or green on top."

"So… they’re half Amores, half Elemental or Animalius," I say, and they all nod.

"Here's the kicker," Daphne says. "None of them have found their mate yet."

"Where are they now?" I ask, scanning the packed hall.

"I guess they’re engaged in family duties this week. They will be missing half of their classes, but honestly, they're all disgustingly smart, so it doesn't matter at all."

"They’re gorgeous too," Lexa sighs.

"I think you've got one of them in your class already," Daphne says, snapping her fingers at me. "Maths… you've got Xavier in maths class, right?"

Xavier.

I thought of the gold-eyed boy who couldn't stop staring at me this morning.

I've already met one of The Three.