The next week, when I went to the infirmary, I opened the door to see Nilo, Poppy, and Castor, too. We’d all been called in for a follow up check-up after the fight in the classroom. Castor sat alone at the opposite end of the room from our classmates, on the end of a medical bed. Nilo sat on the other side, his head in a textbook while Poppy stood in front of him and gestured wildly. I headed over to the two of them.

“They have you scheduled now, too?” Nilo said, stretching his arms in the air.

“Apparently,” I replied dryly.

Nilo caught sight of Castor and his gaze grew bitter.

“Better you than some people,” he muttered. 

Poppy gently bumped his shoulder with her own. “Hey, don’t be like that,” she said.

“Why not?” Nilo asked. “He’s always going to beat us.” He flopped backwards onto the bed with a thud.

“What’s one more loss to Castor Valens?” Nilo moaned. Poppy gave me an apologetic look. She seemed used to it. It must have been a regular complaint.

“If you want to be stronger, just get stronger,” Castor’s voice said from the corner. 

Did he really just say that? I turned to look at him in the silence that followed, studying his face. Wow. He wasn’t purposely being condescending. He genuinely meant it. Just get stronger was the best advice he could muster up. 

Poppy and I exchanged a flabbergasted look.

I looked at Nilo, his face slowly turning red. His hands were clenched so tight I was sure the nails were digging into his palms. He was biting down on his lip—and I’m sure that was the only thing holding back a barrage of screaming.

I looked back at Castor, who didn’t seem to realize the reaction he’d caused. It was then I realized Castor had the social skills of a goldfish. Suddenly, I realized why he always sat alone in class.

“Technically, Castor lost, too,” I said. In the corner of my eye, I could see Castor’s head swing towards us. Nilo, distracted from his rage, turned his attention towards me, too.

“I mean,” I drawled out, “he technically didn’t beat the Phantom.”

I could see Nilo’s expression lighting and at the same time, Castor’s darkening. Poppy’s grin grew wider. She knew where I was going with this.

“After all, I was the one who destroyed the heart,” I said. “Castor will have to take second place.” 

Castor’s gaze turned murderous. I could have cackled. No wonder Leander messed with Castor so much. I instantly got the appeal.

“That’s true,” Nilo chimed in, lips twitching.

“You do have to land the killing blow,” Poppy said, not even hiding her grin.

I looked at Nilo, whose smile had broken free and was spread wide across his face. It felt good to make someone smile for once. And if it annoyed Castor at the same time, well, I had to have my fun somehow, didn’t I?

**

After our checkups, we all walked together to the commissary for lunch. It was bursting with Astrals, the most I’d ever seen in one spot. There were hundreds of them. Some still had swords, daggers, and even a chakram or two strapped to their bodies, as if they’d come straight from training. That really was the culture here. Astrals worked hard. And they had to. Nike hadn’t been exaggerating when she’d said there weren’t enough Astrals. High-level Astrals were sometimes sent out by themselves on two or three missions each trip. There just wasn’t enough of us and there were too many Phantoms. Phantoms and—

I cut off that line of thinking. I wanted a day free of Dark Stars, free of fighting, and free of Phantoms. As we took our place in line, Poppy noticed my slightly down expression. She cocked her head, as if asking what was wrong. I summoned up a bright smile and shook my head. It was easier to shake it off than have to lie about what was really on my mind.

The commissary was one of my favorite places, second only to the garden perhaps. For starters, there were mountains of food. In one corner, a sushi bar, in the other, a pasta bar. A salad bar. An actual alcoholic bar—for those Astrals who were of age, of course. A whole bar dedicated to breakfast muffins. A soup bar—and a seafood bar. There was no food that wasn’t represented in the commissary. It was the eighth wonder of the world.

We gathered our food and sat at a nearby table. Castor followed and sat down with us. At first I wondered why, but as I saw his hand hover near the dagger strapped to his leg and watched how he carefully monitored my interactions with Nilo and Poppy, I realized he’d just gone back to his whole protecting the school thing again. Hadn’t I proved myself yet? Was saving our teacher and classmates from a Phantom not enough?

“And that’s how I discovered my powers—“ Nilo rambled on to Poppy and I, but I couldn’t focus on his story.

Grumbling under my breath, I pulled the pickle out of my sandwich. Castor’s nose immediately wrinkled. Interesting. I ate the pickle and watched his nose straighten out. Bingo. I pulled out another pickle and ate this one slowly, making sure to wave it aromatically in the air. Just because. I managed not to laugh at his disgusted expression—but only barely.

“Did you hear about the Finders? The ones they sent to investigate that Dark Star up north?” I heard a dark-haired Astral ask a table over from us.

The four of us grew silent at our own table, listening.

“What happened?” a blond Astral asked.

The dark-haired one leaned forward, lowering his voice.

“The whole team disappeared. No sign of them at all.”

“A whole team of Finders?” the blond Astral whispered to his friend. “Just gone?”

“Yeah, poor bastards,” his friend said. 

They kept talking, but I put my sandwich down and pushed it away from me. I didn’t know what or who Finders were, but the thought of a Dark Star causing a group of people to disappear—it was awful. Suddenly, I’d lost my appetite. In fact, my stomach roiled. So much for a Dark Star–free day.