Sarah's POV

The first night I had the dreams was that night before graduation. And it only made me more worried about Mitch.

I was outside this fancy castle. I was sitting next to this girl who looked suspiciously like Eli at a table covered in sweets and a nice tea set. 

“It's a shame Radia and Alessio can't come today,” She said, taking a sip of her tea.

“I agree.” I picked up a cookie. “I hate they get sick so often.”

A moment of silence passed between us; we stared into each other's eyes, sharing a knowing look.

Somehow, I knew them being sick wasn’t of natural causes.

“We should visit them after this.” 

“I completely agree.”

Another bit of silence passed as I chewed on my cookie and she watched a nearby bird while sipping more.

“Sonia,” She began, leaning forward a bit without taking her eyes off the bird. “Has Mattheus been acting strange?”

I had the strange feeling that her calling whoever this was by his full name was a bad thing; my character leaned forward as well.

“He's been a bit off,” I admitted. “He won't admit it, though.”

“So he didn't tell you.” She hummed sadly. “Of course he didn't.”

“Tell us what?”

She finally looked me in the eyes.

“There was an assassination attempt last week.”

What little bit of cookie I had left dropped out of my hand.

“They believe it was one of Mother’s supporters,” She looked angry. I couldn't blame her. “But she's still unable to be found.”

“Was he hurt?!” I asked.

“No, the knights were just outside the door and heard our screams. The assassin climbed in through the window while we were sleeping.”

I tilted my head.

“Both of you?”

She turned a little red at that.

“I'd had a nightmare, that night.”

“I see.”

“Anyhoo,” Her gaze wandered again. “He's been so nervous ever since. But he doesn't want to admit it.”

I reached out and placed a hand on hers.

“And you?”

She looked at me again with a sad smile; I noticed the bags under her eyes.

“The nightmares have gotten worse.”

“I'm so sorry.”

“Don't be. It's not worth it.”

She pulled her hand away to sip her tea again.

“Just…I know you will, but—”

“Of course I'll look out for him.”

“...Thank you.”

I slowly woke up after that; when I rolled over and looked at Mitch, the words “he won't admit it” echoed in my mind.

__________________________________

The next morning, Mitch was whining the whole time we did his hair; luckily, we got the hundreds of tangles out the night before.

Of course, Alex thought he could get out of his turn by being overly sweet to me; when we finished with his buddy, I gave him a peck on the lips and told him to have a seat.

That, luckily, disoriented him into plopping down and letting us have our way with his—which was significantly less tangled last night—hair.

Mitch started shrieking when he realized we'd hid his beanie from him; it was for his own good, really! 

Rain was busy comforting him when I stepped into my bathroom to grab something; that's also when I got a private text from Eli. He had been spamming the group chat with congratulations all morning, but he hadn't dm'ed me until just then.

Tigerxx1: hey…can you keep an eye on mitch for me?

Tigerxx1: can't say why, just…please.

My brows furrowed; it was no secret that those two were basically brothers in all but blood, but…

He told Eli something he wasn't telling us.

How many times has he done that?

I texted back a promise that I would; and I meant every word.

I could only hope graduation would take his mind off things.