Dawn shook my shoulder to get my attention. “Gwen, wake up.” She said in a sing-song voice. “It’s time for lunch.”
“Five more minutes.” I grumbled playfully.
She laughed, and I could hear her rearranging chairs around our desks. After what felt like only a couple seconds, she shook me again. “Time’s up.”
I groaned, but sat up. “Morning.” I said through a yawn.
“You’re unbelievable.” Aiden said as he walked through the door. “What do your grades look like?”
“Like I take time to study.” I countered. “I can’t help that I fall asleep during work periods. There’s nothing to focus on once all the questions are answered. What do you do?”
“Read ahead.” Aiden crossed his arms. “I might run out of time later.”
“Yeah.” Dawn agreed. “Some thing can just take longer to wrap your head around.” She shoved her notebook into her bag, no doubt trying to hide the fact that she needed my help.
“It’s a good strategy.” River added. She was leaning against the doorframe, not actually in the classroom yet. “Why put off what can be done now.”
“Exactly.” Aiden took a seat and waved her over. “So, let’s get started.”
River hesitantly sat between Aiden and Dawn. She pulled out her locket, but didn’t open it. “Why are these stones so important?” She finally asked.
Dawn poked my arm. “You didn’t tell her anything?” She asked. “Ciela had at least seen the tiara.”
River sat up, rigid, in her seat. “Tiara?” She took a deep breath, running her fingers over the locket. “This is big, isn’t it?”
After a nod from Aiden, I pulled the tiara from my bag. River’s eyes scanned the gleaming gems, pausing for a moment on the light blue one Ciela had added the day before.
“This is big.” She concluded. “Really big.” Her grip tightened around her locket. “And you think this is one of them?”
“Yes.” I said, both to her and to Aiden. He nodded to me again, this time as acknowledgement of my decision. “It’s the last one.” I saw her eyes glance between the two blank spirals and knew what she was thinking. “The last one to be located.” I amended.
“Daren doesn’t want to join us.” Dawn faked a pout.
“Join what, exactly?” River looked between Dawn and Aiden, then settled on me. “A royal guard?”
Dawn nodded. “Basically. But we get magic, so it’s better.”
Finally, River opened the locket and tipped the stone onto her palm.
“The stones made their way to their chosen guardians.” Aiden explained quickly. “By putting the stone on the tiara, we’ve all pledged to protecting Gwy – Gwen.”
“Found by a chosen guardian.” River repeated to herself. Her hand closed around the stone. “I’ll help.” She said, holding out her fist to the tiara. “But… there may be a problem.”
She unfurled her fingers. Even thought the stone was a mere inch from it, the tiara didn’t react. I didn’t feel any magic coming from it at all.
“What?” Aiden leaned forward, fear in his eyes. “Why didn’t it…?”
“Like I said.” River closed her fingers again. “There may be a problem.” She opened the locket and showed us the inside. A picture of a man in his early forties grinned back at us. “I never said this was my stone. It belongs to my uncle Caspian.”
“Okay.” Aiden nodded to himself. “We just need to have him put it on.”
“You can’t.” River returned the stone to her locket and carefully put it away. “He died three years ago.”
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