Chapter 58

Evaline:
“Okay. When you are, I’m here,” He said with a soft smile, one that was filled with warmth.
I looked at him, like really looked at him. Rowan wasn’t like the others. He didn’t carry the same edge or fire. He was calm. Steady. Kind in a quiet way that didn’t make me feel judged.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“You want me to stay up for a bit?” he asked. “Or do you want space?”
“Just… stay. A little while.”
He nodded again and shifted so he was sitting beside me, his shoulder barely touching mine. “You don’t have to explain anything. Just breathe.”
So I did.
I breathed.
In and out.
The room was still dim, and the only light spilling in was through the sliding glass door of the balcony.
The two of us sat in silence for a while, side by side on my bed. Not touching, not speaking. Just being. And strangely, that was enough.
Until it wasn’t.
“How about you tell me something about you?” He suddenly suggested.
“About me?” I stared at him, my eyes wide in half confusion and half surprise as I wasn’t expecting him to suddenly ask something like this.
He didn’t say anything and just looked at me. The expression on his face made me feel that he would understand if I decided to stay silent. But something in me… wanted to talk.
I inhaled deeply and hugged my knees to my chest. “I don’t talk about myself much. Not because I’m mysterious or anything… just because it hurts.”
His silence was welcoming, like an encouragement, so I continued.
“My family… they are gone.” The words felt cold in my mouth, like I had stolen them from someone else. “It wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t an illness. It was just… fate, I guess. Something I couldn’t stop.”
He didn’t interrupt, didn’t ask the obvious how. And I was grateful.
“I used to belong to a pack,” I added, deliberately keeping the name to myself. “We were small but strong. And then, one day, they were just… not there anymore. All of them. So, I ran away… and… became a rogue.”
The last part wasn’t really a lie. Since my pack was gone and I had no family left anymore, I was more or less a rogue now.
His icy-blue eyes were calm, unreadable, but not cold. “That must have been hell.”
I gave a short laugh as I recalled the past two and a half months of my life. “Yeah, it wasn’t great.”
More silence passed before I added, “I only found out about the Academy’s entrance exam merely a day before the deadline. And somehow, I was lucky enough to submit my form before it would have been too late. And now… I’m here.”
A slight frown appeared on his face, and then, he gave me a proud smile. “I saw you during the entrance tests. You did amazing in all three rounds. You deserve to be here.”
Something warm filled my heart at his words. I could tell that he really meant what he was saying, and it only surpised me. After Mallory, Kyros, Selene, and Noah, Rowan was another one who made me feel like I wasn’t the weak, broken, and coward girl I believed myself to be all these years.
“So, what’s your privilege reward?” He asked, continuing our conversation.
“Internship with the Council. I’ll be starting this weekend.” I replied.
His eyebrows rose a little and another smile bloomed on his lips. “That’s… impressive.”
I smiled lightly as I spoke, “It’s a start. I want a future. Graduating from here and with my internship with Council, I might succeed in building one for myself.”
That was as much of the truth as I could give. Maybe more than I should have.
He was silent for a beat. There was no pity in his eyes. Just quiet respect. After a long pause, he exhaled and leaned his back against the headboard beside me. “My turn?”
“If you want to,” I said even though I was eager to learn more about him. He was the most mysterious person around me at the moment, and I knew that he was hiding just as many secrets as me, if not more.
“I don’t talk about myself much either,” he began slowly. “Because there’s not a lot to say. My parents died when I was a kid. I don’t even remember my dad’s face. Mom died later… from sickness.”
He glanced at the window briefly, then back at the wall in front of him. “I grew up in a small pack far from here. The kind of place no one talks about because there’s nothing worth mentioning. After Mom passed, my grandma took me in. She’s tough as nails and twice as sharp.”
That brought a faint smile to my lips. “Sounds like someone I would like.” Thıs text ıs hosted at
“You would,” he replied. “She’s a storyteller. Talks about wolves and magic and destiny like they are all tied up in knots we have to untangle ourselves.”
He fell quiet after that. So, I asked that one question I had been wanting to for a while now.
“Where do you keep disappearing to?”
His body went still.
“We are both first-years,” I continued even though I was feeling a little hesitant now. “And yet… you are barely in classes. You leave before dawn and return after midnight most days. I know we are not exactly close, but… you are my roommate. I notice things.”
He didn’t answer right away and the silence stretched long enough that I almost regretted asking.
But then he spoke.
“I’m raising money.”
I blinked at that. “Money?”
“A lot of it,” he said in a soft voice. “And fast. Every spare minute I have goes into work. Not the kind of work you find on a Council bulletin board. The kind that pays in whispers and secrets.”
I didn’t pry. Didn’t press. But my heart squeezed painfully at the weight in his words.
“Can I ask why?” I asked gently. “Why so much, so fast?”