"And here we are," I heard her say, but before she could step forward I pulled back.
"I can't go in there," I said firmly, fully aware that this was the high rankers' cafeteria.
The cafeteria was split into two sections, the upper floor for high rankers, which had all the premium options and privileges, and the lower floor for low rankers, which was a noticeably watered down version of the same thing. There were two reasons for this setup. The first was to prevent serious conflict between both groups, since a high ranker and a low ranker fighting carried the very real risk of the low ranker getting killed before anyone could step in. The second reason was simpler, a single meal on the upper floor would cost a low ranker roughly two weeks worth of points, so no low ranker in their right mind ever came up here.
But that wasn't the main reason I didn't want to go in.
"Why can't we go in?" she asked, tilting her head, though she could clearly drag me inside without any effort if she wanted to.
"I'd prefer we head to the lower floor," I said, meeting her eyes.
[Why are you trying to run away?]
'Do you even need to ask?'
[Wait, you don't mean you're running from...]
'Yeah. Eloisa.'
Given how unpredictably unstable this girl was, there was no telling how she'd behave in there, and given how volatile Eloisa already was, she could genuinely try to kill me if this psycho decided to act all affectionate in front of her.
[That's a real problem. But you could always just accept my blessing.]
'Forget it.'
"Why?" Selena asked.
"I prefer to eat in peace," I said, and honestly that was also true, the upper floor was full of nobles who knew exactly who I was, and plenty of them would love nothing more than to make my life miserable. Ethan was also up there, and he'd been looking for any excuse to come after me, I wasn't about to hand him one.
"Are you afraid?" she asked, looking straight into my eyes, and I just stared back without answering, neither confirming nor denying it.
"Don't be," she said, and before I even registered what she was doing she had both hands cradling my face, smooth and unhurried, either she was that quick or I'd been too caught up in her peach colored eyes to notice.
"Always remember this, as long as I'm here, no one can lay a finger on you," she said, her expression completely serious, and I frowned, squinting at her.
"Why are you doing this?" I asked, because I couldn't hold the question back anymore, I had to know what her actual angle was. Was this some elaborate plan to hurt me? Was she doing this to get back at me for what happened between us before, getting me attached and then breaking me?
[That actually makes a disturbing amount of sense.]
"I like you, that's all there is to it," she said with a smile, then started pulling me forward again.
So I was right, she was definitely planning something, and I needed to figure out what it was before I got too tangled up in it.
By this point we were already drawing a lot of attention.
"Isn't that the guy who fell asleep in class? He's a low ranker, right?" someone said behind us, and the murmuring spread from there, which I had already expected. I tried again to pull my hand free, but that was a complete waste of effort.
"Hey," a voice said, and I turned to find a young man approaching with two others flanking him, the top of his tracksuit unzipped to show a crisp white shirt underneath, giving off a deliberate delinquent look.
"What do you think you're doing," he started, scowling hard at me, but before he could even finish the sentence,
Bam.
'She's fast.'
One moment the guy was in front of me, and the next he was at the far end of the hallway, unconscious. I had no idea exactly what she did, but if I had to guess it was the telekinesis from her bloodline, amplified by the gravity ability from her blessing, because that was the only thing that made sense given the distance he'd traveled.
I turned to the other two and they were both visibly shaking.
"Consider this a warning, try that again and you'll all end up the same way, permanently," she said, and the look in her eyes in that moment was something I hadn't seen from her before, cold and completely serious, and it made me very aware of just how outmatched I was against her.
"Now," she said, watching the two scramble toward their unconscious friend, the cheerful smile snapping back onto her face like nothing had happened, "let's go."
As long as she was more powerful than me, getting away from her was never going to happen, and that was a fact I was going to have to sit with.
I wasn't the only one rattled by what just happened either, plenty of people nearby had seen it, which meant rumors were going to spread fast, and the list of people who had a problem with me was only going to get longer.
"Sigh," I stepped into the cafeteria, and for a moment every pair of eyes in the room turned toward us. My expression didn't break, I was too practiced at keeping it steady for that, until I spotted Elena.
She looked at me for a long moment, then just looked away.
'I really hope I make it to the grading exams at this rate.'