“Quite the opposite,” Emilia said. “But I’m glad help is on the way. Can you tell me what happened today and where the other student is?”
“What other student?” the principal asked.
“The student who hit Dyrk,” Emilia said, stunned. “Surely you are investigating what’s happening between these children and how the school can intervene earlier the next time.”
“I’m not at liberty to disclose the names of the other students involved,” the principal said with a sour smile. “But I assure you, Dyrk instigated the event.”
Students?
Emilia saw red. She sucked in a breath, and let it out slowly.
“So, you’re telling me that this child was in a physical fight with multiple other students?” she demanded quietly.
The principal nodded.
“That doesn’t sound like a fight,” Emilia said. “That sounds like an assault.”
“Miss Robbins,” the woman said hurriedly, looking suddenly less confident. “You are making a mountain out of a molehill.”
“Am I?” Emilia asked. “How would you feel if that was your child, with a swollen eye, no ice, and not one other student waiting for parent pick-up because of it?”
The headmistress looked taken aback.
“We just thought…” she stammered. “With what he is…”
So, it was all about him being Kotenka after all. Even if he didn’t have the power yet, he was still branded as something dangerous.
“What he is,” Emilia said with a cold calm she didn’t feel, “is the son of a very important, very respected, very wealthy, soon to be very angry man, who has access to the best lawyers money can buy. And I will be advising Master Drayven to seek legal advice about this matter immediately.”
The headmistress could only gape at her, mouth working like a fish out of water, unable to formulate any kind of response.
“Come on, Dyrk,” Emilia said, turning on her heel. “We are not going to listen to any more of this.”
She marched for the door and was relieved to hear his footsteps behind hers.
They made it to the lobby and scanned their thumb prints for the security guard in total silence.
When they were safely ensconced in the gadabout, Emilia finally let out a breath.
“I’m sorry you had to see me like that,” she told Dyrk. “You know I value good manners.”
He nodded, looking down at his hands.
“But sometimes,” she told him, “we have to stand up for ourselves and the people we care about.”
He slumped against the window of the gadabout and looked out over the mountains.
The sky was already darkening in spite of the afternoon hour. Complicated clouds gathered like the eyebrows of an angry god. A storm was coming.
Dyrk didn’t speak all the way home.
Emilia decided to give him space. He had been through a traumatic event. Whatever had happened at school, she was sure he would tell her when he was ready to fully process.
She parked the gadabout and they headed toward the house, the wind swirling their clothing angrily as heavy drops of rain began to fall. It was the like the weather was echoing the dark mood of the day.
Emilia was just opening the front door when Dyrk finally broke his silence.
“My Dad is going to be so mad at me for this,” he said softly. “He’ll never forgive me.”
“Maybe he doesn’t need to know about it tonight,” she told him.
If she could talk with Ra’as first, in the fresh light of the morning, when he was rested and had a good cup of coffee, maybe he would be ready to approach the situation with an open mind. The last thing she wanted was for Dyrk to be humiliated by his father’s anger on top of whatever had happened at school.
But any hope of that was squashed as the door swung open, and the shadows of the dim foyer coalesced into the shape of her employer.
Ra’as stepped into the light of the open door, his pale eyes flashing with fury as a crack of thunder sounded overhead.