Their Hidden Princess Novel

---- Chapter 63 The next morning, another note was slipped under my door. It was written in normal Valentin script with the time, ten at night, underlined twice. | frowned at it. He usually wanted to meet in the morning, before Basics. This was at night firstly and secondly, not on the day of Basics. Something about the double underline as well seemed urgent and forced. | shoved it with my other notes and went about my day. The day was fairly normal. A couple scoffs, a couple sneers. A few dirty looks. All in a day's work at Alpha Academy.

After dinner, Loren and | hung out in the library for a bit, doing our homework together. The clock struck quarter to ten and | slunk out of the library, hoping to go unnoticed. | pulled up my hoodie and padded across campus to the gym. When | arrived, | gave Valentin a wave before turning into the locker room to change into my sparring gear. He called my name as | was half a foot in and | stopped. | pulled my hoodie down and looked at him across the gym. "You won't need to change tonight," he said. He looked solemn and his hair was not the usual shiny brown. It looked stringy.

His eyes had deep bags under them. He looked a bit of a mess, if | was being honest. ---- | walked across the gym. Valentin huffed a sigh as | approached running his hand through his hair. His eyes were darting around erratically. "Are you okay?" | said, slowly approaching him. He sighed again. It looked like there was a war going on in his brain. "I'm fine," he huffed. "Okay," | drew the word out long. "Why are we meeting in the night? Usually, we get my extra sparring hours in the morning. Before Basics." Valentin shook his head sharply.

"We aren't sparring tonight," he voice was low and pained. His eyes were cast towards the floor. | took another tentative step towards him, my heartbeat went into my throat. "Valentin," | said, gently. "What's going on?" "|had us meet later today," he started, "Because I've heard rumors across campus that people think we're having an affair." | snorted and crossed my arms over my chest. "You're letting rumors get to you?" Valentin jerked his head towards me. His lips were set in a thin line, His pupils pulsed on top of his white-gold eyes.

---- "I'm the Headmaster of this school," he said, sharply. "Of course they are. | can't let this threaten my integrity." "They're rumors," | threw back, dropping my arms at my sides. " That's it. There's no truth to them." Valentin turned his face back to look at the floor. | watched his eyes darting all over the place. He seemed to be fighting himself in his head. "There could be," he finally whispered. My heart did a half a skip. Was he finally acknowledging the bond between us? The insurmountable lust and longing that circled us like a dark cloud every time we were together?

| let me jaw fall slightly open, still staring at where Valentin was arguing in his own head. "Ive done a lot of horrible things in my time," Valenti snapped. * I've killed. I've murdered. I've forsaken the Gods above to cause chaos and malice across the earth. I've lost my humanity for years. | am a shell of the person | was before the war. My hope and joy was lost to the vampires the moment we decided to fight back." | couldn't bring myself to speak. Valentin's jaw clenched as he continued to look at the floor. "But you, Zora," he continued, voice switching to be soft.

"You are kind and innocent and filled ---- with the sort of light | could never have achieved. You have a wonder about you that someone will cherish and love and find all good in. You don't deserve this. You don't deserve-" He finally lifted his head to look me in the eyes. He didn't continue his sentence, but | couldn't tell what he meant.