Chapter 19: Infiltration
[Luna POV]
Everyone was staring at me. I knew it was because I was soaking wet and covered in mud from head to toe, and my clothes were torn, but still... My body was trembling, half from the cold, wet fabric against my skin and half from the gazes and whispers that were bombarding me. I half expected them to turn me away or throw rocks at me. It wouldn’t be the first time, but then...
"Are you okay?" A warm sensation enveloped me.
A blanket had been draped over my trembling shoulders. I glanced up to see a kind, sincere smile from a boy I knew but had never spoken to—Cassian Montclair. I never told Liam, but Cassian and I went to school together.
I had no intention of revealing anything about my past to anyone. I made a promise to myself that I would put it all behind me and start anew.
"Thank you," I said, barely squeezing out the words.
He grabbed my hand and led me away from where his faction members could see. It was only three days into the exam, and they already had tree houses and other wooden structures built. It must have been the work of a system—perhaps the craft system. Cassian was always surrounded by people with a lot of skill.
He guided me into one of the tree houses, where five others were gathered—two boys and three girls.
"Don’t worry about them; these are my friends, but they also act as my council," he joked, giving me a kind smile.
Though he was the leader of the largest faction on the island, you couldn’t tell that based on how he acted.
His piercing golden eyes made me instinctively avert my gaze. The first thing that came to my mind was how different they were from Liam’s emerald eyes. Liam’s eyes always had a coldness to them that almost drew you in, whether you wanted it to or not.