Chapter 251

For the first time in a while, Natalie lay alone in her bedroom without someone to accompany her. She’d intended to spend the night with Sofia, but that hadn’t come to pass; the white-haired girl had scurried back to her room once it became clear she wouldn’t be ‘taking advantage’ of their bet.

Normally Natalie would have gone and gotten Jordan, but then she would have to explain what happened with Sofia, and more than that, Jordan would have asked all kinds of questions. Questions Natalie didn’t know how to answer.

Hence, she was alone in her bed for the first time in a while, and while it was cold and unwelcoming not having her best friend lying there to keep her warm, she did, at least, appreciate the moment of calm. To think about a very puzzling situation.

Sofia. Clearly, Natalie had misjudged a few things there. Not only about Sofia, but also about herself. Because she hadn’t been planning to handle the night like she had. With soft touches and compliments, not even telling Sofia to put her collar on. The girl had looked so nervous that Natalie hadn’t been able to help herself. And when she’d responded so positively to the gentle treatment, Natalie had wanted to keep laying in more compliments, turning that blush even redder.

But then she’d gone and asked if she meant anything to Natalie. She was still mad about that an hour later. Or maybe mad was the wrong word. Baffled? Outraged? Indignant? Some concoction of all of those things?

Because obviously Sofia meant something to Natalie. She wasn’t ‘just another conquest.’ The idea that Sofia could be ‘just another’ anything was ridiculous.

In the least charitable interpretation of Natalie’s interest, Sofia would have been the conquest—not any other. But even that wasn’t a valid description of what Sofia was to her. Partially, maybe; she wouldn’t pretend like the idea of making her life-long rival squirm didn’t invoke some proud feelings of ‘conquest.’ But there was a lot more there, bubbling underneath the surface.

What specifically, though?

Natalie rubbed her face, trying to make sense of her thoughts. Instead of examining them too closely—the revelations on the horizon made her nervous—her mind wandered back to Sofia.

She’d been insecure. Insecure. Sofia. Those two words didn’t belong together. Sure, Natalie had seen it once before, like that incident on the train where Sofia had gotten overexcited and finished quickly, but that had been a—she didn’t know, surface-level insecurity? The kind everyone had. Inconsequential, she guessed, or at least not all that deep.

But that vulnerability she’d shown not a full hour ago, lying underneath Natalie right as she was about to thrust in? That had been something more. A genuine break in her confidence.

And about Natalie no less? About what Natalie thought of her?

What?

Why?

She didn’t understand.

The two of them hated each other.

Okay, that wasn’t true. Natalie hadn’t ever hated Sofia, even if that was a word she’d sometimes used. If she allowed herself a moment of genuine introspection, she would begrudgingly admit jealous was the better descriptor. Natalie was a fiercely competitive person, like just about anyone accepted into one of the world’s most prestigious delving academies. And Sofia had grown up alongside her, always a bit better in combat, and a lot better in other things—all of those compliments she’d been throwing at her. Prettier. Better poised. Smarter. Hard-working. Just so goddamn perfect that it drove Natalie insane.

And that woman was concerned with what she thought?

That she ‘meant something to her’?