Author note: In this timeline, Aliyah, Kaelith, and Neris are adults at the magic university.
"Sorry, but let's just be friends. I don't see you as more."
Aliyah stared at the woman for two full seconds, because dignity, unlike love, deserved at least a little effort.
Then she smiled. A very small smile.
"Sure," she said. "Of course."
The woman, a pretty third-year with dimples and terrible taste in romantic decisions, visibly relaxed.
"Thank you for understanding," the woman said, already taking a step back. "You're really sweet."
Sweet.
The knife, slipped cleanly between the ribs with a smile.
Aliyah kept smiling until the woman turned and walked down the stone path between the academy gardens.The second she was gone, Aliyah let the expression die.
She exhaled hard and dropped her head back toward the bright blue sky.
"Fuck," she muttered. "I'm tired."
Fourteen.
Fourteen women had friendzoned her.
At this point it was not a streak. It was a curse. An ancestral punishment. Some ancient spirit had looked at her and say you will pay for what you mother did to woman before.
You will be gorgeous and gay and still suffer.
"You know," came a voice , "third time this week. At this rate, even I'm starting to think you will never get laid."
Aliyah turned her head and found Kaelith leaning against one of the academy's silver-columned arches.
At twenty-four, Kaelith had somehow only gotten worse. One meter ninety of trouble in a fitted dark coat, white hair streaked red brushing her jaw, grey eyes half-lidded with amusement, small red horns peeking through the mess of hair.
She always looked like she had just walked out of a modeling job.
Aliyah narrowed her red eyes. "Just fucking shut up. You fuck with every woman you see."
Kaelith pushed off the arch with lazy grace. "Not every woman."
"Yes, every woman."
Kaelith tilted her head. "That sounds like admiration."
"That sounds like a public health concern."
Kaelith grinned.
Aliyah hated that grin. Mostly because it worked on people. Worked too well. Women saw Kaelith and forgot basic survival instincts.
Then there was Aliyah, who looked incredible in a dress, had great hair, excellent cheekbones, a body that deserved poetry and criminal legislation, and still got "you're such a good friend" with clockwork precision.
Life was a vulgar comedian.
"Are you arguing again?"
Neris arrived with a stack of books in one arm and the expression of a man who regretted sharing blood with either of them.
He was dressed, as always, like he had a board meeting with destiny after lunch. Crisp shirt. Dark trousers. Silver cuff at one wrist. Warm brown skin, short black hair streaked with red, red eyes sharp with intelligence and mild judgment.
At twenty, Neris had developed into the kind of handsome that annoyed everyone equally. Clean, refined, unfairly calm.
He looked like he should have been standing under a stained-glass window in some noble family's tragic history instead of on a university courtyard path listening to his sister and cousin insult each other.
Aliyah folded her arms. "Wow. Look who's talking, mister I-refuse-women-for-a-living."
Neris did not even blink. "That is not a profession."
"It is for you."
He adjusted the books in his arms. "Well, if you could concentrate on your studies, you would know how great it is to be first at everything."
Aliyah stared at him. "Damn. Workaholic."
Neris's mouth twitched. "At least I get girls. Not you."
Aliyah gasped, scandalized. "Fuck you."
Kaelith gave a soft, offended tsk. "Don't act like that with your brother. It's lunch time anyway."
"He started it."
"You were born dramatic," Neris said.
"And you were born insufferable."
"And you," Kaelith said to both of them, "Are both stupid. Move."
She started toward the main hall, and because years of sibling warfare had taught them that resistance was often useless, Aliyah and Neris followed.
The magic university spread across the mountainsider. Pale towers rose into the clear air, their windows bright with enchantments. Bridges of glass and rune-carved stone connected different wings of the academy.
Students crossed the courtyards in uniforms of black and crimson, spellbooks at their hips, magic sparking lazily from fingers and sleeves in every direction. Someone on the upper terrace nearly set a fountain on fire.
Again.
Aliyah walked between Kaelith and Neris, skirts brushing her legs, black hair spilling down her back in waves.
A few heads turned as they passed, as they always did. She knew what she looked like. She was not stupid. Men looked. Women looked too, sometimes. But men looked with confidence.
She was beginning to suspect the universe had paperwork on her.
By the time they reached the cafeteria, the lunch rush was in full swing. The great enchanted ceiling shimmered with a painted sky that changed with the hour, and floating lanterns drifted over long tables crowded with students.
Platters of roasted meat, jewel-bright fruits, seasoned rice, spiced vegetables, and pastries moved slowly through the air under the guidance of bored serving charms.
They claimed a table near one of the tall arched windows.
Aliyah dropped into her seat and stabbed a roasted potato with enough force to concern nearby civilians.
Kaelith settled beside her, long legs stretched under the table, looking infuriatingly elegant while doing absolutely nothing. Neris sat across from them, already opening one of his books with one hand while eating with the other, because apparently even chewing could be academically optimized.
Aliyah took a violent bite of potato.
Kaelith glanced at her. "You radiate straight girl energy."
Aliyah nearly choked. "I what?"
"I'm serious." Kaelith stole a slice of fruit from her plate. "You look too polished. Too gentle. Too safe. Maybe bi girls and lesbians think you're experimenting and don't want to deal with the risk."
Aliyah stared at her as if she had personally insulted her. "I do not radiate straight girl energy."
"You do a little," Kaelith said.
"I literally asked her on a date."
"Yes, and you probably did it with the face of a woman asking whether the library closes at six."
Neris looked up from his book. "That is accurate."
Aliyah pointed at him with her fork. "You stay out of this."
He ignored her, because of course he did. "Kaelith is partially wrong, though."
Aliyah leaned back with false grandeur. "Finally. The scholar speaks."
Neris turned a page. "Maybe they think you're like Kaelith and assume you're a heartbreaker who'll end it the moment you get bored."
Kaelith looked offended, which was impressive considering she had in fact ended things with two women in the same week once because one had insulted a bartender and the other had described her as "surprisingly emotionally complex," which Kaelith considered suspicious behavior.
Aliyah frowned. "That makes no sense. I am visibly the more stable one."
"Not from a distance," Neris said. "From a distance you're beautiful, well-dressed, charming, and related to her."
Kaelith lifted her chin. "My reputation is extraordinary."
"Your reputation is a warning," Aliyah muttered.
Kaelith grinned. "And yet women keep volunteering."
Aliyah slumped in her chair. "I hate both of you."
"That's fine," Neris said. "Neither of us is trying to date you."
Aliyah threw a bread roll at him. He caught it without looking up.
Around them the cafeteria buzzed with noise. Students laughed, argued over spell theory, gossiped about professors, compared combat scores.
Aliyah pushed rice around her plate and tried not to think about the dimpled girl from ten minutes earlier. It was always the same.
She would think this time might be different. This time there would be a pause, a little tension, a spark. Then the woman would smile gently and say something that belonged in a funeral speech for desire.
You're so kind.
You make me feel comfortable.
I don't want to ruin our friendship.
Aliyah had enough friendship to open a shop.
Kaelith looked at her from the side. Her voice, when she spoke more softly, lost some of its teasing edge. "You know you're not the problem, right?"
Aliyah snorted. "That sounds fake."
"It's not fake. You're gorgeous. Smart enough to survive this family. Funny when you're not sulking. This is either a statistical anomaly or divine punishment."
Neris nodded once. "Possibly both."
Aliyah's mouth twitched despite herself.
That was the annoying thing about them. Kaelith was a menace, Neris was an insufferable academic machine, and both of them still knew exactly when to stop joking before it actually hurt.
She tore off a piece of bread. "Maybe I should just give up."
Kaelith laughed so hard a nearby first-year looked over in alarm.
"Aliyah," she said, wiping at one eye, "you get friendzoned fourteen times and suddenly you want to become a nun?"
"At least nuns don't get called sweet by women they want to kiss."
Neris shut his book at last and looked at her properly. "You just need to stop approaching women like you want to friends with them."
"I do not do that."
Kaelith and Neris both looked at her.
Aliyah glared. "Traitors."
"You ask too politely," Kaelith said. "You smile like you're giving them a choice."
Aliyah blinked. "They do have a choice."
"Yes," Kaelith said patiently, "but you shouldn't make it look so easy."
"That is horrible advice."
"That is excellent advice," Neris said. "Confidence is persuasive."
Aliyah put both elbows on the table and pressed her hands to her face. "I hate this family."
"No, you don't," Kaelith said.
No, she didn't.
She loved them. Unfortunately.
A flicker of movement near the cafeteria entrance caught Kaelith's eye first. Aliyah noticed because Kaelith's whole expression shifted. Not much. Just enough for amusement to sharpen into attention.
Neris turned his head a second later.
Aliyah, curious despite herself, followed their gaze.
And then the rest of the room seemed to lose a little sound.
The woman standing in the doorway was very tall. Taller than most men, close to Kaelith's height, maybe more.
Her shoulders were broad, her frame lean and a little muscular beneath a dark sleeveless jacket trimmed with silver clasps. A black shirt hung open at the throat.
Heavy boots. Fingerless gloves. Purple hair fell in wild layers around a face too striking to be real, and one side of it had been tucked behind a sharply pointed ear that marked her as dragonkin. A slim tail, dark-scaled at the tip, moved once behind her.
Her eyes were what stopped the breath in Aliyah's chest.
One was red.
The other was black.
Black. Like polished obsidian catching light.
Small scales shimmered along the side of her neck. One horn curved back from her temple, partly hidden in the purple hair, and a thin silver chain looped from one ear to the collar of her shirt.
She looked like trouble. Real trouble. The kind that smiled at rules and arrived late on purpose.
And she was looking around the cafeteria like she had not yet decided whether she hated it.
Aliyah sat up straighter before she could stop herself.
Her heart, traitorous little beast, kicked once against her ribs.
Kaelith saw it happen.
Kaelith turned slowly toward her.
"No," Kaelith said at once.
Aliyah did not take her eyes off the dragon woman. "I didn't say anything."
"You didn't have to."
"She's just tall."
"She looks like she starts fights for cardio," Neris said.
Aliyah's voice went a touch dreamier than she intended. "That's not a deal breaker."
Kaelith leaned closer, horrified and delighted all at once. "Hell no, Aliyah."
Author note: Before going back to the main story you will get some side chapters of Kaelith first heartbreak and first relationship.