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“Just stay inside the wards,” Raven said with forced lightness. “Wickem is the safest place to be.”

Just then the door opened, drawing both our attention. Expecting to see Ms. Wallace escorting the tutor she’d promised, I straightened in my seat. But instead, a woman entered alone—probably in her late twenties, with warm brown skin and her hair pulled back in a neat braid.

“Hello Marigold,” she said with a smile. “I’m Dr. Reyes. Ms. Wallace asked me to help catch you up on magical fundamentals.”

For the next hour, Dr. Reyes led me through increasingly complex magical exercises. Each time she demonstrated, her magic flowed effortlessly, making each spell look easy. Simple illumination—golden light forming in her palm. Basic levitation—her pencil lifting in the air as smoothly as breathing.

When I tried, my illumination spell exploded into a searing flare, making Raven shield her eyes. The next attempt fizzled out completely. The levitation charm shot the pencil to the ceiling so fast it got stuck, and when I finally wrestled my magic back under control, it just dropped like a rock onto the desk.

I gritted my teeth. I felt the magic inside me, the raw power humming, but every time I tried to shape it, it either surged too strong or refused to cooperate at all.

Dr. Reyes nodded approvingly. “Your power is impressive. You just need control.”

That was supposed to be reassuring. It wasn’t.

Because control wasn’t something I had ever been taught.

The final straw came when I tried a simple warming spell. Instead of gently heating my tea, the entire desk burst into flames.

I shoved back my chair, heart pounding as Dr. Reyes calmly extinguished the fire with a flick of her wrist.

“Maybe I just don’t belong here,” I whispered, voice tight. The frustration—the humiliation—was too much. “Maybe they were right about me.”

The air went cold.

“Mari—” Raven started, but I barely heard her over the ringing in my ears.

“No, she’s right to doubt.”

I froze.

Dr. Reyes’s voice had changed. Colder. Sharper.

And then I saw it.

In the mirror behind the desk, her reflection moved—just a fraction of a second too late.

The dead things howled their warning.Too late, too late, too late—

My stomach clenched. “Elio.”

The illusion shattered.

Where Dr. Reyes had stood, Elio straightened to his full height, his perfect mask fracturing around the edges. His chameleon’s scales flickered deep red and black—colors I had never seen before.

Fury flared in my chest. “You tricked me.”

Elio’s smirk didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Wouldn’t be much of an illusion if I didn’t.”

“You knew how much this mattered to me,” I spat. “And you—” My throat tightened, rage and humiliation warring inside me. “What? You just wanted to see if I’d break?”

His laugh was bitter, sharp as glass. “Everyone breaks eventually, darling. I just wanted to see how long it would take.”

I wanted to hit him. To claw at his perfect, smug face, and wipe away that knowing expression.

“You’re terrified,” I said instead, my voice dangerously low. “That someone might see past your perfect performance. See the scared little boy desperate for approval.”

His illusions flickered wildly—faces and forms spinning like a kaleidoscope gone mad. For a moment, I glimpsed him as a child, small and reaching for distant parents. Then as he was now, surrounded by admirers but completely alone.