Page 9

KAIA

T he training mats are cold under my feet, but it’s nothing compared to the ice running through my veins.

I can still feel him.

His weight against me. The heat of his breath. The power rippling off him like a second skin. And now he’s gone again—with the only goddamn thing that might explain what the hell is happening to me .

And I’m stuck here.

Back in the Order’s belly, surrounded by sharp-eyed agents and sharper-tongued instructors who would kill me without hesitation if they saw even a fraction of what’s clawing beneath my skin right now.

“Kaia,” Cole says, bouncing on the balls of his feet across from me. “You in or are we just gonna stand here looking pretty?”

I snap out of it, jaw tight. “Shut up and hit me.”

He smirks. “Your funeral.”

He lunges fast, aiming for my ribs. I twist just enough, let his momentum carry him past, and deliver a clean elbow to his spine. He grunts, stumbles, then pivots and sweeps my leg. I drop, roll, spring back to my feet.

We’ve sparred a hundred times. Cole’s fast, clean, textbook. But I’ve always been just a little faster. A little meaner.

Today, though? Today something’s different.

It’s like my skin doesn’t fit right. Like something’s pulsing underneath it—alive, restless. My fingertips tingle, and not in the cute “I’m ready to punch something” kind of way. More like I’m about to ignite .

Cole feints left, goes high, then swings a roundhouse toward my jaw. I duck, twist, and slam my fist into his gut with a grunt.

And that’s when it happens.

The world tilts.

The second I make contact, something inside me detonates .

Blue light explodes from my skin like a shockwave. It blasts out of me—raw, untamed, wrong . The air warps. The mat beneath our feet cracks. Cole goes flying back like he’s been hit by a damn freight train, crashing into the wall hard enough to dent the metal paneling.

And then everything goes still.

Dead still.

“What the actual—fuck?” Cole croaks, groaning as he tries to sit up.

My hands are glowing. Faint but real. Like veins of starlight under my skin. My breath saws in and out of my chest, heart pounding like it’s trying to shatter bone.

Across the room, I see movement.

My mother.

Mira Draven—quiet, elegant, cold as a whisper in winter—moving toward me fast . Her eyes are wide. Terrified. Not scared of what just happened.

Scared of me .

She grabs my wrist too tight and mutters under her breath in a language I’ve never heard but that hurts to hear. The glow on my skin fizzles out. The light vanishes like water down a drain.

“What the hell was that?” Cole coughs. “She—Kaia, you lit up . That wasn’t tech. That wasn’t gear. What the fuck?—?”

“Nothing,” my mother snaps.

She’s standing in front of me now, shielding me with her body like I’m a bomb about to detonate. “Kaia’s just… full of energy. She’s been pushing herself. After that, uh, mishap in the crypt ruins. You know how her adrenaline spikes.”

“Bullshit,” Cole mutters, eyes narrowing.

Then the doors slam open.

And of course it’s him.

My father strides in like a damn storm cloud, every inch the high-ranking Order officer in full field gear, boots thudding across the mat like gunshots. His face is stone, but his eyes—those cold, piercing bastards—are burning.

“What’s going on?” Jareth barks.

“Nothing,” my mother says again, too fast.

“She’s fine,” she adds. “Just a surge. We’ll recalibrate her baseline in medbay, make sure she’s not overextending. No cause for alarm.”

I don’t say a word.

Because what the fuck is happening right now?

Why did she just chant some ancient verbal backspace into my skin? Why is my mother —Order intel specialist, human fucking lie detector—covering for me like we’ve rehearsed this a hundred times?

My dad steps closer. His gaze snaps to Cole.

“What did you see?”

Cole hesitates, glancing between all of us. “She hit me. Harder than usual. Weird light. Don’t know what it was.”

Jareth grunts, then turns to me.

“You okay?”

I nod once. “Fine.”

A lie. A clean, practiced one. He taught me that look—flat voice, eye contact, no tremble.

He studies me for too long.

Then he says, “You’ll debrief with me later.”

Fuck.

My mother’s fingers twitch at her side.

“Yes, sir,” I reply, and it tastes like ash.

He leaves without another word. Cole follows, still rubbing his ribs.

And then it’s just me and my mother.

I round on her the second the doors close.

“What the hell did you just do to me?”

She steps back. Her face is pale, voice shaking. “Please, Kaia.”

“No. Fuck that.” I grab her arm. “I’ve got blue lightning shooting out of my fucking soul , and you’re muttering fairy bullshit in response. You don’t get to play secret keeper with me.”

She shakes her head, eyes glassy.

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what ?”

She doesn’t answer.

Just slips out of my grip and walks away.

I stand there, fists clenched, chest heaving, the smell of burned ozone still thick around me.

I don’t know who the hell I’m supposed to trust.