Page 60 of Immortal Consequences (The Souls of Blackwood Academy #1)

Masika

Masika’s relationship with anxiety was one of constant surveillance. Monitoring her body for the telltale signs. Observing every sensation sweeping through her limbs with dread. It had always felt like an inevitability. Something she couldn’t run from, despite how hard she might try.

If there was ever a moment for the panic to seize her body, it was now. She waited for the adrenaline to kick in. For the numbness to take root. But as she heard the words leave Headmaster Silas’s lips, her brain slowly processing the truth, it wasn’t panic she felt.

It was fury.

Her anger blotted out any trace of anxiety lingering in her body. It was a raging river, desperate to consume everything in its path. She squeezed her hand into a tight fist, welcoming the pain. The pain meant she was still here. That she still had a fighting chance.

Unlike the others.

Nick. Liza. Georgia. Tristan. They weren’t injured. They weren’t recovering.

They were gone. Destroyed.

Nothing but sacrifices for the Ether’s insatiable hunger.

Masika fought back the bile rising in her throat as she recalled Nick’s last moments. The way he had looked at her. The scream that had torn from his throat. It was burned in the back of her mind, unrelenting.

It hadn’t been an illusion. It hadn’t been a trick.

It had been real.

His pain, his anguish, his desperation… it had all been real.

The only way to survive was to win. But what was the point of winning, of cementing herself as an Ascended, if it meant watching the people around her perish?

It had now become clear why people had chosen to cross over to the Other Side, despite the uncertainty waiting for them.

They had been unwilling to live the rest of their eternal existence knowing that their triumph, their induction into the academic elite, had been at the expense of eleven other souls.

Which meant that the nominees who had stayed, who had chosen to become Ascended, had been capable of overlooking that inescapable truth.

They understood that their victory was drenched in suffering and had chosen to ignore it.

Headmaster Silas clasped his leather gloves in his hands and looked among the group.

“Now…are there any questions?”

Josie let out an animalistic cry. Carter caught her before she could collapse, his own face riddled with shock and disbelief. His skin was ashen and pale, his hands trembling even as he held Josie in his arms.

Emilio and Olivier hadn’t moved since Silas had appeared before them and explained the sordid truth of the Decennial.

They simply stood side by side, denial on both of their faces.

Even Irene, whose emotions were often difficult to read, seemed shaken up by the news, a frenzied panic building in her eyes.

Wren and August looked as though they were restraining themselves from pouncing on Silas and ripping his head off. Masika didn’t blame them. She understood that rage—that need to inflict suffering in the hope of filling the hole in her chest.

“It’s okay, Josie. It’s…it’s okay.” Carter’s voice cracked as he held back the tears Masika knew would inevitably fall. He had lost his sister. His twin. A part of him severed and destroyed, taken from him forever.

Josie wailed in his arms, the sound breaking something inside Masika. “I didn’t…I didn’t even say goodbye. I— oh God. He’s gone…he’s gone.”

That seemed to be enough for Wren to snap.

“How could you do this?” Her eyes gleamed with feral anger. It was startling. An almost primal side of Wren that Masika had never seen before. “You’ve wiped our memories God knows how many times…made us forget people. How many students have you destroyed? How many people have we forgotten?”

If Silas was at all moved by her words, he didn’t show it. He simply let out a sigh, as though this whole thing was nothing but an inconvenience for him.

“I don’t expect you to understand completely.

It’s all rather complicated. As I previously stated, the Ether needs to consume the souls of students every ten years.

It’s the only way we can continue to successfully travel through it.

If the Ether is not satiated—then we cannot do our duty.

Do you understand what I’m telling you? Without these necessary sacrifices, the Ether would lose its stability.

” He inclined his head, a smile lifting his lips.

“Now, ask yourselves…isn’t a small, insignificant sacrifice worth preserving the order of the afterlife? ”

Masika didn’t feel the moment her legs moved beneath her.

One second she was standing among the group, listening, and the next she was throwing herself at Silas, hands desperate to claw out his throat. But before she could reach him, a pair of strong arms had pulled her back, holding her steady.

“Don’t.” It was August. He had an arm wrapped around her chest, his voice low and hoarse. “It’s not worth it. He’s not worthit.”

“Insignificant?!” Masika bellowed, thrashing against August’s grip. She dug her fingernails into his arm, but he didn’t waver. He didn’t even wince. “How dare you? They were people !”

Silas laughed, cold and mocking. “Ms.Sallow—”

“You’re not God!” Masika spat. “You don’t get to toy with people’s souls. To decide whether or not they deserve to exist!”

Silas watched her with an inscrutable expression. He began to pace back and forth, eyes trailing over the nominees.

“Anger is a normal reaction. I expect you to feel this way. To be frustrated. I’ve dealt with it before.

Hundreds of times. This isn’t the first time the truth was revealed earlier than intended, but students always come around.

How else would we have the talented group of Ascended currently helping preserve order in our halls? ”

“Then they’re just as sick and twisted as you,” Masika snapped. “Any sensible person would rather cross over to the Other Side than support an institution that thrives on the ashes of its students.”

“Really?” He cocked his head to the side. “Look around, Ms.Sallow. Think about it. I am quite certain that if presented with the choice, each and every one of your fellow nominees would choose to stay. That this sacrifice, terrible as it may be, doesn’t change what you are all fighting for.”

Masika ripped her gaze away from him and glanced around the group.

She didn’t want him to be right. He couldn’t be.

But as her eyes scanned the others, one by one, an inescapable truth settled in her bones.

All of them were desperate to stay, to save themselves.

Whether it was for power, or for love, or simply because it was better to survive than throw themselves into the unknown.

They’d all stay. Each and every one of them.

The tension in her muscles slackened. Her body gave in to August’s restraint, and his arms loosened their grip. He must have felt it too.

Defeat.

“What does this mean for us?” Irene asked, stepping forward. Masika was desperate to speak with her in private, to have a moment alone.

“Nothing changes,” Silas explained. “You all signed the soul vow that tethers you to the Decennial…which means you must complete all remaining trials.”

“But we could break the soul vow,” whispered Emilio, a hint of hope in his voice. “We’d be thrown into the outskirts of purgatory…but we wouldn’t be destroyed. We would still have a chance—”

“My apologies, Mr.Córdova.” Silas offered a coy smile. “There were… additional conditions intertwined within the soul vow.”

Olivier cursed under his breath. “Of course…”

“If you break the soul vow, you won’t just become untethered from Blackwood,” Silas said. “Anybody who decides to forfeit, to not participate in the remaining trials, will be considered eliminated.”

“Eliminated?” Carter echoed, voice wavering. “What does that mean?”

“It means if we don’t participate in the remaining trials, if we break the soul vow, he’ll feed us to the Ether anyway,” Wren said, eyes locked on Silas. “Isn’t that right, Headmaster ?”

Silas smiled. “Correct.”

Josie burrowed her face into Carter’s chest, a sob racking her throat. He placed his hand protectively over her head, drawing her closer. The others all seemed to collectively wilt as the realization slowly dawned on them.

“There’s no escaping this,” whispered Emilio, his voice broken and hoarse. “Only one of us will survive.”

Silas nodded. “It is the only way.”

Masika wanted to scream. She stared at all of their faces—these people she had grown to know…to care for. This couldn’t be the conclusion to their story. A brutal end, nothing but sacrifices destined to be forgotten.

“I’m afraid I have one more surprise announcement…,” Silas said, cutting through her thoughts. He began to walk forward, deeper into the garden. “You all must leave the ball immediately and follow me.”

August tensed, his expression darkening.

“What for?”

Silas glanced over his shoulder, a flicker of anticipation sparking behind his eyes.

“For the third trial, of course.”