Page 17

Chapter

Thirteen

Bloom

The Golden Boy

I stormed out of the lecture hall, my pulse still racing, equal parts fury and exhilaration. Nero Ravencrux was insufferable, arrogant,unbearable, and yet, he’d been the one to unlock my magic. My palms tingled, the echo of summoned wind and light humming under my skin.

All my life, I’d believed my affinity lay with plants. But now? Now I’d discovered the truth Mom had hidden from me. I was a Weaver.Windanswered to me.

“Bloom?”

I startled at the voice. Sindy leaned against the hallway wall, pushing off as I approached.

“Sindy? You’re still here?”I asked, still shaking off the intensity of what had just happened.

She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes, and her gaze held something new—reassessment.“I waited for you. Lunch?”

I nodded, murmuring thanks.

“So,”she said, falling into step beside me.“What was that about?”

“What was what about?”

She quirked a brow.“Professor Ravencrux doesn’t keep students after class. Ever.”

“Never?”

The twin Gothic domes rose behind us—Celestial Dome, its pale spires housing first-year classrooms, and across the courtyard, the obsidian monolith of Abyssal Dome where upperclassmen studied.

Between them loomed Midnight Banquet Hall, our destination, its arched windows glowing blue in the overcast light.

“Never, ever,”Sindy repeated, our footsteps echoing on the worn cobblestones.“What really happened in there?”

Heat rushed to my cheeks. I couldn’t stop it. This man had turned me into a perpetual furnace of embarrassment today.

“Nothing,” I said defensively.

Nero Ravencrux had sealed that lecture hall for a reason.

“Obviously,”she said, rolling her eyes.“There’s the whole ‘no fraternizing with professors’ rule?—”

“Why would you even suggest that?”I cut in, too sharp.

Things had gone so much further than she could imagine, and I was the biggest liar. I bit my lip. The devil professor brought out the worst in me.

Sindy winced.“Sorry. I just meant it’s unusual.

You’re different, Bloom. Everyone noticed when Sebastian took an interest in you, and that alone was shocking enough.

He never chases women; they chasehim.But Professor Ravencrux?

”She lowered her voice.“He didn’t so much as glance at anyone before you. ”

“I’m not their type,”I muttered, staring down at my thin wrists.

“Look at me. I’m practically made of glass.

A sore thumb sticking out, just like Dante said.

”My voice turned bitter.“This is probably just some twisted game to them. But I can promise you,”I jabbed a finger in the air, “I’m not sleeping with Sebastian either. Or any professor.”

The lie tasted sour.

“Gods, they’re both impossible,”Sindy sighed, oblivious to my inner turmoil.“And they don’t even know I’m alive. If you hadn’t spoken up, Professor Ravencrux would still be calling me ‘Girl Two.’ So, thanks, I guess.”

“It’s nothing,”I said, kicking a pebble.“Why does he even do that? ‘Boy One,’ ‘Girl Two’—it’s ridiculous…and lazy.”

Sindy gave me a pointed look.“Yet he knowsyourname. And only yours. Think about it—he barely shows up to teach. His assistants do all the work. Butyou? He detained you after class.”

“So he’s doesn’t take his job seriously,”I said, frowning with disapproval.

“Rules don’t apply to him,”she said, then lowered her voice.“I might be wrong, but the tension between you two could cut through steel.”

“You’re imagining things,”I said too quickly.“He only knows my name because—”I caught myself, biting my lip hard enough to sting.

“I can keep secrets,”she said eagerly.“We might be roommates by chance, but I think it’s fate. Nobody notices me anyway since my magic’s too weak. I should be in Stardust Tower with my coven, but here I am in Tower Ravencrux with the other misfits.”

The confession slipped out before I could stop it.“I didn’t choose to come here. Ravencrux had me kidnapped and enrolled.”

Sindy froze mid-step.“No shit.”

“What am I supposed to do?”I gave a hollow laugh.“Report the man who answers to no one?”

“You can’t.”She grabbed my arm, glancing around nervously as we neared Midnight Banquet Hall.“Only Professor Kingsley stands against him, and?—”

“Sebastian, Kingsley’s protégé,”I finished.

She nodded.“They’re rivals. But even if you got close to Sebastian, Kingsley wouldn’t protect us. We’d just be pawns in their game.”

“Thanks for the warning,”I said, tilting my head back to take in Midnight Banquet Hall’s facade, a cathedral to gods long forgotten. The sheer grandeur of it stole my breath.

As we stepped into the hall, my breath caught once more at the sight of soaring arches and midnight-blue windows. Rows of onyx tables marched across gleaming herringbone floors, precise as a chessboard. Beyond the glass, snow dusted the evergreens, painting the hall in shifting patterns of frost

This wasn’t just a dining hall. It was a monument to power, steeped in centuries of tradition.

“This is a palace,”I said.

Sindy smiled.“Forsaken Academy is the wealthiest school across all seven continents.”

“Then why have I never heard of it?”

Her smile turned knowing.“Because it doesn’t exist for humans. Every student here was chosen. We’re special. The wanted.”

The hall hummed with low conversation, students moving through the space with effortless grace while I stood frozen, an outsider in this world of polished rituals.

“Come on,”Sindy whispered, tugging my sleeve.“Just find seats. The plates will appear once we sit—it’s all enchanted.”

We wove through the tables, searching for openings.

“Bloom!”

That voice. Smooth as fine whiskey, cutting through the murmur.

I turned.

Sebastian.

Sunlit hair like spun gold, eyes the impossible blue of tropical shallows. And he was…waving me over?

“Yes, you.”His grin was all lazy confidence.“Come sit by me.”

At his table, a circle of sharp-eyed students watched me, each radiating the kind of power that came from old blood and older money. The academy’s elite. And they were all staring.

Silence rippled outward. Then, like a tide turning, the weight of the entire hall’s attention crashed into me. Whispers coiled through the air, thick with disbelief. Her? On the first day?

I didn’t need to hear the words to feel them. The envy curdled into resentful glares that promised this wouldn’t be forgotten.

And I hadn’t even taken a step toward him.

Shit.

Ravencrux’s attention had already painted a target on my back, and now Sebastian was parading me before the entire school like some prized catch. All in one damned day.

I remembered too clearly the story of that girl who’d lost an arm over a lovers’ quarrel. I wasn’t encroaching on anyone’s territory, but logic wouldn’t matter, not when nearly every female here fantasized about either the forbidden professor or golden-boy Sebastian.

“Bloom!” Sebastian’s voice rang out again, rich with amusement. He nudged the blonde beside him until she vacated the gilded chair, then patted the seat with a grin. “I saved this for you.” As if this weren’t social suicide. As if he weren’t dangling me before a den of vipers.

Sindy dug her fingers into my arm, vibrating with excitement. “Go! Can I come with you?” Her whisper trembled with awe—already forgetting her own warnings from minutes ago about being used as pawns.

“No!” I said.

Her face fell, shoulders hunching as she turned away. I caught her wrist.

“Not ‘no’ to you,” I hissed, low enough that only she could hear. “No to him. Does he think we’re his playthings? Pets to summon?” I let go of her wrist. “We sit together. Somewhere else.”

I wasn’t some social-climbing sycophant, and more importantly, I understood that answering Sebastian’s summons publicly would place me at his mercy—a dangerous position given my house’s opposition to his.

Even if we ended up being allies, I refused to let him dictate our dynamic.

I’d already surrendered too much ground to Ravencrux today; I wouldn’t emerge from this day completely conquered.

If I had any dignity left, I’d fight to keep it.

“This isn’t the kind of attention we want,”I murmured to Sindy, my lips barely moving.

The heat of hundreds of hostile stares prickled against my skin.

“Look at them and at us. We’re not powerful players here.

How long before someone decides to come after us, making an example of us? Are you ready to defend against that?”

Her eyes widened as my words sank in. That coveted invitation might as well have been a target painted on our foreheads.

Mom had sacrificed too much to make sure I could live through my adulthood—however misguided her methods. The least I could do was survive another day. Then another.

My pulse hammered against my ribs, the familiar itch for my inhaler burning in my palm, but I clenched my fist instead.

I offered Sebastian a polite smile and half-hearted wave before turning my back on Sebastian’s table, his offered chair, and the dangerous game he wanted to play.

The murmurs around us swelled. Better to be talked about than owned.

I weaved through the tables toward an empty corner, Sindy following me.

Look away. Nothing to see here.

Sindy slumped into the chair opposite me with a sigh that could have wilted flowers.

Gradually, the weight of attention lifted. A cacophony of chatter rose again, silverware clinking, as students navigated their lunch.

Then—ping .

A perfect beet salad glistened before me, followed by steaming coq au vin, its rich aroma mingling with the decadent promise of chocolate cake. My stomach growled despite the adrenaline still souring my tongue.

“We’re being treated like royalty,”I remarked, poking at the lavish spread before us. “If I survive long enough to enjoy it.”

“That’s morbid,” Sindy said between bites.

I sighed.“I don’t even know half the rules here.”