Page 31

“How long have you been hiding her? Weeks?” Kingsley’s silver eyes burned into me. “Every attempt has failed in the past. Did you forget I can sense her too?” His fingers twitched at his sides. “I felt her presence in my tower, but Sebastian, he distracted me.”

My throat went dry. What were they talking about? I was nobody, just a homeschooled girl tossed into this nightmare against her will. Yet they spoke about me like I was someone else entirely. Someone significant. Someone hunted.

My heart lurched as danger pressed in, iron walls closing around me. A primal fear speared through my chest, stealing my breath.

Then the vision hit?—

A crimson sky stretched above jagged cliffs. A noose bit into my neck like a vise. My fingers clawed at the rope, useless.

Terror filled my chest.

I swung from the cliffside, my body slamming against unforgiving rock with each gust of wind. Below, waves roared like hungry beasts. Salt spray stung my bare feet.

My lungs burned. The rope crushed my windpipe. My vision darkened at the edges as I twisted ? —

Just enough to see him.

A figure stood silhouetted against the blood-red sunset. Golden hair caught the dying light, fluttering in the wind.

Then everything blurred.

I gasped, back in the present, and crumpled to the mat. My legs spasmed. The dagger slipped from my grasp. Above me, Toby grinned, her blade poised for the killing stroke.

“Bloom, move!” Sindy’s panicked voice cut through the haze.

Dante dropped beside me, asking urgently, “Where’s your inhaler?”

I wheezed, my throat sealed shut. My trembling hand fought its way to my pocket. The inhaler felt impossibly small as I fumbled it to my lips.

Black spots swarmed my vision. My face must’ve been turning blue. One desperate puff, then another.

“Freak.”

“Pathetic.”

I dragged in ragged breaths, forcing my trembling body to obey. The familiar sting of humiliation burned hotter beneath the weight of so many watching eyes, especially Ravencrux’s.

Then Kingsley’s laughter crashed through the hall, deep and booming. “Look at what she’s become, a sniveling weakling.” His voice curled with vicious delight. “Poetic, isn’t it?”

Against my will, my misty gaze found Ravencrux’s.

Shame flooded me.

The truth was out now. My brief moment of respect had evaporated, leaving only pity or scorn in its wake. Even Sindy might reconsider standing by me after this.

But why did Ravencrux look so upset? Did no one in his team warn him about my condition? Or was my weakness simply that disappointing?

Ravencrux’s face contorted with inhuman fury. Shadows writhed around his clenched fists, death magic shimmering like a heat haze around his body. The air itself seemed to recoil from him.

“—she’d last longer this time.” Kingsley’s taunt ended abruptly as Ravencrux’s fist connected with his jaw.

The crack echoed like splitting stone. Everyone screamed, scrambling back. Kingsley reeled but didn’t fall. Blue energy erupted around him in defense.

“You dare!” Kingsley’s roar shook the windows.

At the same moment, Toby seized her chance. Her blade flashed down toward my exposed chest while I lay gasping on the mat.

“Stop!” Dante roared and lunged forward. Too late.

My hands shot up instinctively, the inhaler still clamped between my teeth. My palms slapped against the flat of her blade, stopping it three inches from my heart. Then my legs lashed out with uncanny strength and precision, connecting with her face in a crunch of cartilage.

She sailed backward, nose erupting in a crimson arc.

Chaos swallowed the training hall. Ravencrux and Kingsley circled like primordial beasts, their power whipping the air. Students either fled or pressed themselves against the walls, caught between terror and morbid fascination.

Dante skidded to my side. “Breathe, Carrot,” he ordered, his attention divided between me and the brewing cataclysm.

Then Orren materialized beside him. “Just breathe, Bloom,” he echoed, more gently.

I sucked in another shuddering breath through the inhaler, my airways reluctantly opening. Beyond them, the two immortals stalked each other, the space between them crackling with barely contained annihilation.

This wasn’t sparring. This was raw, ancient hatred bubbling to the surface, the kind of hatred that toppled kingdoms.

The immortals clashed again, moving faster than human eyes could track, but I found myself able to keep up with their blurred movements.

Kingsley’s fist cracked against Ravencrux’s jaw with enough force to shatter concrete.

Ravencrux retaliated with an uppercut that sent blood spraying from Kingsley’s split lips.

“She was never yours,” Kingsley spat, wiping ichor from his mouth.

Ravencrux answered with a guttural snarl that belonged to a feral beast, not a human.

Their venomous exchange was like a riddle I couldn’t quite crack—referencing me, yet not about me. None of it made sense. Perhaps immortality eroded sanity, leaving only this: two predators locked in eternal rivalry.

The world tilted. The air pressure spiked, making my eardrums throb. The temperature swung violently, one breath searing my lungs, the next frosting my lips. An unnatural wind howled through the hall, scattering training equipment like dead leaves.

The air screamed as water materialized around Kingsley, not mere liquid but the wrath of the ocean given form. Towering tidal waves lashed toward Ravencrux with enough force to pulverize stone.

Was this what a demigod looked like? Some long-lost son of Poseidon unleashed?

Ravencrux didn’t flinch. Darkness erupted from him like living smoke, forming obsidian barriers that shattered the watery onslaught. His shadows twisted into barbed spears that pierced through the waves, leaving trails of frost and rot in their wake.

The training hall became a warzone. Water smashed through reinforced concrete ceilings.

Windows exploded inward in a deadly hail of glass.

Ravencrux’s shadows clawed deep furrows in the floor as the two forces clashed, Kingsley’s crushing tides wrapping around Ravencrux’s torso while inky tendrils coiled around Kingsley’s throat.

Students became collateral damage. Some were swept off their feet by rogue waves. Others crumpled as shadows leached the warmth from their bones. A handful managed feeble defensive spells that flickered like candles in a hurricane.

Then Orren’s hands gripped my shoulders. He positioned himself as a human shield while Dante covered my back, both men fighting against the elemental chaos and panicked mob.

“Stay with us, Bloom,” Orren ground out as they hauled me toward safety, their bodies taking the brunt of the destruction.

A massive wave swept across the floor, catching several fleeing students and slamming them against the wall.

Their screams cut off abruptly. My gaze caught Sindy across the hall, clinging to a splintered beam as swirling currents threatened to sweep her into the maelstrom where the professors’ powers collided.

“No, no!” I struggled against my rescuers. “I have to help my friend!”

Orren’s grip tightened. “You’re our priority.”

I dug my heels in. “I won’t leave without Sindy!”

“Take Carrot to safety,” Dante ordered. “I’ll go for her friend.” He plunged back into the chaos, diving through the watery tendrils with inhuman speed.

“Please help other students too,” I called after him. “You’re stronger than them.”

Every student with magic tried to shield themselves or flee. Protective bubbles flared to life across the hall. Some held, others shattered under the storm of elemental fury.

Orren pulled me through the splintered doorway to safer ground. Behind us, destruction raged, water crashing, shadows howling, ancient powers settling old scores.

Through a shattered window, I caught one last glimpse of the training hall. Kingsley stood at the heart of a swirling vortex, silver hair whipping around his face. Ravencrux had become living darkness, shadows pouring from him like dark blood, consuming everything they touched.

A blinding light suddenly flooded the corridor, forcing us to shield our eyes. The very air vibrated with new power. The walls around us hummed with recognition.

Headmistress Stardust appeared, gliding toward the destruction, her normally serene face contorting with fury, her eyes blazing with prismatic fire. At that moment, I experienced déjà vu, as if I were facing the Goddess of Magic and Witchcraft again.

She swept past us without a glance, light bursting from her fingertips, forming swirling arcane symbols.

“Stop, you two!” she bellowed, her command multiplied into echoes that slammed into the walls with physical force. “THIS IS MY SCHOOL!”