Chapter 2 Expelled Before I Entered

The pain didn't stop. It spread beneath my skin like fire searching for air, crawling from my collarbone across my shoulder and down my chest. I pressed both hands against it, but it felt as though the burning came from somewhere much deeper than flesh. "Sable!" Ethan caught me before I hit the floor. My vision blurred as the black mark kept growing. It wasn't ink or blood. It looked alive. The gray-uniformed woman appeared beside us as suddenly as she had vanished, but her calm expression disappeared the instant she saw the mark. "No..." she whispered, grabbing my wrist. "What is it?" I gasped. She didn't answer. Instead, she slammed her palm against the carriage wall, and a deep bell echoed through the train. Once. Twice. Then a third time. The train stopped so violently that everyone lurched forward. "We're not there yet," Ethan said. "We are now." The carriage doors burst open, and cold wind rushed inside. Outside wasn't a station but an enormous mountain hidden beneath black clouds. At its peak stood the largest academy I had ever seen, its ancient towers disappearing into the mist while stone bridges floated between buildings that shouldn't have been connected. Hundreds of students in black uniforms crowded the entrance courtyard, but the moment I stepped onto the platform, every conversation stopped and hundreds of eyes turned toward me. The burning beneath my collarbone became unbearable. Someone screamed, "Look at her neck!" I looked down. The mark had climbed above my collarbone, and dark veins spread beneath my skin like twisted branches. Students began backing away, their voices rising in alarm. "What is that?" "Impossible..." "It can't be." "The mark..." Fear moved through the crowd like wildfire. Not curiosity or surprise. Fear. A bell rang somewhere above us, and the enormous front doors of the academy opened. Six men walked out together. Nobody needed to tell me who they were. The students immediately lowered their heads, and even the air seemed to change around the six men. The first was tall and silver-haired, wearing a long black coat. His sharp gray eyes landed on me first, cold and measuring. Professor Ashgrave. Beside him stood a broad-shouldered man with dark hair streaked with silver, authority radiating from him without effort. Professor Kael. The third looked younger than the others, almost gentle until I noticed the sadness in his eyes. Professor Lucian. The fourth wore an amused smile that looked entirely out of place. Professor Rhys. The fifth had tired eyes that made him seem permanently haunted. Professor Dax. The last adjusted his glasses as though none of this concerned him at all. Professor Wren. None of them spoke. They simply stared at the mark on my neck. Then Ashgrave took one step backward. Not from me, but from the mark. "I said it would return," Dax murmured. "No," Kael replied sharply. "It cannot." Lucian looked as though all the color had drained from his face, and Rhys wasn't smiling anymore. Wren stared at me with unsettling intensity, as if I were an equation that had just rewritten itself. Ashgrave finally spoke. "When did it appear?" "About five minutes ago." "Who touched you?" "What?" "Answer the question." "No one." His eyes narrowed. "That's impossible." "I'm telling you the truth." The professors exchanged silent looks, and no one seemed willing to say what they were all thinking. Ethan stepped forward, his voice strained with worry. "My sister needs help." Nobody looked at him. "Please," he said again. "She's in pain." Kael finally shifted his attention to him. "Who is he?" "My brother. He came with me." Ashgrave's expression hardened. "The invitation was for one person." I pulled the letter from my pocket. "It literally says, 'Bring the boy.'" Kael took it, and his face changed. For the first time, genuine confusion crossed it. He handed the letter to Wren, then to Ashgrave. Each of them read the same sentence, and each reacted exactly the same way. "I never wrote this," Ashgrave said quietly. "I didn't either," Kael replied. "Neither did I," Wren added. Rhys looked up. "So who invited them?" No one answered. The silence was worse than any explanation. Ashgrave folded the letter. "The invitation is invalid." "What?" "The academy did not issue it." Anger cut through the pain. "You think I forged it?" "I think someone wants you here." "I don't care who wants me here!" I shouted. "My brother is dying!" The courtyard became silent again. I grabbed Ethan's trembling hand, fighting to keep my voice steady. "The doctor said only this academy could save him." Kael's jaw tightened. "This academy treats students." "He isn't a student." "Then admit him!" "We cannot." "Why?" "Because rules exist for a reason." I laughed bitterly. "So that's it?" No one answered, and my grip on Ethan's hand tightened. "You let people die because of rules?" Lucian took a small step forward, but Kael raised a hand to stop him. "We're sorry." "No." I shook my head. "No, you're not." The words came before I could stop them. "If you were sorry, you'd help." Ashgrave looked directly at me. "You cannot remain here." For a second, I thought I had heard him wrong. "What?" "You will leave the academy immediately." The words echoed across the courtyard, and gasps spread through the students. Expelled before classes had even begun, before I had even entered the academy. Ethan squeezed my hand. "Sable..." I looked at the six professors one by one. Not one of them looked pleased, not even Ashgrave. They looked afraid. Afraid of me, afraid of the mark, and afraid of something none of them wanted to say aloud. I swallowed the lump in my throat. "I'm not leaving." Kael's voice became dangerously calm. "This is not a negotiation." "It is if my brother dies." Two guards started toward us, and the students moved farther back. I stepped in front of Ethan, refusing to let them get near him. "If you want me gone," I said, "you'll have to drag me out." The guards were only a few steps away when the academy shook. The ground rumbled beneath our feet, and stone cracked across the courtyard. A deafening roar exploded from somewhere deep beneath the mountain, shattering every window at once. The six professors spun toward the oldest tower, and Ashgrave's face turned white. "No..." A second roar shook the academy. This one sounded almost human. Then an ancient voice echoed through every corridor, every classroom, and every stone wall. It was so old that it seemed to come from the mountain itself. "The Second Child has returned." Every professor froze. Then, for the first time since I had arrived, all six of them knelt before me.