Chapter 3 The Girl They Feared

No one moved. Not the guards, not the students, not even me. Six professors, men powerful enough to silence an academy with a glance, were kneeling before me, and the mountain itself seemed to hold its breath. The ancient voice had faded into silence, but its words continued echoing inside my head. The Second Child has returned. My heart pounded. "This isn't funny," I said, but nobody laughed. I looked at Kael first. He had the bearing of a king even on one knee, yet the certainty that had filled his face moments earlier was gone. "What is happening?" He slowly raised his head. "I wish I knew." "You expect me to believe that?" "I expect you to believe nothing until you see it for yourself." Ashgrave stood first, his expression unreadable again. "The evacuation begins now." The courtyard exploded into movement. Professors shouted orders, students ran toward the dormitories, and guards rushed to secure every entrance. Within seconds, what had been a silent crowd became organized chaos. Ethan grabbed my arm. "Sable..." "What?" "I think they're scared." "I noticed." "No." His grip tightened. "I don't think they're scared of you." A crack split the courtyard, and everyone froze again. It ran from the center of the stone square to my feet, with black light leaking through the opening. It wasn't fire or smoke. It was something darker, something alive. The mark beneath my collarbone burned again, and the black light answered. It rose from the crack like hundreds of glowing threads, every one of them rushing toward me. "Sable!" Lucian reached me first, pulling me backward just as the black light exploded from the ground. The force knocked students off their feet, windows shattered across the nearest tower, and the academy bells rang wildly without anyone touching them. When the light faded, I was still standing, unharmed. The black threads had stopped inches from my skin, circling me as though they were waiting for permission. Ashgrave stared. "It recognizes her." "No," Wren said quietly. "It obeys her." A frightened murmur swept through the students. "She's controlling it." "She's cursed." "She's a monster." I clenched my fists. "I didn't do anything!" The threads vanished instantly. Kael looked around the courtyard. "No one leaves alone." He pointed toward the professors. "Ashgrave, Wren, seal the lower chambers. Dax, search the east wing. Rhys, clear the dormitories. Lucian..." His voice softened. "Take Miss Vale." I blinked. "Take me where?" "The safest place in the academy." Ashgrave immediately objected. "No." Kael met his eyes. "We don't have a choice." "We don't know what she is." "We know exactly what she is." The words came from Dax. He hadn't taken his eyes off me. "We've just spent three hundred years praying she'd never come back." Silence fell. Three hundred years? I stared at him. "What did you just say?" He realized he'd spoken aloud, but it was too late. Kael cut in quickly. "Enough." "No," I snapped. "It is not enough." I stepped toward them, my anger growing with every unanswered question. "You invited me here." "We didn't." "You called me the Second Child." "We didn't." "You just said you've been waiting three hundred years." Again, no answer. The anger I'd been holding back finally broke free. "My brother is dying!" Every head turned toward Ethan. "He doesn't have three hundred years!" I walked straight up to Kael. "If you're going to keep treating me like the answer to some ancient nightmare, then tell me what is happening." Kael looked at me for a long moment before answering quietly, "I can't." "You won't." "There are things you're safer not knowing." I laughed bitterly. "My life ended the moment I got on that train." His jaw tightened. "You don't understand." "Then explain it!" "I can't." The mark burned, harder this time, and pain shot through my chest. I gasped as Lucian caught me before I hit the ground. His hands were surprisingly warm. "Easy." "I hate that word." "I know." The pain eased slightly, and I looked up at him. His blue eyes were fixed on the mark beneath my collarbone, not with fear but with grief, as though he'd seen it once before. He whispered something so softly I almost missed it. "I'm sorry." "For what?" His eyes lifted to mine. "For not saving you." Confusion replaced the pain. "We've never met." His face went pale, and he immediately stepped backward. "I..." He couldn't finish. Ashgrave noticed. So did Kael. A look passed silently between the professors, and I knew Lucian had said something he shouldn't have. Kael made his decision. "Lucian." "Yes." "Take Miss Vale to the east wing." Ashgrave turned sharply. "Absolutely not." "The room has remained sealed for three centuries," Kael replied. "It was sealed for a reason." "And today that reason returned." Ashgrave looked ready to argue again, but instead he closed his eyes briefly and nodded once. Students began whispering again. "The east wing?" "No one's allowed there." "That room is cursed." "They're putting her in that room?" I looked between the professors. "What room?" No one answered. Lucian gestured toward the oldest tower. "Come with me." "I want Ethan with us." Kael looked toward Ethan. "For now... yes." Relief washed through me. At least we wouldn't be separated. As we crossed the courtyard, I felt hundreds of eyes following us, filled with fear, curiosity, and hatred. Not one friendly face. Halfway to the tower, I glanced back. The crack in the courtyard had closed as if it had never existed. Only one thing remained. In the exact spot where I had been standing, a single black flower had grown through solid stone. Dax stopped walking, and his face lost all color. "No..." Ashgrave followed his gaze. For the first time since meeting him, the cold professor looked genuinely shaken. "What is it?" I asked. Nobody answered. Dax walked toward the flower as though he were approaching a grave. He knelt beside it, then whispered one name. "Iris..." The flower opened. And from somewhere deep beneath the academy, a young woman laughed.