Chapter 24 #3
The severance primer glows between us, green and black and wrong.
Her magic. My best friend's magic. Wrapped around the most sacred thing I have.
My bond. My choice. My Valerius. The part of me that still loves her screams.
The part of me that is Starborne stops crying.
"No one cuts what I choose." My voice is steady.
The archive floor lights beneath my feet. The sovereign mark burns over my heart. Valerius rises beside me, one hand pressed to his chest where his mark burns too. His Shadowflame meets my Starfire.
Together.
The word passes through us. The severance primer shudders.
Seren's eyes widen. "Valentina, don't—"
I don't know if she means don't hurt me.
Don't break the spell. Don't become what they fear.
Maybe all of it. I lift my hand. Starfire touches the green-black magic.
For one heartbeat, I feel Seren. Not her thoughts, her truth.
Fear, guilt, love, ambition, desperation.
A family name threatened by old debts. A mother crying behind closed doors.
A councilwoman promising safety. A masked voice promising survival and beneath it all... A choice.
She chose them. Again and again. Even while loving me. My heart shatters completely. The Starfire turns white. The severance primer unravels. Seren screams as her magic snaps backward into her hands. She collapses, clutching her wrists.
Valerius steps closer to me. His hand finds mine. The bond floods back, bruised but whole.
Mine, he sends.
A promise that he is still there. I answer, broken.
Here.
The first Master lifts his head. "Impressive."
Voss's face twists with anger. Seren sobs on the floor. Professor Thorne's bind weakens with her collapse. He rips free, tearing the Veil magic from his throat with one hand. Blood runs down his neck.
His eyes go to Seren. The shock is gone. What remains is worse. "Miss Ashwick," he says quietly, "what have you done?"
Seren looks up at him like a child. Then at me. I can't bear it so I look away.
The Masters begin to advance. Valerius's Shadowflame rises around us. Professor Thorne steps to our side, wounded but standing. My father, pale and shaking, moves behind me.
Voss sees it. Her eyes narrow. "Alaric, don't be foolish."
My father looks at her. Then at me. Then at the Ancient Masters. His voice shakes. "She is my daughter."
Voss's mouth curls. "How sentimental."
The first Master lifts his hand. The three black stars flare overhead.
The archive ceiling splits. A vertical tear opens in the air above the pedestal, revealing a sky that is not outside.
A black sky full of dead stars. Wind screams through the tear, pulling books from shelves, ripping pages into a storm.
Professor Thorne shouts, "They're opening a gate!"
Voss smiles through the chaos. Seren pushes herself up on trembling arms, looking horrified now. Maybe she didn't know this part. Maybe she did. I don't have time to care right now.
The gate widens. Something massive moves on the other side. Not a Remnant. An army of them. Pale mouths opening in the dark. Dozens. Hundreds. The war isn't coming... it's already here.
Valerius's hand tightens around mine. His voice enters the bond, calm in a way that terrifies me.
If they cross, we burn the gate.
I look up at him.
Can we?
His eyes meet mine.
We find out.
The first Remnant drops from the tear. Then another. Then five. Their bodies unfold in the archive, tall and thin, mouths burning pale. Council guards scream. Books chains snap. Mirrors explode one by one in the vault chamber. Seren staggers backward, face white.
Voss raises both hands, commanding the Remnants with black-star magic. "Secure the Starborne. Break the Shadowbound."
Valerius smiles. Blood at his lip. Shadowflame around his shoulders. "Let them try."
The first Remnant lunges.
I lift my hand. This time, I don't wait for fear to become power. I choose. Starfire answers. Valerius's Shadowflame wraps around it. Together, our magic strikes the Remnant and turns it to ash before it touches the floor. The archive shakes. The gate screams.
The Ancient Masters pause.
For the first time, something like surprise moves through their masks.
My tears have dried on my face. My heart is still bleeding from Seren's betrayal but Valerius stands beside me.
Thorne stands with us. Even my father stands behind me and if the war has arrived faster than we thought, then so has the girl they tried to keep buried.
I look at Seren one last time. She is kneeling on the floor, sobbing, hands shaking with the remains of the spell she used to hurt me.
My voice breaks when I speak. "You were my first safe place, I would have died for you." Her face crumples. I swallow the sob rising in my throat. "Now, you're nothing more then dead weight, get out of my way."
Then I turn from her. Toward the gate. Toward the Remnants. Toward Voss and the Ancient Masters and every old law that thinks love makes me weak. Valerius steps with me. Our hands locked. Our marks burning. The archive becomes white-gold and black flame and the first battle of Arcana Academy begins.