Chapter 27
It's a battlefield. Black cracks split across the corridor ceiling, branching through stone like veins.
Pale fingers push through them, then wrists, arms, faceless heads with mouths of cold fire.
Remnants tear themselves out of the academy one by one.
Students run barefoot over shattered glass.
Professors shout evacuation orders that disappear beneath alarms, breaking wards, and the awful sound of stone grinding against things that shouldn't exist inside it.
A Tempest student throws lightning at a Remnant crawling from the floor, the bolt strikes its chest.
The creature barely slows, it turns, its pale mouth opens.
I erase it before it reaches him. Cold Starfire leaves my hand in a narrow line.
The Remnant simply ceases, ash falls where it stood.
The Tempest student stares at me. He can't be older than fourteen.
His face is streaked with dust, and one sleeve of his blue uniform is torn. He looks at my hand, then my face, then the colourless mark visible above the neckline of my uniform. Fear changes him, his wand lifts... Not toward the Remnants... Toward me.
Valerius moves between us before I register the threat. Shadowflame blooms around his shoulders. "Lower it."
The boy trembles. "She—"
"Lower it." Valerius doesn't raise his voice.
The boy drops the wand. Professor Vale rushes past, gathering him against her side and forcing him toward the stairwell with the others. She looks at me once before she leaves. Her expression shows worry, everyone is worried now.
Valerius turns toward me. The corridor shakes as another Remnant breaks through the ceiling behind him. I lift two fingers. Cold fire touches it. Gone.
Valerius watches the ash fall. His jaw tightens. "You could have let me kill it."
"You were facing the wrong direction." I say.
"I knew it was there." Valerius gives me a look.
"You didn't move." I inform him.
"I knew you would." He tries to hide his smile but I see it. There should be warmth in that statement or the feeling of trust, even something tender. Instead, I catalogue it.
He depends on my response time. Potential weakness. "Don't assume that," I say.
His eyes harden. "You would have let it reach me?"
"No. The distance was inefficient." I say.
Pain flashes through the bond, I feel it.
My mark drinks from it. Cold power strengthens in my veins.
Valerius feels that too. His mental wall rises immediately, blocking the rest of his emotion before my sovereign heart can consume it.
The change is abrupt. One moment, he's a storm of grief and devotion beside me.
The next, there is stone between us. He hates that wall.
I know because the old Valentina hated it with him. Now I only recognize its usefulness.
"How dare you," I say.
His face twists. "I am protecting you."
"You are limiting my power." I say.
"I'm limiting what you take from me." His eyes are shinning.
"I'm not taking it deliberately." I say.
"But you would." He challenges me.
"Yes." I nod truthfully.
The answer wounds him. He looks away first. Professor Thorne limps down the corridor toward us, one arm pressed against his bandaged side. Blood has already seeped through the cloth beneath his robe. He shouldn't be walking, he shouldn't be fighting, he still does both.
Behind him, my mother and three branch professors are pushing students toward the central hall. Luc stands near the staircase, directing pale spirits through walls to search for survivors.
Everywhere, Remnants rise. Dozens. Hundreds beneath us. The points of pale fire shown in the black windows were not exaggerated. The Ancient Masters seeded the academy thoroughly.
Professor Thorne looks at the ash around my boots. Then at my face. "How many?"
"Twenty-one." I answer.
His brows draw together. "You counted?"
"Of course." I nod.
Another scream erupts from the west corridor. I turn toward it. Thorne catches my arm. Valerius's Shadowflame ignites instantly, he stares directly at Thorne. Thorne releases me. "Wait."
"Students are dying." I remind him.
"I know." Thorne nods.
"Then move." I say.
His expression hardens. "You are not a blade we point at every sound."
"I'm more effective than the professors currently failing to contain them." I say.
My mother flinches. Professor Thorne doesn't. "That may be true." Valerius turns toward him sharply. Thorne continues, "Which is why you need to understand what is happening before the sovereign heart decides efficiency means burning through the entire academy."
"I haven't harmed the building." I remind him.
"Yet." Thorne says firmly. I tilt my head. He looks tired, in pain, and afraid but not for himself... He's afraid of what I might become.
Behind him, a Veil professor is dragged to the floor by two Remnants. Green magic bursts from her hands as she screams. I erase both creatures. She scrambles backward, staring at me in shock.
Professor Thorne closes his eyes. "Valentina."
"I solved the immediate problem." I say.
"Yes." He nods.
"Then your objection is emotional." I explain.
His eyes open. "For once," he says quietly, "yes."
Another Remnant tears through the wall to my right. Valerius burns it before I can. Black fire engulfs its body, ripping it apart in a storm of shadow and red sparks. His movements are harder than usual. Angrier.
He turns on Thorne. "What do you need?"
Professor Thorne studies him. "Her to make one decision that is not based on efficiency."
Valerius's eyes flick to me. I feel the plan before he forms it. Not the details of it, I only feel the direction of it. A terrible certainty gathering beneath the mental wall he has built between us.
I look at him. "What are you thinking?"
"Nothing."
"A lie." I say.
His mouth curves faintly. "There she is."
"That phrase is becoming repetitive." I say. His smile dies. Professor Thorne watches both of us.
The alarms change, one long note becomes three sharp chimes. Luc turns from the stairwell. "South dormitory breach."
My mother goes pale. "The first-years."
Professor Vale shouts orders. Tempest professors race toward the stairs. Veil healers follow.
I begin walking. Valerius catches my hand. "Wait."
"No." I yank my hand from his.
"Valentina." He takes my hand back into his.
"There are one hundred and twelve first-year students in the south dormitory." I remind him.
His grip tightens. "You remember that?"
"I remember everything." I say.
The words still him, he knows what that means. I remember the students, the classrooms, the academy. I remember him. My memory remains perfect but my feeling remains absent.
He releases me. The south staircase is already collapsing when we reach it.
Remnants climb over the walls like insects, long limbs bending backward as they crawl.
Tempest lightning fills the stairwell in bright blue flashes, Veil magic blooms green over wounded students, Aether flames burn red against the black stone but the Remnants keep coming.
I step into the center. Cold Starfire spreads from my feet, it races over the floor in a colourless wave, touching every creature and no student. One by one, the Remnants vanish. Thirty-seven. Thirty-eight. Thirty-nine. The corridor goes silent except for crying children and falling ash.
A girl in a torn green cloak looks at me. "Thank you."
I know gratitude is appropriate. "You're welcome." The response satisfies her. It costs nothing.
Valerius stands behind me, breathing hard. He felt the absence beneath the words. Professor Thorne arrives moments later with Eli and two Tempest guards. Eli's face is bruised, lightning flickering uncontrollably around his fingers.
His eyes search the group. "Where's Seren?"
The corridor stills. He doesn't know. Professor Thorne's face changes.
Eli sees it. "No."
Thorne steps toward him. "Eli—"
"No." Luc appears at the bottom of the stairs, silent and pale. Eli looks at him. "No."
Luc says, "She died during the night."
The lightning around Eli's hands disappears. He stands there like a boy who has forgotten how bones work. Valerius shifts beside me. Thorne reaches for Eli. Eli steps back.
"She betrayed us."
The words are barely audible.
Luc nods once. "She did."
"And she's dead?" Eli asks.
"Yes." Luc nods again.
Eli laughs. It's an awful sound. "So that's it?" No one answers. "She betrays us. She helps them open the gate. She nearly cuts their bond. Then she dies before I can even ask her why?" His voice breaks.
The old Valentina would have gone to him. I remember that, I remember caring that Seren and Eli were bonded. I remember the teasing, the threats, the way she secretly softened when he was near. Now I observe a destabilized Tempest student. His grief could trigger uncontrolled lightning.
"Eli," I say. His eyes snap to mine. He looks devastated, then hopeful, as if I might say something Seren would have wanted him to hear. "Control your hands." The hope disappears. Valerius turns toward me. Eli stares. "Your magic is reacting to your grief," I continue. "There are children near you."
A spark snaps from his fingers and burns the wall. He looks down, horror passes over his face, then he closes both fists. The lightning fades. My instruction was correct. Still, everyone looks at me like I have done something cruel.
Another tremor shakes the academy. A crack opens across the south corridor floor. Pale light spills upward.
Professor Thorne swears. "Move the students!"
Professors herd the first-years toward the west hall.
Eli forces himself to help, lifting a limping boy and carrying him toward safety without looking at me again.
The floor splits fully. A Remnant rises, not like the others, he's larger.
Its shoulders scrape the walls as it unfolds from the crack.
Black chains hang from its arms, each link marked with the old-law symbol.
Its pale mouth stretches across half its faceless head, burning brighter than any creature we have seen.
The sovereign mark over my heart pulses. Valerius's matching mark answers. The Remnant turns toward him. Not me... Interesting.