Chapter 14
Kieran
I couldn’t get her out of my mind.
I’d been watching her so much, Dev thought I was losing it.
During afternoon exercise the next day, I saw her standing with Jess.
And Ash — of course Ash — hovered beside her, bouncing on the balls of his feet like a damn golden retriever in human form.
I didn’t even think he was supposed to be in this class.
Didn’t matter.
He stayed glued to her side anyway.
And Seph?
She kept… smiling at him.
Dev snorted. “Dude, if you keep looking at her like that, you’re gonna put a target on her back.”
I didn’t answer.
He didn’t need me to — Dev read people too well.
He knew what that look meant.
He knew exactly who I was watching.
He sliced a shallow cut across his own arm with one of his blades and flicked the blood into the air like paint.
It hovered, suspended, forming the shape of a wolf before dispersing in a red shimmer.
Some of the kids nearby flinched.
Others stared.
Dev stared right back, dead-eyed, daring anyone to comment.
Even Coach Radley didn’t try it.
Though he gave Dev a glare like he wanted to.
“Dev, come on. Don’t make me write you up.”
Dev just grinned. “Just practising.”
Radley blew his whistle. “Alright everyone. We’re doing sparring today to get some of that pent-up energy out of you fuck-ups. No magic on my court, you got me?”
A wave of annoyed groans rolled through the group.
Seph stepped back like someone had fired a gun.
Her eyes darted around, wild and cornered, her gloved hands tightening at her sides.
The black trackpants and oversized T-shirt didn’t hide the fact she was barely keeping herself together.
She tugged at her sweatshirt like she wished she could crawl inside it and vanish.
“Pick a partner! Or I’ll pick one for you,” Radley barked.
Beside me, Lyra kept staring at me with that desperate, hopeful look she’d perfected.
“Want to be partners, K? I’ve been practising.”
I ignored her.
She moved closer. I could almost feel her breath on my skin.
My eyes stayed on Seph.
She stepped back again—too far, too fast—until one of the guards straightened, hand drifting toward his taser like she was a flight risk.
Not on my watch.
“K?” Lyra’s manicured hand curled over my shoulder, trying to turn me toward her. “Are you listening to me? We could work together like before – “
I spun, glare sharp enough to cut.
Lyra jerked back like I’d hit her.
“I’ll take Harrin,” I said to Radley.
Relief washed over his face. “Fine. She’s new. So go easy.”
“Yes, sir.”
I stepped toward her.
Her whole body locked—like a trap snapping shut around her.
Good.
She remembered what happened the last time we were alone.
But she didn’t run.
And that was somehow worse.
“I can’t do this,” she muttered.
“Seph—”
“Coach Radley!”
Dr. Marr’s voice cracked across the quad like ice water.
I turned and scowled as he approached, walking fast, lab coat slicing the air behind him.
“Might I have a word about Miss Harrin?” Marr asked, too smooth, too polite.
Seph went white. Wide-eyed. Terrified.
I stepped closer before she could even breathe wrong.
Ash was right.
I could smell her now—vanilla, cinnamon, winter.
Her shoulders tightened the second she felt me behind her.
She closed her eyes like she was bracing for impact.
“Seph… are you OK?”
She laughed. Not real laughter—something cracked and sharp.
“Am I OK? Sure. I’m… super. How about you?”
“Seph, please.”
“What do you want, Kieran?” she whispered.
“K,” I corrected automatically.
She spun. Glared at me—eyes sharp, hurt bleeding through every line of her face.
“What do you want?”
“To talk to you. To—”
Fuck.
“I don’t know. Explain a few things.”
She swallowed, nodding once, like she’d just made a decision that cost her a piece of herself.
“You want to explain?”
“Yes. I feel like… like you don’t understand some things.”
“You’re right, K. I don’t understand.”
Her voice cracked, just once.
“I don’t understand how the boy I used to look for every day—the boy who was my friend, my best friend—could leave. Could just… discard me. Like I was nothing. Can you explain that?”
“My leaving had nothing to do with you, Seph. I had things I needed to do.”
She laughed again and shook her head. “Now that, I knew.”
“Seph—”
“Sable is dead.”
The words hit like a punch to the chest.
My world tilted.
I stepped back without meaning to.
She nodded, like she’d expected that reaction. Like she’d rehearsed it.
“What happened to her?” The words scraped out of my throat.
“They said I killed her.”
“What? Who said that? When?” I demanded.
She forced a small smile—thin, joyless, devastating.
It broke something in me.
“It doesn’t matter who said it. It was my fault. I didn’t mean to…”
She looked away, voice barely a breath.
“So you don’t have to talk to me,” she whispered.
“You don’t have to pretend anymore.”
“You don’t have to feel sorry for me.”
A beat.
“You can hate me now.”
Her chest rose, shaking.
“God knows I hated you.”
“Seph—”
Her eyes were glassy, haunted, so full of pain I could barely breathe.
“Harrin! You’re excused to go with Dr. Marr,” Radley yelled.
She flinched—not at Radley, but at him.
Marr’s attention snapped to her like a magnet finding metal.
That small smile—clinical, satisfied—made my blood run cold.
He extended a hand.
She ignored it, but she still followed him.
Too obedient.
Too resigned.
Too used to being told what to do.
Dev had Ash in a chokehold, but Ash looked wild, feral, thrumming with agitation—eyes locked on Seph like he might tear free and chase her.
Sable is dead.
The words hammered through me again.
Fuck.
I turned to Dev, who had heard every word, understood more than he let on.
“Do we have comms with Elliot?” I muttered.
“I believe so.”
“I need to make a call. Cover for me.”
“Yes, sir,” Dev said immediately.
Even Ash—still half-restrained—looked over at me with a flicker of something like concern. Or suspicion. Hard to tell with him.
“What’s going on?” Ash asked.
Before Dev could answer—
Ash rolled his shoulders, twisted, and effortlessly flipped Dev over his own back.
Dev hit the ground hard.
Ash dropped an elbow into his stomach for good measure, laughing like a maniac.
“Goddamn it—ASH!” Dev wheezed, gasping for breath.
Ash just grinned, hair wild, mismatched eyes shining.
But when he glanced back toward the building where Seph had vanished with Marr…
the grin cracked.
“I don’t like him taking her,” he muttered.
Neither did I.
I turned away before he could look too closely at my face.
“Keep him here,” I ordered.
Dev groaned. “You try keeping him here.”
But his eyes stayed fixed on the doors Seph had disappeared through.
Mine did too.
I knew why I was here.
I knew what I was supposed to do.
But in that moment, I could’ve thrown it all away.
Because a single thought pulsed like a warning beneath my skin:
If Marr crosses the line — if he does anything more than observe, test, prod — I’m going to kill him.