Evie
The door slams open so hard it cracks against the wall, and I jolt upright in bed, fire prickling along my fingertips as I map the thermal signatures of the intruders.
One burns with controlled authority, a steady heat that never wavers. The other is warm with cooler fractures running through it, like cracks in a heated stone.
Headmistress Constance Holbrook’s silver-streaked hair is pulled back in its usual severe style, and Tobias Cane looms like a shadow behind her, his pale blue eyes looking everywhere but at me.
“Evangeline Thorne,” Constance says, her voice sharp. “Get up. Now.”
I scramble out of bed, suddenly very aware that I’m wearing an oversized t-shirt and shorts covered in tiny book patterns. Not exactly the attire one wants when facing the Headmistress and a Council interrogator.
“What’s going on?” I glance at Jade’s bed automatically. It’s still empty, made, and untouched.
Even if the party ran late, she should be back by now. It’s—
I check the clock. 9:47 AM.
“That’s what we’re here to discuss.” Constance steps further into the room, her eyes scanning every surface. “Tobias will be exploring your memories to determine what you know about your roommate’s recent activities.”
Activities.
The training sessions with Logan.
My heart stutters.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The lie sounds unconvincing, even to me. I’ve never been good at deception. My face gives everything away, my voice goes too high, and my hands start fidgeting with whatever’s closest.
Right now, that’s the hem of my sleep shirt.
I force my hands to my sides.
Constance’s eyes narrow. “Last night, your roommate revealed a unique ability that poses a threat to everyone on this island.”
I shake my head, genuinely confused. “Jade can barely maintain a flame for more than a minute.”
“I’m not referring to fire.” She steps closer. “I’m referring to her lightning.”
“Lightning?” The word comes out blank. “That’s not possible.”
But is it? When we were battling the Hydra, I thought I saw webs of electricity around the sword Jade threw into the Hydra’s mouth. I waved it off as a trick of the light and haven’t thought about it since, but now…
“Jade pulled lightning from the sky in front of over forty witnesses,” Constance says. “She used this ability to kill a swarm of hellhounds that attacked the party, and then she disappeared.”
The room tilts.
Hellhounds. Lightning. Forty witnesses. Disappeared.
“I didn’t know,” I force out, desperate for them to believe me. “I swear, I had no idea about any lightning magic.”
Tobias calls small golden flames to his fingertips.
“Would you be okay with me verifying that?” he asks, swallowing as if he enjoys this as much as I do.
Meaning, he doesn’t enjoy it at all. “I’m always as minimally invasive as possible.
During your initial interrogation session, I only examined the events of Halloween night.
Now, I promise to only search for memories related to Jade. ”
I should invoke student rights. There’s a section of the Blaze Academy handbook that states students can’t be forced to undergo magical examination without... Council approval. Which they already have, since Tobias is Council.
“Fine.” I force myself to hold still as Tobias steps closer, his movements careful, almost apologetic.
He presses his fingers to my temples, and the sensation is unpleasant, just like when he searched me after Halloween. It’s like he’s pushing through my thoughts, digging into places no one should have the right to occupy.
Then, finally, the magic withdraws.
“Thank you.” He nods, gives me a small, relieved smile, and turns his attention back to Constance. “She’s telling the truth. She had no knowledge of Jade’s lightning abilities.”
Constance’s posture relaxes a fraction.
My mind’s already spinning, sorting through everything I’ve ever read about magical abilities. It immediately stops on the old texts. The really old texts. The ones Father keeps locked in his private study.
I read those texts anyway.
Divine intervention. Gods and goddesses choosing mortal champions. Gifting them with powers beyond magical inheritance.
There are two deities in the known pantheon associated with lightning.
First: Zeus, the king of the gods, who hasn’t interfered with the mortal realm in centuries.
Second: Tempest, the Storm Goddess. All sources state that she’s wild and unpredictable.
“My pilot’s name is T,” Jade said once. “She’s kind of weird. Not really the pilot type.”
T.
Tempest.
“Where’s Jade now?” My focus goes from Constance, to Tobias, and back again.
Constance’s eyes narrow. “That’s what we’re trying to determine. In the meantime, all students are confined to their dormitories until further notice. Council members are patrolling the perimeter. We’re doing everything we can to locate Jade before she causes any more damage.”
Damage.
The word barely computes.
How could Jade Harrington cause damage?
“Tobias,” Constance says, cutting through my racing thoughts. “Wait outside. I need to speak with Evangeline privately.”
Tobias hesitates, but Constance glares at him, stopping him from saying anything more. He gives me one last apologetic look before stepping into the hallway and closing the door behind him.
The silence that follows is heavy.
“Before you hear it from anyone else, there’s something else you need to know,” Constance says, quieter now.
A ball of anxiety forms in my throat. “What?”
“The hellhound attack last night resulted in casualties.” She pauses. “Several students were killed.”
The words hang there—meaningless sounds that won’t arrange themselves into anything I can use.
“Who?”
“Elizabeth Bradley.” Another pause. “Deidre Mitchell.”
Elizabeth. The quiet girl with the too-big sweaters who sat in the back of every class. Deidre, who organized study groups and led nearly every club on Blaze’s campus.
She keeps going. Gabriel Dumont. Caleb Chen. Francis Willingham. Names from my year, faces I sat beside in lectures. Deacon Park and Leo Martinez—third-years. Then more. Name after name after name, until the words blur into a single horrible sound and my brain stops matching them to faces.
Constance’s tone softens. “Sam Reeves.”
I blink a few times, unable to see straight.
Sam studied with me for our Pyropsychology exam last week.
He rambled about mythological creatures when he was nervous, made terrible jokes, and once spent an entire afternoon organizing notes with me in the library because he said it was “oddly soothing.” He was part of the group I fought with in the Hydra Trial, and he thought he was far better with a sword than he actually was.
“No.” The word tears out of me.
“I’m sorry.” Constance sounds far away, like her voice is coming from the end of a long hallway.
I dig my nails into my palms. The pain is concrete and grounding, exactly like Kieran taught me when he held his blade to my neck.
“How?” The question scrapes out of my throat.
“The details aren’t important right now.”
“They’re important to me.”
Constance hesitates. “A hellhound inside the caves.”
Inside the caves. It must have been before Jade did whatever Constance said she did—pulled lightning from the sky.
What else has Jade been hiding?
She’s been acting stranger than usual since Halloween. She flinches whenever Oliver’s name comes up. She avoids my eyes when I talk about finding him.
She was out in the storm during the Halloween Ball.
She said she needed to go outside to get air and that she got turned around in the storm.
Jade tends to get turned around while going anywhere, but someone with lightning magic being outside when a thunderstorm hits is absolutely not a coincidence.
“I need to be alone,” I say, but the words feel disconnected, like they’re coming from someone else.
Whatever Constance sees in my face must convince her, because she nods and moves to the door.
“All students are confined to their dormitories until further notice,” she reminds me. “The common room’s accessible, but you are not to leave under any circumstances.”
“Understood.”
“If Jade contacts you, let me know immediately.”
“I will.”
She gives me another long look, and then she’s gone, the door clicking shut behind her.
I sit on my bed and stare at Jade’s empty pillow.
Sam’s dead. Elizabeth’s dead. Deidre’s dead. So many others are dead.
My brother’s missing.
Jade’s been lying to me for weeks.
But Logan’s been training her. The percentage chance that he spent all those hours training her and never saw a spark of her supposed lightning magic is slim to none. Which means Logan Ashford has answers.
Stop. Organize. Prioritize.
I take a breath, then another.
Step one: Go to Kieran. He can move freely throughout the academy. He’ll know how to reach Logan without raising suspicion.
Step two: Talk to Logan.
Step three: Find Jade. Get the truth from her about the lightning, about Oliver, about everything.
Steps four through six: locate the boats, get off this island, and find my brother.