Chapter 5 #2
Figures cloaked in shadow, forms half-formed and flickering, like the space itself is struggling to contain them.
A strangled whisper cuts through the crowd. “Wraith hounds.”
I don’t know what they are. I don’t need to. Every instinct in me recognizes the threat. The room erupts in chaos as students run for the stairs, attempting to escape.
The pull intensifies. My breath locks. The hum beneath my skin spikes. Magic, not controlled, not shaped, just raw energy, swells inside of me, pushing higher with every heartbeat.
And the creatures turn. Not toward the duel. Not toward the fleeing Bloods or Fangs or Veil mages.
Toward me.
Eyes like smoldering coals blink open in the dark, locking on my position. The nearest one flows closer, tendrils of shadow trailing across the floor. It’s almost like the shadows in my apartment, the one that burned my ankle. My heart lodges itself in my throat as I back away.
Tamsin swears sharply and grabs my arm. “We need to—”
But the words vanish as the first Wraith hound lunges. Shadow coils stretch toward me, cold and sharp as blades. My feet won’t move. My breath won’t come.
Then something shifts. A sudden rush of air. The faint scent of smoke and metal. And a figure steps between me and the creature in a fast, controlled, casual way that shouldn’t be possible.
A long black coat sweeps through the shadows. Gloved hand raised, runes flickering at his fingertips as he casts a spell.
I know that coat.
Recognition hits low in my gut.
It’s him. Kael.
The man from the portal. From my apartment. He moves like this is nothing. Like the threat barely registers.
A flick of his hand, and the Wraith hound’s strike scatters mid-air, the creature stumbling back with a shriek.
Then he says dryly, “You’re really making a name for yourself, little human.”
The confirmation sends a sharper jolt through me. It is him. He turns, slicing through another lunging shadow with casual precision. Blade flashing once, then gone.
“Took less than a day to cause this kind of mess,” he adds, almost bored. “Impressive.”
I can’t answer. The hum in my chest is a roar now, pressure building, too fast.
He glances at me, eyes narrowing slightly, voice flattening. “You need to get it under control.”
I can’t. The magic claws at my skin, rushing higher, no shape, no focus.
This isn’t like before. Not like with Raiden in the training room. That was frustration and sparks. This is... something else. Bigger. Deeper. Like it thinks I’m going to die, and it’s not planning to let that happen.
Tamsin shouts something I can’t hear. Another Wraith hound coils to strike. The pressure breaks.
Blinding force explodes outward.
A wave of raw energy tears through the chamber, shredding the shadows mid-air. The Wraith hounds vanish, unraveling with a final, echoing shriek. The crowd stumbles back, voices rising in shock.
I drop to my knees, gasping. Fire races along my skin as glowing lines wrap around my fingers, coiling up my wrist, searing into my arm. I clutch it, breath ragged, skin hot.
I push up my sleeve, tears burning my eyes. A black line snakes up my fingers, over the back of my hand and around my wrist all the way up to my elbow. Intricate and glowing. It burns.
The chamber falls silent. Tamsin drops down next to me, gently taking my unmarked hand in hers. Kael watches me, unreadable.
“Well,” he says softly. “That answers that.”
Tamsin squeezes my hand. “Linds...breathe. You’re okay.”
I’m not sure that’s true. My heart is still slamming against my ribs. My skin feels too hot, too tight. The mark still glows faintly, even as the worst of the burn eases.
Around us, the crowd is frozen. Then the whispers start, because talking about other people is obviously their favorite pastime.
Boots scrape across the stone. Kael steps closer, gaze pinned on me. No sympathy. No surprise. Only cold calculation.
He glances at the mark. “Didn’t think it would surface like this,” he mutters.
“Well,” he says again, louder this time, pitched for the crowd to hear. “Looks like the little human isn’t so harmless after all.”
The words snap through the stunned silence like a whip. A few answering growls from the Fang. Heated whispers among the witches and warlocks. But their words fade into the background.
Tamsin bristles beside me. “Shut it, Kael.”
He doesn’t look at her. His attention is still locked on me.
“You’re coming with me.”
The tone leaves no room for argument. Not a request. Not even a threat. A simple fact.
Tamsin shifts protectively, half between us. “Like hell she is. She just—”
Kael cuts her off with a look.
“Stay here and let the Bloods tear her apart, then. I’m sure having a reason to take out the human is all they need,” he says mildly. “Or let the Council get wind of what just happened down here. See how long she lasts.”
My stomach twists. The crowd is already starting to close in, voices becoming vicious. Too many stares on me. On the black mark.
Kael holds out a hand. “Choice is yours, little human,” he says, the word slow like it doesn’t quite fit. “But move. Now.”
The way he says it—human—makes something cold slither down my spine. Like it’s a placeholder. Because I don’t know what I am, but it definitely isn’t human. I can count on a single hand how many humans have magical outburst power…and that’d be none.
My pulse pounds in my ears, hands trembling, breath ragged. I can feel every stare on me. Every whisper curling in the air. For half a second, I hesitate, then instinct wins.
There’s something in the way he says it. Like he knows more than he’s letting on. Like “human” is a lie he’s not ready to correct. Maybe that’s why I reach for his hand. Maybe it’s not just instinct—it’s the chance that he has answers.
I place my hand in his.
The leather of his glove is cool, impersonal. Without a word, he tugs me smoothly to my feet.
The crowd parts around us as he starts moving, slow and deliberate, as if none of this touches him. Like this is all beneath him. Tamsin rises too, tense, but Kael doesn’t even glance back.
“All eyes on you now,” he says quietly, dry enough to scrape bone. “Quite the mess you’ve made.”
The words cut through the swirl of panic, grounding me more than I want to admit. I stumble once, but his grip steadies me, unflinching. He doesn’t slow. Doesn’t look back.
Kael moves through the crowd with the same effortless control he showed when he appeared. His grip on my hand is firm but not harsh, steadying me as I force my legs to cooperate. My heart is still racing, but the weight of so many stares presses harder than the lingering hum of magic.
No one steps in our way. They part around him instinctively, tension crackling in the air.
I catch fragments of faces as we pass—Bloods with narrowed eyes, Bone witches whispering behind their hands, Fangs leaning forward, sharp smiles curling. I spot Auron near one of the pillars, gaze cutting through me, a cold smirk on his mouth.
Kael doesn’t acknowledge any of them. He walks like none of this touches him, like this entire place answers to him alone.
At the glamoured stairwell, he releases my hand long enough to trace the sigil. The hidden door shimmers open. Without a glance back, he steps through.
I hesitate, breath tight, then follow. The stairwell feels narrower than before, the stone railing cold under my fingers as we climb. The burn of the mark along my arm hasn’t eased, but I keep moving.
When we reach the top, the cool night air hits hard. Stars gleam faintly through thin clouds. For a moment, it’s almost easy to forget what waits below, until Kael speaks.
“You’ve attracted more attention than you can handle,” he says flatly. “Try not to make it worse before morning.”
I open my mouth, no idea what I even mean to say, but he’s already turning from the tower’s shadow. His pace is quick, clipped, no hesitation in his stride.
"Come on," he says, without looking back. "You’re not done yet."
I follow. I don’t have a choice.
The mark still burns, the hum under my skin not entirely gone. I want to ask what it means—what I am. But I’m not even sure he’d answer. Or worse, that I’d want to know.
And every step away from the Undercourt drives one truth deeper: whatever just happened down there…it won’t be ignored. Especially by any of the houses.