Chapter 20 Lindsay
TWENTY
LINDSAY
The next morning, Professor Marris lifts her hand, fingers weaving through the air like a conductor. Glowing gold threads of magic trail behind her, shaping an intricate rune midair. The symbol pulses, then etches itself into the invisible board floating in front of the class.
“Now,” she says crisply, “this is a containment glyph. Ancient, powerful, and—when done properly—strong enough to hold most Veil creatures for at least sixty seconds. Any longer and you’re playing roulette with your soul.”
The containment glyph glows like molten gold, its lines sharp and humming with restrained force.
The outer ring is a perfect circle—unbroken, precise—encasing layers of angular runes and curved sigils that twist inward like a lock coiling into itself.
Smaller symbols orbit the central core, flickering with a pulse that almost mimics a heartbeat.
At the center, a diamond-shaped knot pulses with light, shifting subtly as if the glyph is breathing.
The magic around it vibrates, not violently, but with a tight pressure—like a storm sealed in a jar, waiting for the glass to crack.
She spins on her heel, robes fluttering, and gestures at our desks. “I’ll be testing your replications. Precision matters.”
The room hums with quiet concentration as students begin channeling magic through their quills and spell mediums. I try to focus, but the mark on my forearm itches.
Not like a rash, but like a storm pressing against the edge of my skin.
It’s been that way since last night. Even being around Raiden during Combat Casting hadn’t lessened it, not that he was very interactive today.
Beside me, Nolan glances over. “You okay?”
I nod, but my voice catches. “Yeah. Just a little…off.”
I haven’t told him about last night yet. About finding the book or Kael showing up. I’m still trying to absorb it all myself.
Professor Marris is already pacing between rows, her heels echoing like a metronome. “Focus, Miss Blake,” she says as she passes. “If your glyph falters, we’ll all feel it.”
I inhale slowly. Focus. Just draw the glyph.
I extend my fingers, pulling a thread of magic forward, mimicking the professor’s earlier motion. But the moment I connect with the magic, something tugs—hard.
A sudden pulse bursts through the air. Like something just tore.
Every rune in the room flickers. Then a thin, jagged tear opens in the corner of the ceiling, like the fabric of the world itself split wide.
Bright blue magic mixing with inky shadows seep from it. A shimmering rip in reality. The Veil.
Gasps fill the classroom. One student screams, her chair clattering back as she jumps to her feet and runs for the door.
Professor Marris turns instantly, casting a containment ward that crackles and holds, but only barely. I can see it resisting her spell. Bowing out in the middle. “Everyone out,” she barks. “Now.”
The class scrambles. But I’m frozen, staring at the breach, the way it pulses like a living wound. My mark is glowing bright white, lightning-hot against my skin. I don’t even have to think.
I move toward it.
“Lindsay!” Nolan calls behind me.
But I don’t stop. The Veil is calling, vibrating through my bones. I lift my hand. Magic pours from me without permission, a raw surge that wraps around the rip like stitches. It’s blue like what seeps from the edges flowing like electricity between me and the Veil.
A howl sounds from the other side of the breach. Something furious at what I’m doing is just on the other side. I falter—but push through, forcing more of my magic into the tear. A rush of wind tears through the classroom, and the lights dim.
My knees buckle. It’s too much. I can’t hold it, then I feel it. A connection. Not the bond with Raiden—this is different. Nolan’s hands grip my arms, steadying me. His magic flows in like grounding current, running through my body with every beat of my heart.
“I’ve got you,” he whispers, even as he shakes. “Just do what you need to do.”
With that, I throw every ounce of focus into sealing the breach. One last pulse of energy, one final surge, and it closes.
Silence falls over the room as papers float to the ground.
I drop to my knees, panting and trembling.
Nolan lowers with me, wrapping his arms around my shoulders as Professor Marris crosses the room slowly, her expression unreadable.
A few students hover near the door, stunned, halfway between fleeing and watching. No one speaks.
They saw it.
All of them.
My skin still glows faintly. Not just the mark, but all of me, like I have a light lighting me up from the inside out.
Professor Marris kneels. “That was Veil magic,” she says quietly. “And not the kind anyone should be capable of channeling alone.”
She stares at my mark. Everyone left in the room does. And I know, I’m not just Lindsay Blake, the unwanted human, anymore.
The silence doesn’t last long.
Boots strike the floor running toward the classroom. Not one set. Two.
Kael appears first, stepping through the door as if he already knew what happened. He takes in the still-flickering air, the ripped-open energy, and me, glowing like a lantern on the floor with Nolan’s arms still bracing me.
His eyes narrow.
A breath later, Raiden bursts in behind him, gaze sweeping the room until it lands on me. His entire body tenses. “What the hell—”
Kael doesn’t let him finish. “She touched the Veil again.”
“I didn’t mean to,” I whisper, the words tumbling out before I can stop them. I try to rise, but my limbs still feel like they’re made of smoke. “It just happened.”
Professor Marris stands slowly, magic still laced around her fingertips like she’s afraid something else might rupture.
“She didn’t just touch it,” she says coolly. “She sealed a breach. Stabilized it. On her own.”
Raiden’s eyes flick to her. “That’s not possible.”
Kael’s jaw tightens. “Clearly, it is.”
Nolan shifts beside me but doesn’t let go, like he’s ready to hold me together if I shatter. “She didn’t do it alone.”
Kael’s eyes flash to him, then to where Nolan’s hands are still wrapped around me.
Raiden steps forward, voice quieter now. “We need to get her out of here.”
Professor Marris doesn’t argue. She just nods once, curtly. “The headmaster has already been alerted. Go. Now.”
Kael steps forward and crouches. “Can you stand?”
“I think so,” I breathe. My legs wobble as I try, but Kael’s already there in front of me, an arm steadying me with a strength that feels both effortless and overwhelming.
Nolan rises beside me, still close. Raiden takes position on my other side.
I don’t miss the way they all stand slightly between me and the rest of the class. Like they’re shielding me.
Kael’s voice is a low growl as he meets Professor Marris’s gaze. “We’ll handle it from here.”
We step into the hallway, the door closing behind us, muffling the noise of rising whispers and hurried footsteps.
The second we’re out of view, I sag. “Everyone saw what I did.”
Kael’s face is unreadable, but his voice is low. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does,” I whisper. “It changes everything.”
Raiden doesn’t deny it. “You won’t be viewed as just a human anymore. They’ll see you as something else now.”
“Something dangerous,” Nolan adds softly.
Kael’s hand curls into a fist at his side. “Then we make sure no one touches her.”
The silence that follows is loud. That's not a promise. It's a threat. None of them miss a beat as we keep walking. Together.
And I don’t know what scares me more—the fact that they’re all suddenly united in protecting me…or the fact that I might actually need it.
I barely remember the time between class and the summoning to the Council Chambers.
One minute, I’m on my knees in the wreckage of Runic Arts, the taste of magic still burning on my tongue, and the next, I’m being led down long corridors lit with cold, flickering runes.
No one speaks. Not Kael, not Nolan, not even Raiden—though his presence hums next to mine like a live wire. The silence says everything.
I’m in trouble. Big, ancient, Council-level trouble.
The Council chamber isn’t what I expected.
Stone arches rise overhead, crisscrossed with thin veins of glowing magic.
The air smells like parchment and judgment if that has a scent.
Seven seats form a crescent at the far end of the room—five of them filled.
Professor Marris stands to the side. The headmaster sits in the center, flanked by a warlock in deep silver and a woman with silver-threaded hair and frost in her eyes. None of them smile.
I stand in the center of the room, flanked again; Nolan on one side, Raiden on the other. Kael lingers behind me like a shadow that’s just waiting for an excuse to burn the world down.
“Lindsay Blake,” the headmaster begins. “You are human, admitted under trial status for academic and magical evaluation.”
I nod, throat dry. “Yes, sir.”
He studies me for a beat, then leans forward. “You stabilized a Veil breach today. Do you have an explanation for that?”
I open my mouth. Then close it again. “I didn’t plan to. It reacted to me, and I just…acted. I didn’t want anyone to get hurt.”
A soft scoff comes from the silver-robed warlock. “And yet no tethered pair, especially a pair that isn’t together at the time of the event, could’ve managed the same feat. You expect us to believe this was instinct?”
I lift my chin. “I don’t expect anything. But it happened.”
“She’s not lying,” Nolan says quietly but firmly. “I saw it.”
“And I felt it,” Raiden adds. “There’s no question. She didn’t just stabilize it—she matched it. Balanced it.”
A murmur ripples through the Council.
“We have reason to believe this girl is a danger to herself and others,” the silver-haired woman cuts in. “We’re recommending a magical binding, for her protection and the protection of this Academy.”
“No.”
The word slices through the chamber like a blade.
Kael steps forward, the air around him shifting, pressing in. His wings and horns might be beneath a glamour, but he still radiates danger and control.
“You bind her, you break the very laws that brought her here. Someone invited her. Someone knew what she was—or at least suspected. So if you want to talk about danger, maybe start by asking who opened the gates in the first place.”
The woman narrows her eyes. “And why exactly are you speaking, demon?”
Kael’s smile is pure ice. “Because you called this a hearing, not a sentencing. And I have eyes. You should use yours.”
I stare at him, heart stuttering.
He doesn’t look at me. But I feel him standing there—unmoving, unreadable, and very, very much on my side.
The headmaster exhales slowly. “Lindsay. Is there anything you’d like to say for yourself?”
I step forward. “Just this—someone sent me an invitation. I didn’t sneak in, I didn’t lie my way through some test. The Academy called me.
If I’m such a threat, maybe ask yourselves why I was summoned here in the first place.
Maybe I'm in the right place…maybe I'm supposed to be here. Maybe you need me.”
Silence stretches.
Then the headmaster leans back, fingers steepled. “We’ll review. Dismissed.”
Just like that, it’s over.
Nolan brushes his hand against mine as we turn. Raiden falls into step on my other side, quiet but steady. Kael waits until I move, then follows like a silent echo.
None of us speak until we’ve passed beyond the Council chamber’s doors and into the empty hallway.
I glance at Kael. “You didn’t have to speak up in there.”
He doesn’t meet my eyes. “Didn’t say it for you.”
I raise an eyebrow, trying to read him. “Then why?”
He hesitates just a second too long. Then says, “Because if they’re scared of what you can do…then they should be even more scared of what happens if they try to bind you.”