Chapter 28
Seph
I was tense and I think Dev knew it.
He guided me through the building towards a back entrance.
I followed and was surprised to see he had led me to the vegetable garden out the back.
A large greenhouse sat on the property and we headed straight for it.
As we walked I saw a disgruntled looking gardener replanting a bunch of flowers in one corner.
“Ash?” I murmured.
Dev chuckled. “Who else. Come on. I want to show you this place.”
We stepped behind the greenhouse and he led me to the very back where a bench sat next to a small pond. The area was peaceful and empty.
“This is my favourite spot at Darkmoor.” He said, finally.
“It’s lovely.” I said, looking around.
“It’s also private. No one really comes here but me.” He watched me carefully. I tensed.
“Dev – “
“You promised me you would explain. So explain. I’m listening.” His voice invited no argument. And what could I say? He had seen me use my power on that monster.
At first I tried to brush it off. “Dev, I don’t know what you think happened.”
“You drained that creature dry. You withered it to a husk. That is no power I have ever seen before, Seph. Tell me the truth - You aren’t a null are you.”
It wasn’t a question, and we both knew it.
I took a deep breath and looked out over the pond. “I was told for years that I was.”
“But?”
“But.” I exhaled slowly. “My sister, Sable had an APA rating of 78 Light. Did you know that?”
Dev just stared at me. “That’s … high.”
“The highest ever recorded in my family. Even my dad, champion Light healer and council figurehead was only a 69L. So they were so proud of her. They bragged about her every chance they got.”
“Seph, what does that have to do with anything – “
I cut him off. “She could make ultra violet light from the age of 12. She was a genius. By the time she was 16, she already had offers at every university in the county.”
“Seph!”
I raised my hand. “I’m getting there. But you need to understand this. You need to realise just how exceptional she was. How impressive she was at everything she did. She was smart, kind and beautiful. She was practically perfect. So my parents assumed I would be similar.”
Dev leaned back on the bench. “But you weren’t.”
I smiled sadly. “When no powers showed up at 12, they weren’t too worried. Most people don’t start showing an affinity until 14. But still, I knew they expected it. After all we had the same parents. I had to be special too – that’s just genetics.”
“So what happened?” he asked.
“I was taken away from my peers. I was told to stay inside more. Like I was in a holding cell. Like they were waiting for me to develop and it could happen any day. But months went by – and still, I showed no progress. Nothing. I was about to be labelled a null. I was a disgrace to my family.”
“Then what?”
“Well, what happened was I finally took the test. The APA. I took it early at age 14. Because my father made me. It was like he was trying to prove something – that maybe the test had meaning. And I would do anything he needed.”
“What did the test say?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? What do you mean nothing?”
“I mean my powers made no register at all. Nothing. I had nothing.”
“But as a null you would have shown at least a 5L or D right?” Dev said.
“I’m telling you I showed nothing. Zero. I didn’t even register on the scale.”
“That’s not possible.” Dev said.
I laughed. “That’s what my father said. But he helped design the test, so it had to be right. If I didn’t register, everything our whole society was rated on would cease to exist. Because I defied category. So, he made a deal with Dr Marr.”
Dev stilled. “What kind of deal?”
“Dr Marr and my father were working on a bunch of different serums they believed could kick start someone’s polarity. In a way it would give them a chance to increase or decrease certain levels of light or dark magic. And since I was a zero, I was a clean canvas.”
“So they experimented on you.” Dev looked sick.
“Every week. Like clockwork. I would be injected with one thing or another and they would test me again to check my polarity.”
“He used you as a guinea pig?” Dev looked pale.
“It wasn’t so bad sometimes. Sometimes it would hurt, but I got used to that.
My arms were scarred and riddled with needle marks, like I was some kind of junkie.
I hated that. I hated the needles. But they would come.
Every week. And father would assure me each time – this was the one. The one that would finally fix me.”
“What did the serums do?” Dev asked quietly.
“It wasn’t until the last one that something changed. It was a new formula – something nasty. And when my father injected me with it, something changed.”
“It gave you powers.”
“Not powers, Dev. I have no powers. Not really. I wasn’t lying when I said that. No, all I can do now is take. Energy, lives, whatever. Something in me takes over. It pulls them. It empties people.”
“That’s what you did to the monster.” Dev breathed.
“When I touched him I was flooded with his very essence, as corrupt as it was. When I do what I do – the power sits in my chest, unwelcome and sickening. And I feel the life I have taken like I’m collecting souls. If I don’t expel it, it eats me alive.”
“So you’re a siphon?”
“I guess you could call me that. The truth is I don’t really know what I am now.”
“Does K know?”
“He was there all those years ago when the experiments began. But I don’t know how much he understands. I do know, the moment he caught wind of what was done to me, he ran. He was scared of me Dev. He didn’t want to be around me.”
Dev looked thoughtful. “Why didn’t you tell anyone what your father was doing to you?”
“Who would I tell, Dev? All the experiments were sanctioned by the Council of Light. As a proclaimed Null, I already had little rights. And he was my father.”
“Were you the only one he did this to? What about Sable?”
“As far as I know it was just me. Like I said, no one would dare do anything to Sable. She was the special one. The one everyone loved.”
“This is horrible. How did you live through this?”
I swallowed, looking down at my sleeves.
“How did I live through it?” I echoed quietly.
A breath shuddered out of me.
“I didn’t,” I said. “Not really.”
Dev stilled completely.
“I just… existed,” I continued. “I took whatever they did to me. I did what I was told. I shut everything down and hoped one day it would stop. That was survival. Not living.”
My voice cracked once — barely.
“And honestly?” I whispered. “Some days I wished it would kill me. Because at least then it would be over.”
Dev swallowed. “I’m so sorry Seph.”
“Hey. It’s not your fault. It is what it is. I can’t change who I am now. I can’t change what he did. All I can do is try and manage it.”
“By hiding. By pretending to be a Null.”
“Why not? Its worked so far, right?” I looked away. “Are you going to tell anyone else about this?”
Dev hesitated. “Do you want me to?”
“No. I don’t want to talk about it at all. But I can’t control what you do, Dev. You asked for an explanation and I gave it. I guess it’s in your hands now.”
“Why did you tell me all that? You don’t even really know me, Seph.”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I see you. You come across as all scary sometimes – and you are. But in your aura, I don’t know I see … kindness. Decency.”
“I’m not a good person, Seph.”
“Neither am I. It still doesn’t change anything.”
Dev’s jaw flexed once, the only sign he’d been hit by my words harder than he wanted me to see.
“…It changes one thing,” he said finally, voice low. “You trusted me with something no one else knows.”
His eyes lifted to hers — steady, unblinking, almost unnervingly honest.
“So now it’s my responsibility to protect it. And you.”
He didn’t say he’d keep the secret.
He didn’t swear loyalty.
He didn’t make promises he couldn’t keep.
He just stated a fact — the way Dev does when something becomes law inside him.
And then, after a beat, quieter:
“I won’t tell anyone. Not K. Not Ash. Not the warden. No one.”
Another pause.
“But Seph… if anything like that ever happens again — if anyone touches you, hurts you, tries to use you — you tell me. Not because I deserve it.”
His gaze flicked away for half a second, then back.
“But because you shouldn’t have to handle that alone.”
For a moment I looked at him. At Dev.
One of the scariest people at Darkmoor.
And I felt safe.
Maybe I was the strange one.
“Thank you Dev. I appreciate it.”
Across the court I heard shouting.
I looked up.
People were sprinting toward the building, panic in their steps.
I stood immediately and followed.
“What’s going on?” I called. “Not another monster, I hope?”
Dev and I pushed through the crowd funnelling into the hall.
When we stepped inside, we saw it —
a massive screen dragged out from storage, glowing in the dim room.
The news was on.
Everyone was silent.
Staring.
“Breaking news,” the reporter said, her voice tight. “Windfell has been attacked by vicious creatures in what officials are calling a potential act of biological warfare by the Equinox Front.”
The newscaster — a blonde Light-user — leaned forward at the desk, genuine fear etched across her face.
“Be advised,” she said, breath trembling. “What you’re about to see is disturbing.”
A grainy video filled the screen.
A hooded figure wearing the Liberty symbol stood beside a teenager lying in a hospital bed in the Windfell town clinic. Doctors moved frantically in the background — an ER ward mid-chaos.
The hooded person glanced around, nervous, checking for witnesses. Something small glinted in their hand.
They leaned over the girl. A syringe flashed.
The image cut — then resumed nearly an hour later as the teen began to stir.
We watched her convulse.
Her eyes bled red.
Her face twisted into something feral.
And then—
she was unleashed.
The camera jerked violently as the transformed girl blurred into motion, slamming into a doctor. A scream tore through the feed. The creature lunged—
—and the video cut off just as she reached a child.
The final frozen frame lingered:
blood smeared across her mouth.
Carrie Walker, the newscaster, reappeared on screen.
“This is the third attack of this nature in as many days. We have Council member Gideon Quinn with us now to explain what we just witnessed. Councillor?”
My father’s face filled the screen.
I automatically stepped back.
He was handsome—burnished-gold hair, gold eyes, thin studious glasses. Behind him, his lab buzzed with frantic movement.
“Hi, Carrie,” he said. “At the moment things are unclear, but from what we’ve seen, the Equinox appears to be using a type of virus on these people.”
“A virus? Does that mean it’s contagious?” Carrie asked, alarm sharpening her tone.
“Again, we’re taking every precaution to make sure it isn’t.”
“About a month ago,” she continued, “three Light users were found dead in the Trenton region with unexplained injuries. Does this virus have anything to do with that?”
My father paled.
I blinked.
“No,” he said tightly. “As far as I’m aware, this is completely unrelated. At this stage, we expect to see more attacks by the Equinox in Velithra, so please—be advised and stay away from anyone you don’t know well.”
Cutting back to Carrie, she stared through the screen. “Elliot Muir, the suspected leader of the Equinox Front, has yet to make a statement surrounding this attack, and police are asking anyone aware of his whereabouts to contact authorities immediately.”
Coach Radley strode in and turned off the TV. “Okay, that’s it. To classes, all of you!”
“But sir—” someone protested.
“Look, it’s just a bunch of scaremongering. Everyone needs to get on with their day—so chop chop!”
Dev looked through the crowds, meeting K’s gaze across the room. They exchanged a silent conversation. K’s eyes flicked to mine for a heartbeat, darkening—probably thinking of my father.
“I have to go,” Dev said suddenly, following a nod from K.
“Okay,” I said, blinking.
“Sorry, just—” He turned back, placing a hand on my arm. “Try and stay with Jess today, okay?”
“I’ll be fine, Dev.”
He hesitated, clearly torn.
“Just go,” I said flatly.
He nodded at last and followed K out.
I watched them disappear down the hall, then turned away, trying to hide my shaking fingers.
Even now, just seeing my father filled me with dread.
I rubbed my hands together through my sweatshirt sleeves as I headed to my dorm to change into my uniform. I dressed quickly and stepped back out—Jess was nowhere to be seen.
I drew a small smiley face for Echo before I left. I think she appreciated it.
A phantom brush across my shoulder made me pause, as though she sensed the heaviness in me.
For a moment, I wished Ash was around. Something about that crazy, sweet air mage had touched something in my soul. His energy was electric, bright, warm. Sometimes I wished I could just sit in it—bathe in it—just to feel… something.
Anything.
I had barely stepped into the hallway when someone blocked my path.
“Ivan?”
The big guard stared down at me.
“It’s Friday,” he said.
“But I did the test on Wednesday—”
His grip tightened on my arm.
“It’s Friday.”
I closed my eyes, fists clenching.
Goddamn Dr Marr.
“Fine,” I sighed. “Lead the way.”