Chapter 7 – — Triage of the Damned, Professor Bale Field Doctrine
Chapter Seven
“The crawlers and twisted creatures who emerge from the fissures exhibit violent instinct, distorted anatomy, and nonviable organ systems. Specimen recovery is secondary. Allied survival is absolute.”
— Triage of the Damned, Professor Bale Field Doctrine
Jace.
The name forms in my head before my lips can shape it, and my chest constricts so sharply it almost hurts.
He stares at me like he’s seeing a ghost.
My eyes burn, but I blink hard, refusing to let the tears spill as Jace is suddenly here, arms wrapping around me, lifting me clean off the ground in a fierce, familiar hug.
His warmth and sweet scent anchor me in a way nothing else here has managed to.
He always smells so sweet, no matter how long he’s away from his parents’ bakery.
I swear he still smells like cinnamon and sugar.
“Maelis, it’s really you.” He sets me back on my feet but doesn’t let go, hands sliding up to cup my face as his gaze drags over me. “How are you here? How is this possible?”
I shake my head, a breathless huff slipping out. “I have no idea, honestly.”
Movement in my peripheral pulls my attention, and I realize Lux and Ellavee have stopped a few steps away, openly watching us. Heat creeps into my cheeks.
“This is Lux,” I say quickly, gesturing between them. “And Ellavee. They’re bone years too.”
Jace gives them a distracted nod, eyes already drifting back to me like he’s afraid I might vanish if he looks away for too long.
“Come back to my dorm,” I add, clutching his sleeve. “We need to talk.”
We go back to my room, and I tell him everything.
“I can’t believe the headmaster said those things to you,” Jace says, lying beside me on the bed. “But more than that, I still can’t believe we’re both at Ashwell Academy.”
“I know,” I murmur. “Gods, I’m so thankful you’re here.”
I squeeze him tighter, my head resting on his chest, arm draped over his torso.
“Hey,” he says gently, “it looks like you already made friends.”
I scoff, “Lux seems nice enough. Ellavee…we barely had time to say two words to each other.”
He chuckles under his breath.
“I hope my mom and sister aren’t worried about me,” I add. “I didn’t get to say goodbye or pack. I didn’t get to explain anything.”
“That part’s strange, being taken so suddenly like that. Maybe they handled things differently because you’re human. My parents would have been pissed if I didn’t get to tell them where I was going and say goodbye.”
His hand trails slowly up and down my back, steady and warm, and I could fall asleep like this.
But I haven’t eaten much of anything today, and I promised Lux I’d go with her to the descent tonight. It’s some kind of party down in one of the basements, put on by blood and breath years to welcome the new students before classes start tomorrow.
I don’t much feel like going to a party in some creepy basement the night before I have to wake up early and take what will probably be some of the most demanding classes anyone has ever taken.
But I also don’t want to start my time here by not making friends.
It’s already going to be hard enough for me to fit in, given the obvious, so I’ll at least make an appearance and hopefully meet a few more people. It’s too much to think about, and I want to clear my mind, eyes fluttering closed.
Shit.
I jolt upright at the knock, the movement nearly tangling me in the blankets as Jace stirs beside me with a groan. For a second, I’m disoriented, heart thudding, then memory rushes back all at once. The orientation. Lux. The descent.
I glance at the dark window.
My eyes snap to the clock on the wall.
Half past nine.
“Oh no,” I mutter, scrambling out of bed and nearly tripping over my own feet as I cross the room and yank open the door.
Lux stands in the hallway, perfectly awake and infuriatingly put together, her gaze sweeping over me. I’m still wearing the sweater and pants I pulled on earlier, hair slightly mussed, face bare except for lip balm.
“Are you planning on going like that?” she asks.
She’s wearing a long, flowing blue dress that brushes her ankles, paired with a light-pink corset that matches her hair almost exactly. Soft, delicate, and somehow still dangerous in that effortless fae way.
“I didn’t realize it was that kind of party,” I say, glancing back at Jace, who’s sitting up on my bed and rubbing his face.
“I’ll be right back,” Lux says, already turning on her heels.
I leave the door open and hurry toward the bathroom. I can’t believe we fell asleep.
“I’m gonna go change,” Jace says behind me. “I’ll meet you guys there.”
I hear his footsteps fade down the hall as I step inside and start pulling open drawers, expecting to find nothing useful, but I see some of my things from home are here.
I smooth on my shiny lip balm and darken my lashes then turn as Lux reappears in the doorway.
“Here,” she says, thrusting a garment into my hands. “Put this on.”
I change quickly, slipping into a short black dress with long sleeves made of sheer lace that hugs my arms and dips low enough at the neckline to make me feel painfully aware of my own body. It’s like nothing I would find back home.
When I look in the mirror, I barely recognize myself.
“You look great,” she says, beaming.
“Thank you,” I reply, meaning it. “So do you.”
I slip on my black loafers then edge toward the doorway and peer into the hall, half expecting to see other students.
“Is Ellavee coming with us?”
Lux shrugs, looping her arm through mine as we step out. “She hit it off with some guy and might show up later, but she was heading to his dorm first.”
Hope that guy knows he’s about to hop into bed with a demon.
We trek clear across the campus, Lux guiding us through enclosed passageways, heated corridors, and narrow connecting halls that feel like veins running through the mountain. Eventually, we’re forced outside, the cold slamming into us the second we step through an exterior door.
Neither of us brought jackets.
We break into a jog, shoes crunching over snow as we race for the next building, breath puffing white in the air. By the time Lux shoves open the heavy doors ahead of us, my fingers are numb, and my cheeks burn.
The warmth almost feels painful against my frozen skin.
“This should be it,” Lux says, lowering her voice as she leads us past the main entry and toward the back of what seems to be a medical building.
We slip through another door and into a narrow stairwell spiraling downward, the light dimmer here, the air cooler and strangely still. The deeper we go, the quieter everything becomes, the distant hum of the campus fading.
“What’s this clinical hall used for anyway?” I ask, peering around, trying to reconcile this eerie silence with the idea of a party happening somewhere below us.
Lux glances over her shoulder. “The ten floors above us are patient wards. Surgical amphitheaters too.”
I snap my head toward her. “Ashwell has real patients? Like an actual clinic?”
She nods, smirking at me as if this is common knowledge.
“Anyone who can’t afford treatment or can’t be cured anywhere else eventually finds their way here.
People get desperate enough to let students practice on them in exchange for a chance at living.
If they’re lucky, a Veilguard might take their case. ”
We reach the bottom of the stairs and step into a long, narrow corridor that stretches through the basement, lit by widely spaced sconces casting weak pools of amber light across the low ceiling.
We turn the corner and catch sight of two men slipping through a large metal door at the end of the corridor.
The moment it opens, a swell of voices pours into the hall, carrying with it a wave of warmth and purple hues.
Lux and I exchange quick grins before breaking into a light jog.
I was beginning to think the party wasn’t real.
We spill through the doorway and straight into heat, noise, and motion.
The basement cavern opens wide, its ceiling vaulted high above us and ribbed with exposed beams. Clusters of flickering orbs drift near the ceiling, casting the space in shades of purple and soft shadows that slide over stone and skin alike.
“Those are fae lights,” Lux says, nudging my shoulder.
I glance up again, watching the floating glow sway gently overhead as we weave deeper into the crowd. Purple must be intentional to celebrate bone year students’ arrival.
I spot a long wooden table buried beneath trays of bread, sliced meat, fruit, and hunks of cheese and remember with a wince that I slept straight through dinner. I snag a couple pieces of cheese as we pass, barely slowing, and shove them into my mouth, chewing fast while trying not to look feral.
A brunette man on my left laughs. “Rough first day?”
“You have no idea,” I mumble around a mouthful.
“Want to tell me about it?”
I turn toward him. He has dark-golden eyes and a stubbled jaw, the kind of face that looks better the longer you stare at it. There’s something about him that pulls at my attention, though I can’t quite place why.
“If I start listing everything, are you offering sympathy…or a distraction?”
One corner of his mouth lifts, his gaze flicking briefly to my lips before meeting mine again. “Definitely a distraction,” he says. “Sympathy costs extra.”
I laugh through my nose. “Bold strategy, considering you don’t even know my name.”
His eyes drift over my face then drops lower as he checks me out. “Mystery keeps things interesting.”
I roll my eyes, but Lux has disappeared into the crowd, and I decide to play along.
“What are you drinking?” I ask, nodding toward his glass.
He runs his tongue over his bottom lip before smirking. “Oh, you don’t want this, Red. But I think I can find something you’ll like.”
This guy must think he’s real cute, already handing out pet names.
I let him lead me toward the drink cart anyway. He grabs one of the premixed bottles, pours into a narrow glass, and passes it to me. The liquid looks clear, though it’s hard to tell under the purple glow drifting through the cavern.
He steers me toward one of the tall standing tables tucked into a back corner where the noise dulls.
I lift the glass, take a sip, and immediately regret my life choices. I cough, bringing the glass away from my mouth. Whatever it is burns straight down.
He grins like he was waiting for that.
“Strong,” I manage, setting the glass on the table between us.
“Builds character,” he says, taking an easy swallow of his own.
I squint at him. “So…what year are you?”
“Blood.”
Of course he is.
“You have any advice for surviving my bone year?” I ask mostly out of obligation, my attention drifting across the room.
It catches on the man from the courtyard earlier, the one with the massive black wolf.
He’s posted in a shadowed corner, shoulder to the wall, drink loose in his hand.
Those honey-gold eyes don’t blink as they lock onto mine.
I hold the stare a second too long.
“Oh, Red,” the guy beside me says, leaning in, “I’ll give you all the tips you want…from my room tonight.” His mouth curves as his hand drops lower, gripping his crotch. “Got a pretty good one waiting for you here.”
Disgusting. Any interest I might’ve had dies instantly.
“I’ll pass,” I say, stepping away from the table.
He catches my waist, fingers digging in enough to make it clear he’s not giving up. “Don’t be rude. We were having a conversation.”
I look up then look down at his hand.
“Don’t touch me,” I say evenly. “I don’t have anything else to say to you, or your tiny tip.”
I peel his hand off, glance at him once for emphasis, then turn and walk away.
“You don’t want to make an enemy out of me, Red,” he calls.
I don’t look back. Guess I made my first enemy.
So far, Ashwell has a headmaster who seems determined to break me and a blood year with a sense of entitlement and boundary issues. Fun.
I head back to the food table, grab a few more pieces of cheese, and shove them into my mouth. As I scan the room, a flash of light pink catches my eye.
I make a beeline for Lux.
“It’s supposed to be some kind of test,” a girl with black wings and violet eyes says from across the table, “an early way to see who’s going to cut it and who’s going to choke. The upperclassmen spend the party sizing everyone up and taking bets.”
“I heard the professors are even in on it,” another girl adds, this one with short dark hair and a scar across her chin. Her eyes slide to Lux. “Didn’t your father tell you anything? He had to have given you a little advantage.”
“What are you talking about?” I cut in.
“These two think tonight’s some kind of test for first years,” Lux says lightly, though her grip on her glass tightens.
If so, I’m glad I only had one sip of that awful drink earlier.
“What kind of test? Not all the bone years even came tonight.” I scan the crowd, counting quickly. “Maybe half of them.”
The girl with violet eyes shrugs, her wings shifting subtly against her back. “That makes it easier.”
“Come on,” Lux says, looping her arm through mine and steering us away from the table. “If they’re right, I probably shouldn’t indulge any more than I already have.” She sets her glass on a stone ledge as we stop near the wall.
My attention drifts again to the corner of the room. The guy with the man bun and honey-gold eyes still leans against the wall, scrutinizing the crowd. His eyes lift to mine, catching me looking.
“Hey,” I say quietly, nodding in his direction, “do you know who that is?”
Lux glances over my shoulder and snorts. “That’s Draven Alucard. He’s hot, he’s a vampire, and he’s a complete dick. Don’t waste your time.”
I look back at him, curiosity prickling. “How do you know him?”
Her smile turns sharp. “You like him.”
“No,” I say quickly, clearing my throat, “ I saw him in the courtyard earlier. He had a massive wolf with him that nearly took my head off.”
Lux’s expression shifts. “Yeah, I heard his father is high up at one of the other academies, Vanguard War Academy in the Shadowlands.”
I blink. “There are other academies?”
“Well, not like Ashwell,” she says. “This is the only healing academy, the only core-driven current one too. The others specialize in other things.”
“Like what?”
She leans back against the wall, fingers adjusting the laces of her corset. “War, hunting, law, exploration, things like that, but Ashwell’s considered superior.”
The fae lights overhead flicker, shifting abruptly from violet to stark white. The sudden brightness kills off any last conversations. The asshole blood year guy from earlier climbs onto a chair near the center or the cavern, drawing every eye in the room.
“For those of you who don’t know me,” he says, voice carrying easily over the sudden hush, “I’m Malric. I’ll be your official orchestrator of this year’s initiation.”
A ripple of low murmurs spreads through the crowd. Malric basks in the attention. His gaze sweeps the room slowly until it lands on me. A wicked smile curls across his face, and my throat tightens.
“Bone years,” he declares, “your assessment starts now.”