CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR #2
The door slammed open, and Ember barged in like a localized thunderstorm.
She didn't say a word.
She didn't say a word. She just paced across the rug, boots thudding while her fingers raked through her auburn hair like she wanted to tear the thoughts straight out of her skull.
Luna padded in behind her, took one look at the frantic energy, and let out a long, deeply unimpressed huff before flopping down by the balcony doors.
Aether lifted his head from the corner, his golden eyes tracking her. "She is going to burn a hole through your carpet," he observed dryly.
I watched Ember turn—pace—turn again.
“Do you want to tell me what you’re doing,” I asked carefully, “or should I start budgeting for fire damage?”
She stopped mid-step and glared at the floor. Then, with a groan of pure Ember-drama, she flopped backward across my bed, grabbed a throw pillow, and hurled it at my head.
"Ember," I warned, catching it.
She peeked out from beneath a curtain of messy hair, and that's when I saw it. Her green eyes weren't sharp or defiant.
They were shaken.
"I wanted to end things with him," she muttered into the mattress.
I stilled. "With Ezra?"
She nodded once, hugging a second pillow to her chest. "Because I'm falling for him."
The words landed heavy in the room.
"And that scared you," I said softly.
"It terrified me," she snapped, then immediately deflated.
"He told me he doesn't want to hook up with anyone else. Like… at all. He wants to try. Properly."
My brows lifted.
For Ezra, that was fucking monumental.
"And I freaked out. Obviously. You know me, Ava. I don't keep males around. I don’t give them the chance to hurt me. I leave first.”
There it was. Fear, not fire.
"I almost told him we should end it," she continued, her voice tight. "Keep it casual. No expectations. But he just looked at me like…" She swallowed hard. "Like I mattered."
I moved to sit beside her on the edge of the bed, nudging her shoulder with mine.
"Sometimes the right person comes along," I said quietly, thinking of a pair of silver eyes and the way they looked at me in the dark. "And that's the scariest thing in the world. Because they don't feel temporary. They feel… real."
Luna cracked one eye open and gave a low, approving rumble. Ember let out a shaky breath, staring up at the ceiling.
"I don't want my heart broken," she admitted, her voice smaller than I'd ever heard it.
Something protective sharpened inside me.
I turned toward her fully, taking her chin between my fingers so she had to look at me.
"If he hurts you," I said with absolute, chilling calm, "I will burn him to ash."
Ember's mouth twitched, her eyes suspiciously bright. "I hate that I care this much," she muttered, rolling her eyes, though the fight had finally left her shoulders.
"That means it matters."
"Fine," she said, sitting up. "I won't sabotage it. Yet."
"Good. Because if he breaks your heart, there won't be enough of him left to apologize."
"We would enjoy that," Aether added smoothly.
Her eyes suddenly gleamed with that familiar, wicked light. "And what about you and Daddy Darkness?" Her eyebrows wiggled suggestively. "I can smell him all over this room."
I groaned and threw the pillow back at her.
"I told him I love him."
Ember froze.
“And?”
“He said it back.”
Ember's jaw physically dropped.
"Ava!" She launched at me, wrapping me in a bone-crushing hug that smelled like woodsmoke and expensive perfume.
When she pulled back, her hands clamped onto my arms.
"I am so gods-damned happy for you."
Her joy cracked something warm and fragile open in my chest.
But then her expression shifted, reality creeping back in.
"What?" I asked, bracing myself.
She winced. "This is going to be a scandal, Ava. The betrothal to Jeremy. Your father. The court… it's going to be a bloodbath."
Panic clawed up my spine. My chest tightened. The Flame Festival. The library. My father. The broken betrothal.
"I know," I breathed. For half a second, the magnitude of it threatened to swallow me whole.
But Ember saw it. Like always, she snapped her grin back into place.
"Then we're not thinking about that tonight," she declared, standing up and smoothing out her own uniform. "Tonight we are cheering our asses off and getting irresponsibly drunk."
A laugh burst out of me despite the panic still coiled in my ribs. "Fuck yes."
Luna barked once in approval.
"Terrible decision-making," Aether muttered dryly.
I grinned, pulling my hair into a high ponytail. "Exactly."
···
The stadium throbbed.
The bleachers were living things, students packed so tight the collective shouts and whistles rolled across the grass like thunder.
My pulse kicked up as Ember and I stepped onto the field; the crowd’s roar smacked straight into me, and finally, mercifully, Asher dropped his shields.
The bond purred, warm and primal.
Need surged through the bond, and I almost melted on the spot.
Across the pitch he stood, all smug lines and slow confidence.
He leaned back slightly, arms folded, shadows crawling over the defined muscles of his bare arms.
The training shorts hugged the shape of his legs in a way that should've been illegal.
I caught his eye and found him already grinning, a look made of sharp edges and a dare.
"You need to wear ponytails more often," he murmured through the bond, amusement curling through his voice.
I answered with a wicked smile.
Ember had insisted on the look before we left—tiny ponytails with gold ribbon twined into the braids to match the House Ignis trim.
We weren't exactly going for subtle. Gold glitter dusted my cheeks and collarbone so heavily I practically glowed in the afternoon sun.
"Did I tell you my favorite color is gold?" he teased.
"You're impossible," I shot back, but my mental voice was light.
I was gilded from top to toe, and for the first time, I loved the attention. As I walked past him toward our station, I blew him a kiss—half tease, half promise.
He caught it dramatically, then pressed his palm to his chest in front of the entire Academy.
The crowd absolutely lost it.
"Cocky," I mouthed. He just flashed that infuriating grin, dimples and all.
"Someone's smitten," Ember said, elbowing me as we took our places with the rest of the squad.
“Please. Maddox? Smitten? As if.”
I whispered back, though my cheeks were burning.
Sera, her own pink ponytails bobbing beside me, leaned over with wide eyes.
"I've never seen him like this before," she muttered. "He's usually a walking void, but today? He's practically preening."
I felt a swell of something fierce and reckless. My fingers found the bond and gave it a mental nudge.
"Do I have you wrapped around my finger?"
His reply came instantly low, heated, and threaded with a darkness that made my knees go weak.
"Gods, love, you have me wrapped around every inch of your fucking body."
I bit my lip, forcing myself to look away before I tackled him right there in the middle of the pitch..
Maddy, Zaria, Ember, Rhea, and I lined up at the edge of the pitch, gold glitter catching the light as we launched into our routine.
The bleachers shook as we launched into our routine, gold glitter flashing beneath the afternoon sun.
Across the field, Asher was already causing a scene.
Shadows curled from his fingertips in thin, teasing tendrils that stretched across the grass toward me like smoke.
It was bold. It was reckless. The crowd went feral for the display, shrieking like he'd already won the game.
"Show off," I muttered, though my lips betrayed me with a smile.
The cheers doubled when the second-years stormed the field, their own cheerleaders flanking them.
At the front of their lineup—Jeremy.
My stomach turned to lead.
His eyes locked on mine instantly, sharp enough to draw blood. His jaw clenched, fury carved into every line of his face.
"He's fucking angry," Maddy whispered beside me, her voice tight.
Anxiety tightened around my throat.
The last time I'd seen Jeremy, Asher had him pinned by the throat against a stone wall.
And now here he was, staring at me like I was the catalyst for his entire downfall.
Fuck.
Jeremy's glare slid past me and landed squarely on Asher.
Our captain. The leader of the first-years.
Asher stood at the head of our team, his grin stretching wide and cocky as sin.
Beside him, Ezra, Ryven, and Mavrik wore matching smirks, their eyes locked on the same second-years they'd traded blows with during that disastrous night out.
“This is going to be interesting,” Rhea muttered, a serpent-sharp smile curling across her lips.
"Déjà fucking vu," Maddy sighed, flipping her ponytail. "Last time Ryven walked away with a black eye. Let's see who bleeds first today."
"Behave," I hissed through the bond, praying he'd actually listen for once.
Asher's answer came like a velvet knife, his amusement giving way to something far more competitive.
"It's sports, darling. Winner takes it all."
Gods help us—the whistle hadn't even blown, and the air already smelled like war.
"Ava!"
Jules' voice sliced through the cacophony of the crowd.
I spun, spotting her weaving through the throngs of people in high-waisted jeans and a soft pink sweater, her glasses already beginning their inevitable slide down her nose.
he looked like she'd been plucked straight from the silence of the Archives and dropped into a stadium packed with screaming, bloodthirsty Fae, but she was radiant all the same.
I hugged her tight before Ember, Maddy, Rhea, and Zaria chimed in with their own hellos.
Jules mumbled a greeting back, but her focus was already gone, her gaze locked onto the field with a sudden, breathless intensity.
She was looking at Darcy.
Darcy prowled up to the line alongside Asher, all coiled muscle and dangerous ease.
Her cropped hair—black shot through with jagged streaks of violet—caught the sunlight like tempered steel.
Heavy tattoos curled up her arms, inked in that same bold, sweeping Umbra style as Asher's and Ezra's.
The marks looked like a shared language, a history carved permanently into their skin.