Chapter 23 #3
“No,” he stated firmly. “That is final. Now leave. I have work.” There was no point in arguing. We both knew that tone. I bowed stiffly, and Rynlee followed suit. I was a few steps ahead when Rynlee’s fingers brushed my forearm.
“That was… weird, right?” she asked, staring up at me.
I slowed but didn’t stop. “What do you mean?”
“Well,” she said carefully, brows furrowing, “does your father always greet you without using your name?” She hesitated. “And he didn’t even really acknowledge me.”
I exhaled through my nose. “Yeah. He has,” I replied, a little too quickly. “That’s nothing new, Ruin.” I rubbed a hand over the back of my neck. “But you’re right about his reaction toward you. That part was… bizarre.” She stopped walking.
“Wait,” she said. “He’s never addressed you by your name?”
I turned back to her, jaw tightening. “Look, it doesn’t really matter, okay?
We’ve got other things to focus on.” I started down the hall again, forcing my feet to move.
After a beat, she fell into step beside me.
“So,” I added, the question coming out more awkwardly than I intended, “did you sleep all right last night?”
A small smile tugged at her lips, anyway. “Yeah. I did.” She glanced up at me. “Thanks. For listening to me.” Those blue eyes softened, and something twisted low in my chest. I forced my expression neutral.
“Yeah, well,” I said, smirking to drag the moment back into safer territory, “don’t expect it to happen again.”
She rolled her eyes and nudged my arm. “Wouldn’t dream of it.
” The warmth of that tiny shove lingered longer than it should have.
And damn it, I actually chuckled. Just like that, everything between us felt…
normal again. Or as normal as it could be, with the bond humming between us like a live wire.
“Good,” I said, slowing to a stop where the corridor split.
“So, I’ll see you tonight.” I turned to head down the other hall, made it a few steps, then glanced back over my shoulder.
She was still watching me. “And Ruin,” I added, a smirk pulling at my mouth, “don’t be late.
” I winked because I knew it would annoy her, and because if I didn’t walk away right then, I was going to stand there staring at her like a fucking idiot.
I rounded the corner, pulse a little too quick, trying to ignore the bond humming beneath my skin… and the shadows whispering mine like they had any right to.
After parting from Rynlee, I made my way outside, cutting across the courtyard.
I spotted Alaric near the steps leading back inside, an armful of books tucked against his chest as he laughed at something another cadet said.
But it wasn’t his real laugh. After all, he was my little brother, and it wasn’t hard to recognize his fake laugh from his real one.
His shoulders were too stiff. His smile didn’t reach his eyes.
Then he glanced over and saw me. The flash of anger was immediate.
Yeah. Based on what Rynlee told me last night about breaking things off with him, I figured this was coming.
“Alaric,” I called, starting toward him. He rolled his eyes. So, he was mad-mad.
“What do you want, Aiden?” he snapped, shifting the books in his arms as if he were bracing for impact.
I stopped a few feet away. “Look, you can be pissed at me all you want. I’m used to your mood swings.” His jaw twitched, but I kept going. “But I didn’t tell Ruin to break up with you. And I sure as hell didn’t tell the gods to bind us together. So maybe you shouldn’t be aiming that anger at me.”
His grip tightened around the books. “Do you even want to be with her?” he shot back. “Because this isn’t fair. To her. Or to me.” That question hit harder than I expected.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “No,” I said quickly, too quickly. “I don’t.” The words tasted wrong, but I pushed through. “I’m still with Jasmine. Ruin made that decision on her own.”
Alaric let out a short, humorless laugh.
“Right.” He stepped around me as if I wasn’t even worth the effort anymore.
“Whatever,” he muttered, already walking away.
For half a second, I considered going after him, telling him to stop acting like a fucking child, but then a hand landed on my shoulder.
“Whoa,” Brandon said from behind me. “Someone’s tense.” I exhaled sharply, forcing my gaze off Alaric’s retreating back before the shadows decided to do something stupid.
“Hey, Brandon,” I muttered, meeting Brandon’s brown eyes, trying to rein in the storm coiling beneath my skin. He grinned, but it faltered. “So… what’s wrong, big guy?”
That earned a humorless laugh from me. “Everything.” I looked up toward the gray sky, clouds pressing low like the world was waiting to crack. “Rynlee and I found another student,” I said. “Dead. In the forest. Just off the training grounds.”
Brandon blinked. “Holy shit. Another one?”
“Yeah,” I replied, jaw tight. “Same as Alice. No blood. No wounds. Just… gone. And he was from your unit.”
His face paled, and his smirk dropped entirely. “Fuck,” he breathed. “Do you know who?”
“Scott Dew. First-year.”
Brandon went quiet for a beat, then nodded solemnly. “Shit. I need to gather his stuff. Get his name carved into the stone.”
I opened a portal, and without another word, we stepped through. The body was where we left it, already wrapped for transport. Brandon let out a heavy sigh and knelt beside him, muttering a prayer under his breath. I didn’t ask what it was. Everyone had their own way of coping.
Together, we carried the boy to the medical ward, silent but for the crunch of leaves underfoot and the rustle of the shroud.
He would be prepared for the burning. Another cadet reduced to ash.
Another name etched into that cursed stone at the edge of the courtyard.
And one more family handed a box of belongings and no real answers.
And still, no one was talking. These attacks weren’t random.
They were deliberate. Controlled. And whoever was behind them was using black magic.
I wondered if Derek was seeing the same patterns. Or if this was something internal, something rotting Arcanna from the inside out. And if it was… I already had a damn good idea who might be behind it.
That night, around midnight, I made my way down to the rock near the river beneath the school, the same hidden alcove Rynlee, Alaric, and I used to sneak off to after training.
Back then, it was just ours. We’d skip stones across the water, climb the old, twisted oak nearby, laugh as if the war didn’t exist.
Gods, I missed those days.
Before everything got so complicated. My shadows whispered to me before I saw her.
She’s close. I turned just in time to see her enter the moonlight.
And for a second, I forgot how to breathe.
The silver light kissed her golden hair as though it belonged there, and that crimson streak… it shimmered like fresh blood.
Her cloak swayed with each step, and the wind caught her scent, sun-warmed and wild. Beautiful. Untouchable. I swallowed the lump rising in my throat and shoved my emotions back down where they belonged. “Hey,” I said, keeping my tone neutral, locking the bond tight before she could feel anything.
“Hey,” she returned softly, walking up and sitting on the boulder beside the river. Her gaze didn’t meet mine.
“You looked like you knew something earlier. What’ve you found out?” She hesitated, as if she were choosing her words carefully. That alone made my skin prickle.
“After training… Firebeard pulled me aside, the other day,” she finally said.
Her voice was steady, but I could feel the coil of unease twisting beneath it through the bond.
“He told me something interesting that connects with what I read in the history of Celetian and pretty much everything else. Did you know Celetian died for two years?”
My brows pulled together. “No, I didn’t. What do you mean by died?”
She pushed a hand through her golden waves, frustration simmering in the bond.
“Hundreds of years ago, when the gods formed Celetian, it was a beacon of light, literally where they stored their power. But something dark started corrupting it. They called it the Shadow Plague. And during the two years of darkness, Celetian’s magic died. ”
She paced, hands gesturing sharply. “Well, the gods then bestowed powers to four mortals, Seraphine Vaelor, Varos Nightfall, Elyandra Vaelwyn, who I saw in that vision, and Torren Malvyr. They fought the darkness, locked it away at the base of Celetian, and then built Arcanna to prepare us if the darkness ever rose again.” I rubbed my jaw, stubbled, scraping my fingertips.
Gods, she was brilliant. Too brilliant for this fucked-up place.
“So how does this tie into Firebeard?” I asked, watching her pace like she was solving a damn prophecy.
“I’m getting to that.” She looked up, eyes fierce with realization.
“Firebeard told me whatever was locked away in Celetian is growing again or already out. That ties to the warning we found. And it ties to what Elyndra told me in that vision: that the darkness would rise again, Celetian would bleed, and the gods wouldn’t survive it. ”
My shadows twitched around my boots, restless.
She kept going. “So Firebeard also said the Eastern Encampment is failing because it’s being drained, the High King is pulling dark magic from Celetian.
And Celetian feeds the main power points through the rune system.
Those runes are dying, slowly, because the darkness we locked away is waking up…
and we put it in the most powerful place we could have. ”
I now mirrored her pacing, hands flexing at my sides.
“Fuck. Well, that definitely complicates things.” I tilted my head back, staring at the stars like they might give me answers. “So, this darkness… that’s what’s threatening us now?”