The academy had gone silent.Even the wind that usually rattled through the stone corridors seemed to have vanished, leaving Arcadia draped in a suffocating stillness. Kai stood alone on the northern rampart, the weight of the night pressing into his shoulders.Below, the training courtyards were dark, the torches extinguished after the chaos. Hours had passed since Lina had collapsed, the poisoned blade’s mark burning across her skin. The healers had stabilized her, but “stable” felt like a fragile word. She was still pale when he’d last seen her, still fighting whatever toxin the Circle had buried into the steel.Kai’s fists tightened against the cold stone. His mark throbbed under those bandages, around his forearm. Veins stood out too dark, way darker than normal. The thing living inside him, it fed on blood. On violence. On temptation. Tonight, it got every bit of what it hungered for.He had nearly killed that assassin. He had wanted to.If not for Lina’s voice… Kai shut his

The infirmary went quiet hours back, but Kai couldn't get to sleep. Moonlight slipped in through those tall windows. It cut silver lines right across the cold stone floor. Lina was stretched out pale on her cot. Her breaths came shallow, but they held steady now. Her lashes twitched a little against fever dreams she had going. Cyrus had pretty much passed out in that corner chair. His head tipped back, snoring softly. Kai stayed up though. He kept watch like some of shadow stuck right by her side.The Mark burned on his arm again.Not the faint hum it carried most days. This was a pulse. A heartbeat.And it matched hers.Kai froze, staring at the faint tremor of her fingers against the blanket. Each time her breath hitched, the black sigil carved into his skin responded—throbbing as if it wanted to reach her.“Stop,” he muttered under his breath, gripping his forearm until his nails dug crescent cuts. “You don’t get to decide. Not now.”The Mark pulsed anyway, heat flaring up his

The night bled into silence. Kai was sitting all by himself in the practice hall. Candles were flickering low, barely holding on. Shadows stretched out across the stone floor. The grimoire sat open right in front of him. Its pages kept shifting a little, even without him touching them. It was like breathing, matching the rise and fall of his own chest, steady and slow. The ink on the pages shimmered faintly in the dim light. He had unlocked four sigils already. Each one felt like a burden, heavy on him. And each one served as nagging reminder of the chains Rafe had left behind, the ones that wouldn't let go. But tonight… tonight the fifth mark revealed itself.It glowed faintly at the edge of a page, half-erased, half-burned. As if someone had tried to erase it from existence.His hand trembled when he reached for it.The Fifth Sigil.A voice inside him—low, cold, maddeningly familiar—whispered:Rafe never dared. But you are stronger. Take it. Claim it.Kai clenched his jaw. He wa

Kai hadn’t slept in days.Every time his eyes shut, the Fifth Sigil burned beneath his skin, dragging him toward something vast and wrong. Tonight, it didn’t give him a choice.The world around him cracked like glass, and he was pulled under.When his vision cleared, he wasn’t in his bed in Class E’s barracks. He stood in a broken arena of fire and ash. Black stone stretched out in rings, each carved with sigils pulsing like veins of molten gold. The air was heavy with smoke. Suffocating, carrying the copper tang of blood.And there—across the ring—waited Rafe.Not the blurred memory Kai sometimes glimpsed, not the fading shadow in his nightmares. This was him. Whole and alive. The figure who'd once knocked kingdoms flat on their backs. His dark coat sagged under chains, and his hand just sat there on the sword hilt, like he'd been hanging around for Kai the whole time."You wear my mark," Rafe said. His voice came out deep and steady, bouncing around the empty arena. "But you hav

The academy never truly slept. But tonight that silence felt heavy, like it was pressing down on everything. Torches along the outer walkways in Arcadia burned low, flames flickering hard against the wind that wouldnt quit. Kai had picked up on that bad quiet over time. The sort that hangs before things just snap.He lingered at the courtyard edge, hidden in the archways shadow. His eyes stayed fixed on those uneasy figures from Class E, all huddled out under the wide open sky. They were meant to be asleep hours ago, but no one had found peace since the list was leaked. The Circle had named their prey, and Lina’s name sat at the top like a curse.She sat beside Cyrus now, her hands folded in her lap, feigning calm she didn’t feel. Her eyes flicked to Kai once, searching, steadying. He gave her the smallest nod. It was enough.“Can’t believe they put my name on that damn list,” Cyrus muttered, a sharp grin breaking across his face like glass. “Guess that means I’m worth something to