The fire mage's fist connected with my jaw before I saw it coming.I hit the cobblestones hard, tasting copper and rain. Above me, Damien Cross stood silhouetted against the academy's golden windows, flames dancing between his fingers like trained pets."Stay down, Thorne." His voice carried that particular brand of pity reserved for broken things. "You don't belong here anymore."I spat blood and pushed myself up. My hands scraped against wet stone, finding purchase in the grooves worn by centuries of boots much more important than mine. The expulsion notice crumpled in my coat pocket, edges dissolving in the downpour."I just want to watch," I said. My tongue probed a loose tooth. "From outside the gates. I'm not bothering anyone.""You're bothering me." Damien's flames grew brighter, casting orange shadows across his perfect face. Behind him, other students gathered at the windows. Watching. Always watching when someone like me got reminded of their place. "The ceremony's for peopl

The sirens stopped two blocks away.I pressed against the window, watching blue light wash over the buildings. Three Council carriages, each pulled by constructs that looked like horses made of solidified lightning. Fast. Expensive. Reserved for high-priority threats.They thought I was worth the expense. That should have terrified me.Instead, I felt validated.The carriages stopped in front of my building. Guards emerged, six of them, wearing the silver and black uniforms of Council enforcement. Combat mages, all of them. Their hands glowed with various colors. Fire. Lightning. Force manipulation. They'd brought enough power to level the entire block if necessary.Behind them, Marcus Venn stepped down from the lead carriage.Even from four stories up, I could see the electricity dancing across his shoulders. Arcs of white-blue light that made the air around him shimmer. He was angry. More than angry. His father had lost his power to my grandmother. Now history was repeating itself,

I didn't sleep.Couldn't. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw their faces. Mrs. Chen clutching her chest. The thread-mage collapsing. Marcus screaming. Elena crying on her mansion floor.The voices didn't help. They whispered through the darkness, layering over each other until individual words became meaningless and only the hunger remained clear.More. Always more. Never enough. NEVER.I traced the black veins on my arms. They'd spread past my elbows now, branching like tree roots seeking nutrients. When I pressed against them, they pulsed. Warm. Alive. Not quite part of me but not separate either.The locket had merged with my sternum. I could feel it there, fused to bone, its crystal heart beating in rhythm with my own. Sometimes I couldn't tell where I ended and it began.Footsteps approached my cell. Multiple sets. Armed, judging by the metallic clinks.I stood and faced the bars.Silas appeared first, flanked by four others. Three men, one woman. All carrying weapons. All radiat

The shapeshifting magic felt different from the others.It wasn't just power. It was knowledge. Understanding of how bodies worked at a fundamental level. How bones connected. How muscles contracted. How skin stretched and reformed. The serpent woman had spent decades mastering it, and now all that expertise lived inside me.I could feel my own corruption more clearly now. See how the black veins were restructuring my cardiovascular system. Replacing human tissue with something else. Something designed to channel stolen magic more efficiently.The locket wasn't killing me. It was remaking me.The distinction mattered less with each passing hour.I walked for what felt like half a day. The tunnel narrowed, widened, twisted back on itself. No logic to the path. Just following the natural fault lines in the rock. My torches burned down one by one. Eventually, I switched to the chemical lights. They cast everything in sickly green that made the shadows dance wrong.The temperature dropped

Three hours remaining.I could feel the corruption spreading through my skull now. Not just surface veins anymore. Deeper. Touching the edges of my brain. Each pulse brought a moment of clarity followed by fog. Thoughts that weren't quite mine whispered at the periphery. The locket's hunger bleeding into my own consciousness until I couldn't distinguish between them.I stood and approached the structure again. Needed answers before the decision made itself."The serpent woman," I said. "The healer who transformed. Did she come here? Did you change her?""YES. FORTY-THREE YEARS AGO. SHE ARRIVED DYING. BURNED OUT FROM SAVING TOO MANY LIVES. I OFFERED THE SAME CHOICE I OFFER YOU. SHE ACCEPTED.""She seemed miserable.""SHE LIVED. THAT WAS WHAT SHE WANTED. SURVIVAL AT ANY COST. I DELIVERED EXACTLY WHAT SHE ASKED FOR." The structure's light dimmed slightly. "HUMANS NEVER SPECIFY CORRECTLY. THEY SAY THEY WANT TO LIVE FOREVER. THEN COMPLAIN ABOUT ETERNITY. THEY SAY THEY WANT POWER. THEN FEAR