The ringing in my ears was louder than the screams of the fleeing students. Black smoke rolled across the shattered stone stage, smelling of sulfur and burnt copper. Guard mages immediately swarmed the arena, their heavy bronze staves crackling with defensive wards. I stood completely frozen next to the lifeless form of the ancient black dragon. Its blood was still pooling around my leather boots, warm and unnaturally bright.For a brief moment, the heavy smog parted. That was when I saw it. Headmaster Vance stood on his high platform, looking down at me. The smooth skin around his jawline did not look human. It shifted like liquid glass, revealing a patch of thick green scales beneath the flesh. He blinked, and his pupils stretched into thin vertical slits before his face snapped back to normal. He masked his features so fast that I would have thought it was a trick of the light if my heart was not pounding so hard.The pity he usually showed to the lower class students was entirely

The impact knocked the breath right out of my lungs. I rolled across the cold floor of the secret laboratory, coughing as stone dust filled the air. Beside me, Zane groaned, his bronze lantern clattering against the floor and going completely dark.My heart froze. I slowly looked up through the settling dust.Standing just five feet away, Headmaster Vance loomed over us. His pristine white robes did not have a single speck of dust on them. His face was perfectly calm, but his dark eyes held a terrifying, freezing stillness. Next to him, Lyra Voss had already drawn a short, silver dagger. Her sapphire sky-cutter dragon shifted on her shoulder, its tiny scales hissing with blue electricity."Well, well," Headmaster Vance said, his voice smooth and terrifyingly soft. "It seems we have some uninvited guests in the lower levels."I scrambled to my knees, keeping my arms crossed over my chest to hide the burning royal mark beneath my shirt. Zane was trembling beside me, his hands flat again

The sound of the heavy iron door slamming shut echoed through the circular stone chamber like a clap of thunder. I spun around, throwing my weight against the cold metal. I gripped the handle and pulled with all my strength but it did not budge. The lock was sealed tight by ancient magic."We are trapped," Zane whispered, his voice shaking violently as he backed away from the entrance. He held his hands against his head, staring at the glowing cage in the center of the room. "Kael, what is this place? Who is that boy?"I turned my head slowly to look back at the cage.The boy who looked exactly like me sat perfectly still on the stone floor inside the glowing white bars. His pitch-black eyes were locked onto my face, tracking my every movement. Seeing my own facial features staring back at me with such cold, lifeless energy made my stomach turn.“Erebos, what is this?” I called out in my mind, my thoughts frantic. “Who is he?”For the first time since the bonding ceremony, the ancient

The sight of General Voss standing in the doorway froze the blood in my veins. The history books, the academy teachers and even Lyra had said he was dead. Yet here he was, standing tall in a dark iron uniform, his face completely devoid of any human warmth.Beside me, Lyra let out a choked gasp. She tried to push herself up against the dusty storage crates, her fingers trembling as she stared at the man who was supposed to be a memory. "Father? No... you died in the western border wars. I saw the grave."General Voss did not look at her with the love of a parent. His hard eyes simply scanned her bleeding shoulder, evaluating the dark purple veins spreading across her skin with total detachment. "The grave was a necessary theater, Lyra. High politics require deep shadows. You were never meant to dig this deep.""You lied to me," she whispered, a tear finally breaking through her cold mask and cutting a clean path through the dust on her cheek. "You killed Arthur Ashford not for treason

The cold steel of Lyra’s dagger pressed hard against my throat, the sharp tip biting slightly into my new skin. I stood completely frozen, my hands raised in the air as I stared into her wild, furious blue eyes. She didn't recognize me. To her, I was just Prince Alden, the pampered royal heir who represented everything she hated."Lyra, wait!" I gasped, the smooth, foreign voice of the prince trembling in my throat. "It's me. It's Kael!"Lyra’s eyes narrowed into slits of pure ice. She pressed the blade a fraction deeper, drawing a tiny drop of blood that trickled down my collar. "Do not speak his name with your filthy royal tongue. Kael Ashford is currently locked in the lower dungeons of the academy and my father is preparing to harvest him. I watched them drag him away.""No, that's what they want you to believe!" I pleaded, my mind racing to find a way to prove my identity before she sliced my throat. "Listen to me! In the storage room under the Discard Dorms, your father came bac