Saturday morning arrived without the usual knocks on doors or students rushing to class. For once, Antherion Tower was quiet, and nobody seemed interested in getting out of bed. Kelvin lay awake, staring at the ceiling of the shared dorm room, a heavy, suffocating weight pressing down on his chest. He had barely slept the previous night because every time he closed his eyes, the brutal argument with Raze returned to haunt him,bringing back the memories of Raze's shattered, injured expression and the burning guilt of the cruel words he had thrown at someone he had never truly wanted to hurt. Across the room, Rylan was still fast asleep, one leg awkwardly hanging off his mattress. Suddenly, his alarm shrilled loudly. Rylan reached out blindly for his bedside table, accidentally knocked a heavy book onto the stone floor with a loud thud, and finally managed to silence the noise. He remained completely still, face down in his pillow. "You're awake," Kelvin said, his voice lace

Adrain spent the following morning quietly observing Kelvin's life at Antherion Tower. It did not take him long to realize that the boy was settling in far better than he had ever dared to hope. He watched Kelvin and Rylan bickering fiercely over breakfast because Rylan had shamelessly stolen the last piece of fried plantain right off Kelvin's plate. He saw them walking side by side down the stone corridors, laughing brightly over some ridiculous inside joke from their morning lecture. Later, he found them crammed into a sunlit corner of the common room, where Rylan was attempting to convince a profoundly skeptical Kelvin that mandatory studying was a psychological torture device invented by people who hated human happiness. "You're actually supposed to be reading your text, Rylan," Kelvin pointed out, his tone dry. "as you can see,I am reading." "You're holding the book completely upside down, it's funny how you don't even noticed that."kelvin chuckles Rylan glanced down, b

Adrain nodded slowly, looking as though he hadn't quite intended to say it out loud just yet. "Yes. Though... he was a terribly different man when he was your exact age." Kelvin stared at him, his pulse hammering wildly against his ribs. "What is that supposed to mean?" Adrain's expression tightened imperceptibly, a shadow crossing his eyes. "People change as the years carve them out, Kelvin." "You just said I remind you of him." "In certain distinct ways. The stubbornness, mostly." Kelvin leaned forward, his hands gripping the edge of the stone bench so tightly his knuckles turned chalk-white. "What was he actually like? Was he a student here in this Tower? What kind of core ability did he possess? Did he know he was a walking hazard when he was my age?" The questions poured out of him in a desperate rush. Kelvin had spent his entire life knowing almost nothing about the man whose blood ran through his veins. Every time he tried to dig past the locked doors of his pas

“RAZE!” Kelvin's desperate scream tore through the chemistry laboratory, echoing off the stone walls with a chilling, frantic panic. everything around him seemed to freeze in time. He could feel the desperate, protective circle of Raze's arms locked tightly around him, could feel the blistering, radiating heat pressing against his own skin, and could hear the sharp, strained sound of Raze struggling to draw air through the sudden agony. Then, Kelvin's gaze dropped,and he saw the jagged, hungry flames licking viciously across the back of Raze's shirt. “No! Raze, your back!” “I... I can feel it,” Raze gritted out, his voice a tight, strangled rasp. His body was trembling violently from the shock of the chemical burn, but despite the agony, he was still trying his absolute best to keep Kelvin completely shielded behind him. That stubborn, self-sacrificing instinct frightened Kelvin far more than the roaring fire ever could. “Let go of me!” Kelvin cried, hot tears spilling over hi

Kelvin was still standing there, staring blankly at Raze, when the heavy health room door suddenly swung open. Both boys sprang apart as if struck by lightning. Kelvin nearly knocked over the first-aid box with his hip, while Raze tried to sit upright too quickly and immediately paid for it. “Ow!” Raze hissed, his hand grabbing the edge of the mattress as a sharp pain flared across his back. The nurse stopped dead in the doorway, narrowing her eyes as she looked from one flushed, panicking boy to the other. “Should I even ask what happened here?” “No!” Kelvin answered far too quickly, his face burning like a live wire. Raze coughed awkwardly, clearing his throat. “He... he was just helping me stand up.” The nurse raised a single, skeptical eyebrow. “I can see that. Sit still before you manage to injure yourself all over again, Mr. Cadler.” Kelvin's face felt as though it was on fire. He desperately busied his hands arranging the first-aid supplies back into the box, refusing