The doors shut behind us with a sound like the whole building exhaling.Rows of students filled the hall below the dais, robes a mix of black — my year, apparently — and darker shades that must've marked the upperclassmen. I counted maybe forty faces before I gave up counting and just picked the ones staring hardest.There were a lot of those."Relax," I muttered to no one, mostly myself. "I promise I'm only mildly cursed."The girl nearest me — dark hair, sharp eyes, unmistakably related to someone I already hated on sight — did not look amused."You're Symon Wardreth.""Depends who's asking.""Delilah." She said it like a warning label. "Lucifero's sister.""Ah." I gave her my best smile. "So the resemblance isn't a coincidence.""Don't talk to me.""Bold opening line. I respect it."She turned away so fast her braid nearly caught me in the jaw, and I decided, immediately, that I liked her more than her brother.Vance climbed the dais without ceremony, and the murmuring dropped to n

I waited until I was alone before I let myself fall apart, just a little.Astrid had bought the "I'm fine" for about as long as it took her to finish her sentence about moonroot elixirs, which was to say, not at all. She'd walked me to my room anyway, made me drink water like that fixed anything, and left only after I promised — badly, unconvincingly — that I'd sleep it off.I had no intention of sleeping."Grey."The screen flickered to life at the foot of my bed, patient as ever, infuriating as ever."Yes, Lord Symon.""I need you to explain something, and I need you to actually explain it this time. Not the version where you say three words and let me sit in existential crisis for a week.""I make no promises.""Grey.""Very well. What would you like explained?"I sat forward, elbows on my knees. "I was standing in the guild hall. One second I'm listening to Astrid talk about moonroot, the next I'm in a hospital bed on Earth holding my mother's hand. Then I'm back in the hall like

“Do I need to tell you two to behave?” Zudrik looked at Lucifero first, then his eyes darted to me. Neither of us answered.He sighed.“Your father decided to foster peace between our realms. I share your disapproval of it, but we cannot risk a war,” he said.“He should have picked another academy aside from this one.”I looked at Lucifero; his hand was on the hilt of his sword; his hand was always on the hilt of his sword. He looked taller now.“And you?”“I promise to stir no trouble,” I told him. He didn't look like he believed me.“Symon, you've said those words to me so many times in the past, and each time you manage to do the exact opposite.”“I have a sister to look after,” I said.“Stay away from Mazikeen. I have a hard time trusting that demon.” Zudrik turned to Lucifero. “I need you to lead any mission those two are involved in.”Lucifero nodded slowly, like he had no choice but to accept.We left Zudrik's office in silence, which was somehow worse than if he'd kept yelling

Time rewound to the moment I heard Lucifero's voice. I shoved Vax out of the way and drew my sword. His attack still caught me. The ice was stinging, and it cut my knuckles."You—" I didn't get the rest of the sentence out before he moved again, blade trailing frost, the temperature in the hall dropping fast enough to fog every breath around us.I brought my sword up to meet the next swing, and the impact sent a shudder up both arms. He wasn't holding back.Whatever restraint he usually kept wrapped around himself had come completely undone."You could have killed her," I snarled."I don't care." He said it so flatly, so simply, that it landed harder than if he'd screamed it. "I never have."That answer told me everything I needed to know and none of what I wanted.He came at me again, faster this time, ice forming in jagged spears along the floor with every step he took, and I felt the heat build in my chest — the tell I'd learned to recognize by now, the one that meant I was about t