Secrets Can Kill You

I wake up gasping, my chest heaving like I've been drowning.

 Light burns my eyes. White. Too white. The smell of herbs and metal fills my nose. My head throbs, sharp and deep, like something is drilling into my skull. For a moment I can't remember where I am, can't remember anything except the arena, the moon, the pain tearing through my skin, and then it all comes rushing back at once, heavy enough to knock the breath out of me all over again.

 Voices crash over me before I can even move.

 "She shouldn't be awake." "You saw the markings!" "This is beyond protocol."

 I blink hard and turn my head, and every small movement feels like it costs something, like my body is running on borrowed time it hasn't agreed to lend.

 The infirmary.

 Mooncrest's medical wing is cold and quiet in a way that feels wrong. Glowing wards line the walls, humming softly, pale blue light pulsing in slow, deliberate rhythm, like the whole room is breathing along with some rule I don't understand. Shelves of labeled jars line the far wall, herbs and tinctures I don't recognize, and somewhere nearby a kettle hisses faintly, the only ordinary sound in a room that otherwise feels like it's holding its breath along with me. My arms feel heavy. When I try to lift them, metal clicks softly.

 Restrained.

 Panic slams into me.

 I yank against the cuffs before I can stop myself, and the metal bites into my wrists, cold and unforgiving. My heart slams so hard against my ribs I'm half convinced everyone in the room can hear it.

 "April...stop."

 Eryx is there instantly, standing so close I can feel his warmth. His eyes are red-rimmed, exhaustion carved deep into his face, like he hasn't slept since the ceremony, maybe hasn't even sat down. His hands hover near my shoulders, not touching, like he's afraid contact might hurt me.

 "You collapsed," he says gently. "Your body went into shock. Please don't move yet."

 "What happened?" My voice is hoarse. My throat burns, raw like I've been screaming, though I don't remember doing that. "Why does it feel like my heart is breaking?"

 Before he can answer, shouting explodes across the room.

 "You felt it too!" Riven roars. "Don't lie to me!"

 "I felt something," Lucien replies smoothly. Too smoothly. "That doesn't mean she's what you think."

 "It means everything!" Riven snaps. "The bond reacted..."

 "That's enough."

 Jodan's voice slices through the argument.

 He stands near the far wall, arms crossed, posture rigid. His face is calm, but his eyes are dark with tension, the kind of stillness that looks controlled right up until you notice how tightly his jaw is clenched. Guards line the doorway now. More arrive every second, their armor clinking softly, and every new arrival makes the air in the room feel a little thinner.

 A professor steps forward, shaking. "This is being handled internally."

 A guard scoffs. "You can't bury this. The Royal Council will demand answers."

 "The council doesn't need to know yet," Jodan says coldly.

 Riven spins toward him. "Yet?"

 Lucien smiles faintly. "Careful, cousin. Secrets rot fast."

 "Get out," Jodan growls.

 Lucien doesn't move.

 My stomach twists.

 I turn my head slowly, taking in the room properly for the first time. The other beds are empty, sheets pulled tight and undisturbed, like the staff cleared the entire wing just for me. There's a chair overturned near the door, like someone knocked it aside in a hurry, and I wonder distantly who was sitting in it, and for how long.

 "What are they talking about?" I whisper to Eryx.

 His jaw tightens. "They're scared," he says.

 "Of me?"

 He doesn't answer, and somehow that's worse than any answer he could have given. The silence sits between us, heavier than anything the shouting guards have said so far.

 The infirmary doors slam open.

 More guards flood in, royal insignias flashing silver and blue. Power presses down on the room so hard it's difficult to breathe, thick and suffocating, like the pressure before a storm finally breaks. I count six of them, then lose track as more crowd the doorway behind, their formation too practiced to be improvised. This isn't a response. It's a procedure. Somewhere behind them, further down the corridor, I hear other doors opening, other footsteps, like the entire wing is being cleared for whatever is about to happen next.

 "She's awake," someone mutters.

 A teacher steps between the guards and my bed. "The student needs rest."

 "This student," a guard replies coldly, "is now a political threat."

 My blood turns to ice.

 The words settle into my chest like a stone dropped into still water, rippling outward until every part of me feels the weight of them.

 "Where's Selene?" I ask suddenly.

 Silence.

 The kind of silence that answers the question all on its own, long before anyone actually speaks.

 I push myself up, ignoring Eryx's protest. The restraints tug painfully at my wrists, metal biting deeper the more I strain against it. "Where is my roommate?"

 Eryx looks away.

 Riven's fists clench. "She was taken for questioning."

 "Taken?" My voice shakes. "By who?"

 Lucien answers, his tone almost bored, though something tight behind his eyes says he's performing that boredom rather than feeling it. "Council informants. Seems she talked more than she should."

 My chest tightens. Selene's nervous chatter flashes through my mind. Her questions. Her smile. The way she'd leaned in too close on our very first walk across campus, asking about my scent like it was just idle curiosity. I'd thought it was harmless. I'd thought a lot of things were harmless, before tonight.

 "And Jax?" I ask. "What about him?"

 A guard snorts. "Arrested. Inciting unrest."

 "That's a lie!" I shout.

 No one denies it.

 The room erupts again.

 "You can't detain students like this!" "She's under my authority!" "You don't get to decide that!"

 Voices pile on top of each other until I can't tell who's arguing with who anymore, guards and professors and Riven's low, furious growl threading through all of it. My head pounds harder with every raised voice, and I press my eyes shut for a moment just to steady myself.

 Eryx leans close, his voice urgent and low. "April. Listen to me." His grip on my hands tightens, like he's trying to anchor me to the moment, to him, to anything solid in a room that's stopped making sense.

 I turned to him.

 "You need to run."

 My heart stutters. "What?"

 "Now," he whispers. "Before the council arrives in full force."

 "I can't just leave!"

 "They will claim you," he says, eyes fierce, more emotion in his face than I've seen from him since the moment we met. "Bind you. Control you. Break you if you resist."

 "No one is claiming her," Riven roars. "I'll kill them first."

 Jodan steps forward. "Enough."

 The room goes silent again, the kind of silence that only Jodan seems capable of commanding, like his voice carries a weight none of the guards are willing to test.

 "We are on lockdown," Jodan announces. "No one enters or leaves Mooncrest without my command."

 A guard laughs harshly. "You think that will stop the council?"

 "It will slow them," Jodan replies.

 Lucien tilts his head. "You're choosing sides."

 "I'm choosing the order."

 Lucien's smile sharpens. "Dangerous choice."

 I swing my legs off the bed, ignoring the dizziness that immediately washes over me, the room tilting slightly before settling back into place.

 "They're talking about me like I'm not here," I say.

 All eyes turn to me.

 "I didn't ask for this," I continued. "I didn't choose it."

 Riven looks at me, something raw and conflicted in his eyes. "We know."

 Lucien studies me like a puzzle. "The moon did."

 Jodan meets my gaze. His voice is quiet, heavy. "Everything has changed."

 I don't like the way he says it.

 Slowly, the room clears. Guards leave to report. Teachers whisper urgently as they follow, their voices dropping low the moment they think I can't hear. Riven storms out, rage rolling off him in waves that seem to make the wards along the walls flicker as he passes. Lucien lingers, giving me one last unreadable look before turning away, something almost apologetic in the set of his shoulders that doesn't match anything he's said tonight.

 Jodan leaves without a word.

 Only Eryx stays.

 He finally takes my hands, warm and steady, careful of the raw skin beneath the restraints. "April," he says softly. "You need to disappear."

 "Where would I go?"

 "There are tunnels under the campus. Old ones. I can take you."

 "And Selene? Jax?"

 Pain flashes across his face. "If you stay, they'll use them against you."

 I want to argue. I want to tell him I won't leave anyone behind, that I've spent my whole life being the one left behind and I refuse to become the reason it happens to someone else. But before I can find the words, footsteps echo in the hallway.

 Voices drift closer.

 "...ancient law..." "...confirmed markings..." "...multiple bonds..."

 Eryx stiffens.

 I freeze.

 Two figures stop just outside the door.

 A male voice speaks first. "If she resists, sedation is authorized."

 Another replies quietly, "And if she refuses the bond?"

 There's a pause, long enough that I find myself holding my breath, waiting.

 Then the answer comes, calm and final.

 "They will claim her."

 My breath catches.

 I step back, heart pounding so hard it feels like it might crack a rib.

 The floor creaks.

 Silence.

 Slow footsteps enter the infirmary, unhurried, deliberate, the kind of pace that belongs to someone who has never once needed to rush.

 I turn.

 A woman stands behind me. Tall. Cold. Her eyes are sharp silver, her presence crushing, filling the room the way smoke fills a space long before you see the fire that made it. Power rolls off her in suffocating waves, pressing against my chest until it's an effort just to stay upright. Even the guards in the doorway straighten at the sight of her, and Eryx's hand tightens around mine, protective and afraid in equal measure.

 She smiles without warmth.

 "Or," she says softly, "we will execute her."