ANMELDENZANA’S POVI closed my eyes and tried to focus on my power.I thought about the wind in the forest, the way it moved between trees, how you could feel the direction of it change before you could see the leaves move. I thought about tracking in the cold months as a rogue. I thought about standing in a field at fifteen and feeling the magic inside me move for the first time, and how scared I was because I didn’t even know what this thing inside me was.I reached for it.Not the way the textbook described, not the three-stage formal alignment that Marlowe had just taught us.. I reached the way I always reached -straight in, like reaching for something familiar in the dark, knowing exactly where it was without having to look.The magic answered.It moved inside me the way it always moved - not like something external I was directing but like something that was part of me, that had been waiting with quiet patience for me to need it. I felt it gather. I felt it recognize what I wanted. I
ZANA’S POVThe next day, we had double period for Elemental Magic.The moment I stepped through the classroom door, I could feel that something was wrong.It wasn't anything obvious at first. The room looked the same as always. Professor Marlowe was already standing at the board when I came in, writing out the afternoon's lesson headers.She didn't look up. That was the first sign.Marlowe always looked up.She catalogued every student who entered her classroom the way a warden catalogues prisoners. She was always noting them, marking them present in some internal register before they'd even taken their seats. It was one of the things that made her exhausting to be around.But today she kept her back to the door. I noticed that her chalk was moving with more force than necessary.I took my seat near the middle of the room and said nothing.Around me, the other students were already picking up on the vibe. I watched Petra Voss look at the boy beside her and shake his head - the univers
ZANA’S POVI sat with that for a moment.Then I closed the book and handed it back to Rhea.I reached down, pulled my sock back up, put my boot on, and laced it. I did all of this slowly and without looking up, because I needed something to do with my hands while I thought of what she just said.Last surviving heir.Last surviving heir?!What was this? A movie? A YA fantasy?"There's an explanation for this," I said. "One that doesn't involve any of that." I nodded at the book. "There's a logical explanation that I just don't have yet."Rhea sat down across from me. She held the book in her lap and she looked at me with"I've been looking for one," she said. "For a week, since the classroom. Since the windows." She paused. "I haven't found it.""Keep looking," I said."Zana-""Keep looking," I said again.Rhea was quiet for a moment. Outside the broken glass panes, the noon light was grey. Somewhere in the overgrown green of the greenhouse, something dripped."The mark on your wrist a
ZANA’S POVNow, everyone was looking at me. I could see it in their eyes – they were waiting for me to fuck up, to fail. That way, Thorne could punish me and they could all snicker and laugh.Even Thorne had that look in his eyes, like he was waiting for me to say the wrong thing.Thorne hated me. He made that pretty clear."Your defensive movements weren't just absorbing his force," I said. "They were redirecting it and storing it. By the third block you had used his energy to position yourself rather than spending yours. The counter didn't cost you anything because it was already loaded from what he gave you."Thorne looked at me for a moment. "And how do you generate that repositioning without telegraphing it?""You commit to the surface of the defense," I said. "Whatever's visible has to look like pure defense. Your opponent watches what your arms are doing. Your feet move while his eyes are busy."Thorne was quiet for a second. I could see the subtle look of surprise in his eyes.
ZANA’S POVMy pleasure kept building and building.I had to lean across the wall for support.My hand reached where it was going.The water ran down my spine and over my hips. Everything was warm inside me.I thought about Darren pinning me against the wall in the training ground, the weight of him, the moment just before he pushed back when neither of us moved. I thought about the specific sound his voice had made then. I thought about the look in his eyes when I had said you're worried and he had denied it too fast.I thought about Percy in the astronomy tower.‘Come here” he had said.I thought of the way he had held me like I was something that mattered, the way he had kissed me like being careful about it was the most important part.The climax built slowly. My orgasm hit me hard and my body shivered with it. I bit down on my lips even harder to stop myself from screaming through the pleasure.I stood still for a moment after. Water still ran down my back. slowly, my breathing re
ZANA'S POVI was dreaming about them again.In the dream there was no academy. There was just warmth and the three of them, which should have felt strange and didn't, which was the thing about dreams - they didn’t follow logic most times.I started to feel them. I felt Ken's hands in my hair, Darren's mouth at my throat. His voice was low as he said something I couldn't quite hear but could feel in my chest. I felt Percy's looking at me with total lust.I was warm everywhere. My whole body was warm.Then I was awake.I woke up fast, the way I always did, zero to alert in one breath, which my father's trainers had drilled into me as a child and which my body had never unlearned. My eyes opened on the ceiling of my room.I was breathing too fast and I was very, very warm. I could still feel the dream sitting all over my skin.Fuck.My wolf was awake too. Of course, she was. She was practically vibrating, which was not helpful. She craved them all the time.I turned my head and looked at
ZANA’S POVI went for the last class of the day – combat training.Combat training took place at the far edge of the Academy grounds. The field was wide. I liked it better than the halls. Out here, there was less pretending.Besides, I used to be a warrior in my dad’s pack. I loved to fight.Studen
ZANA’S POVI walked into the professors’ office calmly. I didn’t. I kept calm. I didn’t look afraid. The girls who had accused me were already inside.They sat close together. Their faces were tight with anger. When they saw me. Their eyes burned with hatred. They looked at me like I was something
ZANA’S POVI sat alone in the cafeteria that day.I sat at the far end of the dining hall with my tray in front of me. The noise of the academy was loud all around me but to me, it felt distant. Students were laughing and talking all over. Everyone sat in groups as they talked and ate.There was a
AISHA’S POVShock hit me hard, but I did not let it show.I stood among the girls, smiling softly, trying to breathe normally while my mind raced. Zana was here…at the Academy of all places.But how?Fate had a cruel sense of humor. I had not expected to see her face again, not after everything. No







