MasukJulianna POV
Is that Scott? The Scott that Lyra told me about. I thought as my eyes were fixed on the boy standing in front of me. The chair was still floating in the air a testament to him great power and mischievous attitude.
"Tsk, stand up." He said as he extended his hands towards me. I just looked at his hands, then his face, unsure of if I should accept his offer, but something about his expression made me hesitate. Instead I stood up on my own ignoring his offer.
"Owwww." The class gasped in shock, they eyes fixed on me as I stood up, my face burning in embarrassment. Scott eyes widened, and he slowly withdrew his hands, his face mixed with surprise and annoyance.
"Thank you for the offer, after you embarrassed me. I appreciate it." I said trying to sound sarcastic, my voice shaking. and patted his shoulder trying to act nonchalant then walked to an empty seat in front. The class erupted in screams and laughter. I could feel there eyes on my but I ignored trying to focus on the lesson ahead.
"Hey woman!" He growled his voice menacing.
I turned to face him "Do you mean me?"l asked trying to sound calm. "Who told you to hold me?" He demanded angrily. I scratched my head in confusion. "Ohh you mean when I patted your shoulder.... you didn't say it was forbidden to touch you" I asked.
Just then Kaid intervened "Scott, sit down." Kaid said with authority, but Scott refused to budge, his eyes fixed on me. "Ughm... You are going to get sick if you keep this up" I said trying to reason with him but he just kept staring at me.
The class bursted into laughter again. Just then the teacher intervened "Okay class that enough" Scott closed his eyes, his fist clenched and then turned away returning to his sit.
"We're not done yet." He threatened flashing a wicked grin as he went to his sit, but I ignored him.
I still couldn't believe what just happened. I certainly hadn't expected to confront Scott like that. But there was something about his constant pranks and teasing that had gotten under my skin.
So I turned my attention to the teacher
"So Ms. Harris, what does Alpha mean ?" The teacher asked me.
"In studies of social animals, the highest ranking individual is sometimes designated as the alpha. Males, females, or both, can be alphas, depending on the species. Where one male and one female fulfill this role together, they are sometimes referred to as the alpha pair. Alphas may achieve their status by superior physical strength and aggression, or through social efforts and building alliances within the group. The individual with alpha status sometimes changes, often through a fight between the dominant and a subordinate animal. are often to death, depending on the animal. "I answered.
The classroom fell quiet I was wondering if I said something wrong,but the teacher applauded. "That's right I said. Are you sure you're just human...no powers? It was almost like you read my mind." The teacher said.
I blushed "I'm just human." I replied.
"Nerd" Scott said almost silently.
I laughed and playful rolled my eyes "Just showing off" I teased. Earning laughs form the twins. I sat on the floor again instead of my chair. I noticed my chair floating again, and I glared at Scott with annoyance.
"Are you really upset or you're just interested in me, just say so instead of playing pranks" I said. The room enveloped with a long silence. They were obviously surprised by what I did, I was surprised as well. The chair fell to the floor breaking the tension. The entire class bursted into laughter.
I tried to brush it off, "Ughm... Just a joke." I said and sat in my chair closeimg my eyes wondering what I have gotten myself into.
Caleb and Cameron teased "Scott, looks like you have met your match.....ouch sick burn"
Chapter 137Julianna POVWhen I reached the iron gate—simple, black, no sign—I hesitated. This felt too private. Too raw.But I’d come this far. I pushed through.The plot was small. Six headstones in a loose semicircle, grass neatly kept, flowers replaced regularly even when no one was watching. Three names stood out: Seraphine Thane, Mara Thane, and Elowen Thane. Birth and death dates carved deep. The other three were older—grandparents, maybe an aunt. Quiet witnesses.Lily was there.She sat cross-legged in front of Mara’s stone, hands folded in her lap, eyes closed. Raindrops slid down her face; she didn’t wipe them away. Cameron and Caleb stood a few paces back, shoulders touching like they were holding each other up. Lila paced slowly along the edge, arms wrapped around herself. Kaid leaned against an oak, staring at nothing.No Scott.Lily opened her eyes when she heard my footsteps. F
Julianna POVFour days had passed since the blue portal ripped open in cave and spat Lyra and Scott back into our lives like they’d never left. Four days of stolen glances, half-finished sentences, and the kind of quiet that presses against your ribs until breathing hurts. The academy kept moving classes droned on, bells rang, students laughed in the corridors, but everything felt slightly off-center, like a painting hung one degree crooked.I haven't seen Scott properly since that day. He showed up to classes, sat in the back row like always, answered questions in that flat, clipped voice he’d started using. No pranks. No smirks. Just… absence wearing his face.Lyra was better at pretending. She cracked jokes, hanged upside-down while reading, teased me like how she was does. But even she had shadows under her eyes that no amount of vampire glamour could hide. They told us what happened with the monks and what they went through so I guess they still need time to process.That morning
Julianna POVFour days.That was how long Lyra and Scott had been gone, and by the fourth morning, fear had stopped being loud. It settled instead—heavy, dull, and purple, like a bruise no one wanted to press.The academy felt wrong without them.People still trained. Bells still rang. But every corridor carried the same unspoken question: What if they don’t come back? No one said it out loud. Saying it felt like inviting it to be true.Lily hadn’t slept.I knew because she was still in the lower hall when the sun rose, chalk smudges on her hands, eyes rimmed red, strands of her hair slipping free from the tight braid she always wore when working magic. The floor beneath her was a web of glowing circles—layered, complex, carved so deeply into the stone that the runes pulsed even when she stepped away.“This one should work,” Lily said hoarsely, straightening. Her voice echoed through the hall, too loud in the quiet.Cameron leaned against a pillar, arms folded. “You said that about th
Darius POVThe iron door of the cell groaned as it sealed behind me, the sound echoing like a final judgment. The chamber was small, barely wider than my outstretched arms, carved from black stone that drank the torchlight. No windows. No air that moved. Only the faint drip of water somewhere unseen, and the slow crawl of my own shadow stretching across the floor.I sat with my back against the wall, knees drawn up, wrists still raw from the manacles they'd removed only hours ago. The fight had drained out of me—not from exhaustion, but from something deeper. Acceptance, perhaps. Or surrender. I had failed. My brother remained ash and memory. The ritual had collapsed in fire and screams, and now the price had come due.The torches flickered. The shadows deepened.From the corner where the darkness pooled thickest, something stirred.It began as a ripple, like ink bleeding through water. Then the shadow lifted from the floor, coiling upward in slow, deliberate spirals. I caught my brea
Lyra POVThe mountain hadn’t stopped groaning since Death left. Low rumbles rolled through the stone like distant thunder trapped underground, as if the rock itself was trying to forget what had happened here. I couldn’t blame it.I sat slumped against a cracked pillar, legs splayed out in front of me like a broken doll. Every inch of me felt hollowed out. My veins were cold strings, my heart a sluggish drum that barely remembered how to beat. The borrowed ring on my finger had gone dark and cold hours ago. My mana almost drained. I hadn’t taken it off yet. I wasn’t sure I could lift my arm that high.Across the chamber, Scott lay on his back where he’d fallen. His chest rose and fell in shallow, uneven hitches. Blood had dried in dark streaks from the corner of his mouth down his neck, mixing with the dust that coated everything. The poison—benchedstone, was still working. I could smell it on him: sharp, metallic, like rust and ozone. His skin looked gray under the fractured blue lig
Scott POVThe words left Darius’s lips like a crack in the world.“I call upon thee.”Kael struggled to his feet, one hand braced against the fractured pillar, voice raw. “Stop this. Brother.”Darius didn’t even glance back.“Come forth, Death.”Silence swallowed the chamber. Not the quiet of an empty room — the silence of everything holding its breath. The lanterns guttered. Blue mana flickered and died along the walls. Even the low hum of the mountain’s wards faded until there was only the sound of our ragged breathing.Then she arrived.Not with thunder or shadow. She simply was. A figure stepped from the dark between one heartbeat and the next — tall, cloaked in black so deep it drank the light. No face at first, just the suggestion of one beneath the hood: pale, smooth, ageless. Eyes like twin voids, reflecting nothing. When she moved, the air grew







