INICIAR SESIÓNAuthorThe courtyard had not been quiet. never in storms, not in drills, not in the early-morning rush of students hurrying to their classes. But in that time, when the storm seemed to look like it had passed, the world was suspended.Then the real deal began.Isolde Vale was standing on the broken stone in her bare feet, with her hair floating all around in a halo of wild light, and her body tearing away on the edges. She was melting, fainting, into a column of golden-white radiance which winked like a candle in the eye of hurricane.Kol, Aria, Elias, Dr. Vale, the Redwood guards, the twins, and Emory were all frozen around her. All of them were watching the same phenomenon:The time when the girl ceased being a girl. The moment she became light.The storm itself over her head broke, and the lightning flashed in veins as bright as day. The rain began falling sideways, not upon her, as if the water seemed to know her, and to be ashamed of the concept of itself in her light.And then I
AuthorThrough the chaos of the storm, a single car tore up the muddy road toward the academy gates.Inside it were Kol, Aria, Elias, and Dr. Bethel Vale, the living proof of Redwood’s greatest secret.Aria gripped the handle above the car window so tightly her knuckles had no colour left. Every strike of lightning illuminated her face, and each illumination showed a different emotion: fear, anger, resolve, fear again. Kol sat in the front seat, jaw locked, one hand clenched around his cane so hard the wood groaned. Elias drove, stiff and silent, and Vale sat shaking between them, alive, but barely tethered to sanity.When the car screeched to a stop, Aria flung her door open before the engine even shut off.The academy gates were already crowded.Redwood guards, at least a dozen, stood armed and transformed halfway, their eyes glowing, claws extended, waiting. They must have arrived only minutes earlier, moving under Alpha Ronen’s command. Their silhouettes flickered in the lightning
IsoldeI was not sure how long Emory and I sat beneath the quadrangle archway, long enough for the storm to find its way into my bones. The rain was falling fiercely on the roof above us, and so fierce as to equal the shakiness in my hands. My skin was still faintly glowing through the sleeves of my uniform a fine glimmer of molten gold under glass.I shouldn't have been awake. I should not even have lived. I felt the lightning making a second attempt to locate me.Emory knelt before me, wet, panting, chest heaving up and down, as he struggled to restrain himself. Even the thunder appeared to hesitate over him, and the storm outside was quieter.“Look at me, Isolde,” he said.I did. And his face was so open, so raw, it hurt.“Why?” I whispered. My voice cracked. “Why are you… being kind to me now? Before this, you always avoided me. You looked away when I walked into rooms. You—”He swallowed, jaw tight. A storm inside a storm.“You reminded him of someone,” he said finally. “Someone
AuthorEmory runs out from inside the school and meets his sisters and an already weak Isolde in the courtyard.“Go to the gym,” he said, trying to be steady, failing. “Find Jason. Stay with him.”Mina stared at him, shocked. “No. Emory, I’m not leaving you. Not now.”“Someone is after her,” he snapped, breath fogging in the icy rain. “A Redwood spy. They want Isolde dead.” He swallowed, chest tight. “I’m not risking anything happening to either of you. Not again.”The words landed like stones. Heavy. Painful. Familiar.Gina froze beside her sister, lightning reflecting in her wet lashes. Her voice came out small, shaky.“You… you think someone’s going to come after us too?”Emory didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. The storm answered for him.A lightning spark struck the opposite side of the courtyard and burst out in a burst of gold-white light which lighted the twisted face of Isolde. She whined, huddling up, and as though the tempest were pressing on her bones, smashing them."Pleas
EliasI don’t remember unlocking the gate. I don’t remember shifting the gear. I don’t remember driving through half a province of storm-split darkness with a half-mad man trembling beside me.What I remember, what my mind refuses to let go of, is the way Dr. Bethel Vale kept whispering his sister’s name under his breath, as if saying it was the only thread keeping him tethered to reality.“Isolde… Isolde… I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”His voice cracked on every repetition. Or maybe that was just the wind slamming against the car windows.By the time the Lannister estate came into view, I wasn’t sure whether the shaking in my hands came from exhaustion… or fear.The gates opened automatically, Kol must have sensed the car’s approach. The man had instincts sharper than any motion sensor ever built. The lights along the driveway flickered as if reacting to our arrival, or maybe to the storm escalating overhead.When I rolled to a stop in front of the estate steps, Kol and Aria were already the
EmoryI had been running with Gina what seemed to be hours, yet it was only just minutes. Branches clawed at us. Thunder roared so loud as if to make my ribs ache. And somewhere in front, up there, too near, Mina was calling my name."Emory! Over here!"Her voice cut through the rain, and all her instincts pulled to her. I held Gina by the wrist and pulled her away through the mud.We had discovered them on a clearing, which should have been nonexistent, a natural circle in which the lightning was curling inwards. Mina was on her knees upon the wet earth, with her arms round a trembling youngster, whose skin was very pale and pale under the rain.Isolde. Golden cracks were crawling on her arms, as though light were bleeding through her.Gina gasped, stumbling back. "Em... what's happening to her?"I didn't answer. I couldn't. My wolf was writhing up so that I could not see.I went up to her, "Isolde,” I said.Her eyes shot up at mine, and were round and frightened and luminous as thou







