LOGINLESSIE’S POVSomething was pulling me apart.I could not feel my hands or my face. I could not tell where my legs were. I did not know if I was breathing. All I could sense was sound. Slow beeping. Too slow. Like it belonged to someone who had already stopped existing. The noise dragged through my skull with empty hollowness.Beep.Pause.Beep.Pause.I waited for pain to arrive, or voices, or movement, but none of those things came. Instead, something darker spread across me, swallowing me whole until all that existed was nothing.Then a whisper moved through the darkness.It was Ethan’s voice.His voice sounded like static and wind brushing through autumn leaves. Not everything is as it seems.My heart clenched. I tried to answer him, but I could not move my mouth.Trust no one.Ethan? My voice echoed inside my own skull, silent yet desperate.Trust no one… not even those you love most.Then the darkness flipped.It did not fade gradually. It shattered, breaking apart into blinding
PROFESSOR DANTEThe phone would not stop ringing. It felt like the shrill sound was drilling straight through my skull. My head pounded with exhaustion and leftover painkillers. I groaned and grabbed the pillow, dragging it over my face, hoping to mute the noise and sleep for just five more minutes.I deserved five minutes.Just five.I had barely slept since the Council hearing. My body ached from pushing through wards and barriers to reach Lessie in that ritual chamber. Every muscle felt bruised. My mind was heavier than stone. All I wanted was silence.The phone kept screaming.I cursed under my breath and reached for it, planning to switch it off entirely. My vision was blurry as I slid my thumb across the screen.Unknown number.Four missed calls.One text message.I blinked at the words.Come to University Medical. Urgent.My pulse skipped.I sat up slowly, dread crawling through my stomach. I stared at the message again and again, trying to calm myself.Another buzz.The same
LESSIEI could still hear the echo of my own scream bouncing around the shattered ritual chamber. The silver fire that had burst from my chest left drifting motes of light floating through the smoky air like glowing snow. The floor beneath me was still trembling, vibrating through my palms as I pressed them against the cracked tiles just to stop myself from collapsing face first.Everything burned. My bones, my lungs, my skin, even my tears felt hot against my cheeks as they slid down. When I tried to breathe, my ribs shook as if lightning had been packed between them.The chains that once held me lay around me in melted puddles. The ancient runes were gone, as if dissolved by that explosion of power. Celeste staggered near the far wall, shielding her eyes from the lingering silver light, snarling with rage and disbelief. Her white robe was scorched in several places, the skin beneath blistered and peeling.I knelt on the broken ritual floor, panting, weak, my vision shifting between
LESSIEI never imagined silence could feel loud, but the deeper Celeste led me beneath the university, the more every breath echoed against the stone walls like thunder. Each footstep vibrated along a trail of ancient stairs, spiraling downward into darkness that smelled of old incense, blood, dust and secrets I wished I never had to know. The torches lining the corridor flickered weakly, gasping against the cold air, and the shadows they cast stretched long and crooked across the stone floor.Celeste walked ahead of me with a confidence that made my skin crawl. She hummed softly under her breath and the sound almost felt mocking.I swallowed. "Where are you taking me?"She did not turn. "To your destiny."My fists balled at my sides. Destiny. Everyone kept using that word like it belonged in my mouth, like I wanted any of this, like being claimed and dragged and trained was something I asked for.The hallway opened into a cavernous room and I froze in the entrance. The ritual chambe
PROFESSOR CELESTE The moment I stepped onto the podium, silence folded itself around me like a held breath.Power always changed a room before words ever could. I felt it in the way the elders stiffened, in the way the torches flared just a fraction brighter, in the way Dante’s fury slammed against my senses like a wild animal testing the bars of its cage.I rested my hands on the cold stone. I had learned long ago that men feared calm confidence far more than shouting.“I believe,” I said evenly, “that this entire spectacle could have been avoided if the truth had been acknowledged sooner.”A murmur spread through the Council chamber. Curious now. Irritated. Alert.I turned slowly, letting my gaze sweep across them all. Elders. Alphas. “I was the one who mentored Lessie,” I continued. “I guided her. I prepared her. Her power did not awaken in chaos. It awakened under pressure. Under neglect.”Dante’s snarl echoed sharp and raw. “Shut up and stop saying nonsense.”I smiled faintly b
LESSIE They dragged me into the chamber like I was a criminal.Stone scraped against my boots as I was forced forward, the massive doors slamming shut behind me with a sound that echoed straight through my bones. The Council chamber was circular, built to make anyone standing at its center feel small. Torches burned high along the walls, their flames unnaturally steady, casting sharp light that made shadows cling to every carved symbol etched into the stone floor beneath my feet.I stood in the center of the circle. Alone.My wrists were not bound, but it did not matter. My silver markings glowed faintly through my skin, reacting to the power in the room, to the ancient magic woven into the Council itself. I tried to calm my breathing, tried to steady the Crest thrumming beneath my ribs, but it pulsed like a living thing.I lifted my chin anyway.If they wanted to see a threat, I would not give them the satisfaction of seeing fear.One of the elders stepped forward, his robes brushin







