جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 140

Zara’s POV The whispers had done their work. It didn’t matter that I’d been unconscious when the rumors spread, didn’t matter that my fire had come out by accident in training. By the time I was strong enough to walk again, the professors had already decided my fate. I was “to be temporarily restrained from attending classes,” their words echoing in my mind like a gavel striking. Restrained. As though I were dangerous. As though I hadn’t spent years keeping my head down, trying to disappear. Now the entire Academy stared at me like I was a bomb waiting to explode. So here I was—trapped in my dorm room while everyone else lived life outside. The muted sounds of students training in the courtyard filtered through the open window, clashing swords, barked commands, the laughter of groups moving between classes. Life went on, only without me in it. At first, the restraint felt like another punishment. A reminder that I wasn’t normal. But the longer I stayed inside, the more I realize

Alex’s POV Saturday should’ve been the best day of the week. A break from training, no professors breathing down my neck, no classmates whispering about who beat who in duels. Just a day to disappear, to breathe. But there was no air left for me these days—not when Zara was locked away from classes, not when every hallway echoed with her name like a curse. I’d tried to shake it off all week, bury myself in routine, but her eyes wouldn’t leave me alone. The way she’d looked that day in the training ground—terrified, fire dripping from her like she was choking on her own body—played in endless loops in my head. And I… I’d been one of the voices pushing her, pressing her, hating her. I told myself she deserved it, that she’d stolen too much, ruined too much. But standing there, watching her break, I’d felt something twist in me. Maybe I’d been wrong. So when Saturday came, I didn’t ask for permission. I told the school I needed leave for “personal reasons,” and no one questioned me.

Atlas’s POV I’d combed nearly every corner of this cursed academy and still found nothing. The library. The training grounds. The courtyard where she usually lingered when she wanted space. Even the dorm hall where her room sat locked away under the school’s orders. Empty. Zara had vanished. By the time I circled back toward to the dorm, a gnawing irritation chewed at me from the inside out. My patience was wearing thin, each second feeding the ache in my chest and the anger in my gut. I could have asked. Zarek. Jace. Maybe even Liam. But that would mean lowering myself to the last thing I wanted: admitting they knew something I didn’t. That they had access to her I was denied. No. I clenched my fists in my pockets, jaw tight. She should have come to me. She should have trusted me. I cut across the courtyard, shadows from the late sun stretching long against the stones, when movement at the front gates caught my eye. There she was. Zara pushed through the iron gates with hea

Zara The flames didn’t start with a spark. They erupted all at once—roaring, raging, devouring everything in their path. One second, I was standing in the middle of the academy courtyard, and the next, fire leapt from my fingertips, curling around me like a living thing hungry for destruction. The sky turned black with smoke. Screams cut through the night air. I saw faces—students, teachers, even strangers whose names I didn’t know—all twisted with terror as the fire spread from building to building, swallowing the academy whole. Their voices begged, pleaded, cried for mercy, but the fire didn’t listen. Neither did I. Because it was mine. I stumbled back, horrified, only to see my hands glowing brighter, scales flickering over my skin. The flames licked up the walls of the library, devouring the shelves, then wrapped themselves around the dormitory windows. Students pounded against the glass, their faces desperate as the heat warped the stone. “No,” I whispered, clutching my hea

Zarek I should’ve been furious. I should’ve been storming across the academy grounds, ready to tear Atlas limb from limb and wring the truth out of Talia’s sly little mouth. But instead, I couldn’t stop laughing. Not the polite kind, either. Not a little chuckle or smirk. No, it was the type of laugh that bubbled up from my chest and I should've lipped out every few minutes no matter how hard I tried to smother it. Because the image wouldn’t leave me. Atlas pinning Talia to the wall. His hand on her waist like some lovesick fool. The two of them whispering about Kai’s death like conspirators in some pathetic play, thinking no one could ever overhear them. All this time, I’d been looking in the wrong direction. Alex with her sharp tongue. Jace with his overbearing need to play hero. Even Seraphine with her secrets. I’d suspected them all, circled them like prey. But Atlas? And Talia? Together? I nearly doubled over the first time the laugh burst out of me in the cafeteria. Ev