All Chapters of Book One of the Rosewood Trilogy: The Broken Sanctum: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

The gym door swung closed behind the girl.For a moment I watched the spot where she had disappeared down the street.Small.Dark hair.Green eyes.And somehow she’d been here long enough for the gym owners to know her routine.Yet I’d never noticed her before.That bothered me more than it probably should have.“Something interesting out there?”Bastian’s voice came from behind me.I leaned against the doorframe, shoving my hands into my pockets.“Who’s the girl?”He didn’t even bother looking outside.“Which one?”“The one who just left.”Now he glanced toward the door.Recognition flickered across his face almost immediately.“Her.”“Yeah. Her.”Bastian crossed his arms.“Leave her alone.”I raised an eyebrow.“That wasn’t the question.”“It’s still the answer.”Bjorn barked a laugh from the front desk.“Kid’s been working her ass off in here every night.”I glanced back.“She’s new?”“No,” Bjorn said. “You’re just blind.”That earned a smirk from Bastian.Apparently this was enter

I was late.Which almost never happened.But my mother had decided tonight—of all nights—to corner me before I left.Apparently demons ruling parts of Hell and organizing their children’s lives were two very different skill sets.“Just one minute,” she’d said.One minute had turned into twenty.Which meant the guys were already downstairs waiting for me.I pushed through the gym doors at a fast walk, already tugging my shirt over my head.The familiar hum of the building wrapped around me immediately—weights clanking, someone grunting through a lift, the dull thud of a punching bag somewhere deeper inside.Good.The gym entrance was still open.That meant the back hall should be clear.I tossed my shirt over one shoulder as I cut through the main floor, heading straight for the locker room hallway that led to the hidden stairwell.Tonight was going to be a good fight.I could feel it already.That restless buzz under my skin had been building all day.ONly one day left until Rosewood

The roar of the crowd grew louder the closer I got to the hidden stairwell.Good.That meant the fights were already underway.I jogged down the narrow steps two at a time, the familiar electric energy of the underground arena hitting me before I even reached the bottom.Heat.Sweat.Magic.And the thick, buzzing anticipation of a crowd ready to see someone get hurt.Perfect.The cage stood in the center of the room, iron bars gleaming under the lantern lights while bodies pressed close around the ring.Bets were already changing hands.The smell of blood hung faintly in the air.I pushed through the crowd toward the fighters’ area along the back wall.Zeke spotted me first.“Finally.”He stepped forward, arms crossed over his broad chest, grey-blue eyes narrowing slightly.“All good?”I nodded once.“Yeah.”That was enough explanation for him.Zeke clapped a hand against my shoulder before stepping back.Inside the cage, Calyx was already moving.Cal—because he insisted on shortening

Everything looked the same.And yet…It felt completely different.I adjusted the strap of my bag on my shoulder and stepped farther inside the wards.Almost immediately I noticed the groups.They were impossible to miss.Students clustered together based on what everyone here understood without needing to say it out loud.Status.Power.Family name.The highest-ranking families stood closest to the administration building, their conversations easy and confident as they greeted one another like old friends.Further down the path gathered the middle-tier families.Strong bloodlines, respectable magic, but not powerful enough to sit on the council.And at the edges—The rest of us.Students arriving alone.Students whose families had already left.Students who knew exactly where they stood in Rosewood’s carefully arranged hierarchy.Nothing had changed.I walked past them quietly.Ahead of me the massive training arena rose behind the main academic buildings, its stone walls catching th

For a moment, no one spoke.Then Cassian laughed.It wasn’t a surprised laugh.It was cruel.Sharp.The kind of laugh meant to cut.“Oh this is good,” he said, turning toward Lilliana with an amused shake of his head.“You hear that?”He gestured lazily toward me.“She’s asking for angel uniforms.”Lilliana blinked at me.Then her lips slowly curled into a smile.“Angel uniforms?” she repeated.Cassian snorted.“Yes. Apparently our dear sister thinks she has wings now.”They both laughed.The sound echoed against the stone walls of the office.I stood very still.My fingers curled slightly at my sides, nails pressing into my palms.Cassian looked back at me, his dark eyes full of open contempt.“Look at her,” he said to Lilliana.“This is the stain on our family.”His voice dripped with disgust.“Or so her mother claimed.”My stomach twisted.“She swore up and down that Father had fallen in love with her,” he continued mockingly.“Tragic story, really.”Lilliana giggled.“But we all k