All Chapters of Assassin of Alpha Academy: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

Lyra’s POVThe second we hit the trees, the whole world changed.The brick buildings of Alpha Academy disappeared behind us, swallowed by thick branches, damp leaves, and the kind of shadows that made it hard to tell what was real and what was about to jump out and rip your throat open. The academy had always felt like a cage, but the woods surrounding it felt worse. At least inside the brick walls, I knew what was trapping us. Out here, everything looked endless, and somehow that made it feel even more dangerous.Mud squeezed between my toes with every step, cold and disgusting, but I didn’t slow down. I couldn’t. My lungs burned, my legs ached from the fight, and my palms still stung from dropping out the window, but none of that mattered because the howls behind us were getting closer.Too close.Rowan ran beside me, one hand still gripping his dagger, the other clenching the strap of his bag like he was seconds away from throwing it a

Lyra’s POV Amber should have been here. Rolling her eyes, drinking some overpriced coffee from Ravenmere, telling us we looked like we’d been dragged through hell because we kind of had been. Instead, her car sat abandoned in a parking lot while she was trapped with Alpha Richard, bruised and bound to a monster old enough to be her father. Kael had gone quiet. I glanced at him despite myself. His face was unreadable, but his pain bled through the bond in sharp, jagged pieces before he locked it down. He’d loved her. Or thought he did. Maybe from a distance, maybe from one childhood meeting that had grown into something too big inside his head. I didn’t know. I didn’t want to know. Except I did. And that annoyed me even more. Cassian crouched near the edge of the trees, watching the parking lot. “Two guards near the main entrance. One near the far row. No one by the blue SUV.” “That feels too easy,” I said. “It’s not easy,” Rowan muttered. “It’s the universe being too

Lyra’s POV Rowan took another sharp turn, and the SUV fishtailed before catching again. “We have company.” Everyone turned. Behind us, far down the maintenance road, headlights appeared between the trees. Then another set. Then another. My stomach dropped. “How the hell did they find us already?” Kael leaned forward between the seats, eyes narrowing as he looked through the back window. “They’re not following scent anymore.” Cassian cursed. “Amber’s car.” Rowan’s face hardened. “Tracker?” “Probably,” Cassian said. I pressed my head back against the seat and laughed once. “Of course. Of course the stolen car we felt guilty about stealing also tells everyone exactly where we are.” Rowan’s jaw clenched. “I can disable it.” Kael looked at him. “While driving?” “No, Kael, I’m going to pull over and ask the pack soldiers chasing us if they mind waiting a few minutes.” “Can you disable it or not?” Rowan didn’t answer right away. That was answer enough. Cas

Lyra’s POV The first wolf slammed into the back of the SUV hard enough to make the whole vehicle fishtail. I grabbed the door handle with one hand and the edge of the seat with the other as Cassian cursed under his breath, yanking the steering wheel to keep us from flipping straight into a tree. Gravel sprayed behind us, pinging against metal as the tires fought for grip on the narrow dirt road. My shoulder slammed into Kael’s, and pain shot up my arm, but I barely felt it over the burn in my feet and the insane pounding of my heart. “Tell me that wasn’t what I think it was,” Rowan shouted from the front passenger seat. “That depends,” I snapped, twisting around to look through the shattered back window. “Do you want me to lie?” Another wolf burst from the trees behind us, huge and dark and fast as hell, its paws tearing into the road like the dirt personally offended it. Two more followed, and then another. Their bodies blurred between the branches, eyes glowing in the dark

Lyra’s POV My throat tightened before I could stop it, and I looked away because I would rather be eaten alive by the wolves outside than cry in front of any of them. Weakness got you killed in Aurelia. Weakness got you punished. Weakness made you useful to someone stronger who would gladly shove a blade in your hand and call it purpose. “I don’t care what you think,” I muttered. Kael stepped closer. “Yes, you do.” My eyes snapped to his. “Do not pretend you know me.” His face shifted, pain flickering through his expression so fast I almost missed it. “I’m not pretending.” The bond burned. I hated that stupid bond. I hated the way it made things harder to deny. I hated that when Kael looked at me like that, I could feel how much of his anger was really fear. Not just for himself. For me. And I hated most of all that some damaged, exhausted, traitorous part of me wanted to lean into it. Cassian crouched in front of me, his red hair falling over his forehead, his