All Chapters of THE ALPHA ACADEMY: THE REJECTED HEIR: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

"What is that," Dorian shouted, already backing away from the ridge."I don't know!" Ashen shouted back. "Bigger! That's all I've got right now!""Helpful!""I'm working on it!"The creature moved wrong, too smooth, too fast for something its size, and every soldier near the valley floor scattered as it crashed through the fire line like the flames were an inconvenience rather than a barrier."Lira, get down from there!" Kael was already climbing toward her position, panic sharpening his voice."I'm fine!""You are not fine, that thing is looking directly at you!""I noticed, thank you!"She scrambled down the rocky slope anyway, more from instinct than obedience, boots sliding on loose stone as the creature's roar shook dust loose from the ridge above her."Veyra!" she shouted. "Any ideas?""Working on it!""That's what everyone keeps saying!""Because nobody's fought one of these before!" Veyra shouted back, sprinting toward her. "Give me a minute!""We don't have a minute!"The cre

"We need to understand what stopped that creature," Ashen said, spreading fresh notes across the war table the moment they'd returned to House Sten's capital. "The light Lira produced. If we can replicate or amplify that, we might actually have a real countermeasure for the Convergence Moon.""I don't know how I did it," Lira admitted. "It just happened.""Then we figure out how to make it happen on purpose," Ashen said. "Show me. Right now, if you can.""Here?""Unless you'd rather wait until we're facing another monster to find out if it works twice."Fair point. Lira closed her eyes, reaching for whatever she'd touched in the valley, that surge of gold light born from fear and desperation and something older than either.Nothing happened."Try again," Ashen said.She tried. Still nothing."This is harder without something trying to kill me," she admitted, frustration creeping in."Then we need to understand the trigger," Ashen said. "What were you feeling, exactly, in that moment?"

They rode out at dawn, the combined forces of all four Houses stretching considerably further than anything Lira could have imagined when she'd first arrived at the Academy as a nameless servant girl."Formation's holding steady," Rurik reported, riding alongside the main column. "House Sten's cavalry on the flanks, House Thorne's infantry at the center, House Vale's scouts running ahead.""And House Voss," Kael added, "holding the rear guard, ready to reinforce wherever the line needs it most.""Four Houses," Dorian said, something almost disbelieving in his voice. "Actually moving together. I still can't quite get over it.""Get over it fast," Ashen said. "We'll need every ounce of that cooperation in two days."Lira rode near the column's center, flanked deliberately by all four Princes, a positioning Kael had insisted on despite her protests that it made her an obvious target."That's exactly the point," Kael had told her that morning. "Let him see it. Let him understand exactly w

Malachai moved with speed Lira hadn't anticipated, closing the distance between them before she could fully brace herself, his own power flaring dark and considerable around clenched fists."You've improved," he said, deflecting her first attempt at the golden light with something that looked almost like shadow given solid form. "Considerably faster than I expected.""Good teachers," Lira said, echoing her earlier words to Ashen, pressing forward despite the impact rattling through her arms.Around them, the battle raged on, Kael and Veyra holding the tunnel entrance against wave after wave of Hollow Ones, Ashen working frantically at the chamber's carved symbols, Maren fighting with fierce, desperate determination near the altar itself."You still think this ends with you winning," Malachai said, forcing her backward with a surge of dark energy. "Even now, even here.""I think it ends with you finally listening instead of forcing," Lira said, catching her balance and pushing forward

Word of the compound's fall reached the Academy well before the returning party did, messenger hawks carrying news considerably faster than exhausted horses could manage, and by the time Lira and the others finally rode through the Academy gates, the full governing council had already convened, awaiting their formal report with visible anticipation."Tell us everything," the presiding official said, once they'd gathered in the same assembly hall that had witnessed so many pivotal moments these past months. "From the compound's discovery to the ritual's disruption."Lira relayed the account carefully, honestly, including Malachai's capture and her own request for leniency given the circumstances that had shaped his eighteen years of grief and misdirected fury.The council's reaction proved considerably more measured than Lira had feared, the earlier hostility that once greeted every mention of unconventional mercy now tempered by months of genuine, hard won cooperation between the Hous