So me—I’ll stay right where I am, choking on laughter that isn’t mine, pretending my heart isn’t breaking right alongside hers.
***
Arwen
I slip out into the night, keeping to the long route around the academy through the quiet paths of the sparring grounds. The silence out here is strange, almost soothing under the thin wash of moonlight, like the whole place is holding its breath with me.
I don’t let myself linger. I can’t. If I stop, I’ll think, and if I think, I’ll freeze.
The woods rise ahead, dark and breathing. The air smells of earth and frost, of freedom and danger in equal measure.
I head straight in. Academy Hollow isn’t far if I cut through the forest. If I’m lucky, I can grab supplies and figure out my next step before anyone realizes I’m gone.
And they will realize.
But for once, I’m not waiting for someone else to save me. I’m moving. Planning. Choosing my next breath, my next step, my own damn fate.
Trees rise like dark sentinels around me. Daunting. But I’m not afraid of some trees. The branches scrape my coat and slap me in the face. Each step adds to my rage, fueling my movement forward.
Twigs snap under my boots as I push deeper into the woods—probably just the local creatures protesting that I’ve crashed their peaceful privacy. It’s dark, but the moonlight dripping through the canopy is enough to keep me moving without smashing into a tree. Small victories.
My bag keeps bouncing against my hip, snagging on every thorny vine the forest can throw at me. I force my breathing to steady, counting each inhale like I’m trying to wrestle my own lungs into behaving. One. Two. Three. I need my head clear. Everything else—fear, betrayal, the sting of Ryker’s voice—I shove into a mental box and slam the lid shut. Survival first. Feelings later. Maybe.
Leaves rustle to my right, too close for comfort. My heart stops and I freeze, listening. Guards? Already?
…Nothing pops out. Probably a raccoon. Or a fox. Fantastic. I’m out here jumping at woodland critters. Sadie would roast me for eternity.
The thought of her steals my focus away, and I trip over a root and eat dirt. My palms scrape against pebbles, and I wipe them on my coat,cursing the universe like it personally shoved me. Fine. physical pain is a distraction I can use.
***
Professor Nikolai Gabriel
I run my fingers over the worn leather of her last book, the one she turned in only yesterday. A simple gesture, one that looks absentminded, but the pulse of the charm I wove into its spine hums against my hand. Illegal but necessary.
The small relic on my desk quivers and glows faintly, the tiny glow darting across the map of the grounds. Too fast. Too erratic. Where are you going, little sinless?
I knew the moment she slipped into the Greed Dorms something was off. She never goes there. When the relic raced back to her dorm, lingered, and then began its careful, stumbling movement toward the outskirts of campus, I knew exactly what she was doing. She was running.
The phone rings in my ear. They had better answer fast. I have to make this quick.
“Why are you calling?” a whisper, wary, hesitant.
“We have an emergency,” I murmur, voice low, steady. My eyes never leave the glowing speck. “We have to move the timeline up.”
There’s a pause, then a skeptical reply: “Okay… to when?”
“Right now,” I say confidently. I have to maintain my composure. They need to be sure that we have this under control.
“What?” the voice on the other line hisses. “Are you insane? We can’t! We don’t have the people; we’re not prepared. Who authorized this?”
“We don’t have a choice,” I cut them off, voice hard as iron. “She’s on the move. Headed your way. I can’t leave—it would be too suspicious. No one has noticed she’s gone. Once she crosses the wards, I expect you three can handle her.” I lean back in my chair, watching the speck flicker ever closer to the border. “She’s sinless, for universe sake. And alone. What are you afraid of?”
“You and I both know what she could be capable of…” the other voice says, low and cryptic, each word laced with warning.
I grit my teeth. “Do you want to be the one to tell him we lost her?”
Silence stretches, heavy enough to smother. I can hear the faint hiss of their breath on the other end, stalling, calculating.
