While I stared at the mess I’d made, the others stood frozen in shock, their faces pale, their eyes wide with horror.
Finally, it was Matthew who broke the quiet, and a faint note of disbelief cut through the thick air. “Well,” he said, glancing around at the drenched room, “you managed to ruin the whole place in less than a second.”
I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. I was completely numb.
But then Nino spoke instead, her shock hardly concealed. “0.87 seconds,” she said softly. “You’re officially below the second mark.”
What the hell? The entire room was soaked in blood, andthatwas what mattered?That’swhat they cared about—while power still surged through me, raw and untamed, the edges of my control still unraveling?
Philip stepped forward, his voice steadier than the other’s. “Before we deal with…this,” he gestured toward the blood, his expression tightening. “Here.”
He held out a small, five-pronged weapon. “You’ve earned your Skindo,” he said, holding my stare with quiet intensity. “Imbue it and find a Healer to set your tattoo. Congratulations.”
The rest of the class remained in stunned silence, their wide-eyed stares piercing through me. No one said a word. No one moved. They only watched me.
I didn’t wait for permission to leave. I simply took my new weapon, turned, and walked away from them, their gazes trailing after me like a curse I couldn’t shake.
The door opened with a soft hiss, and as I stepped out into the hall, the emptiness swallowed me whole. No words of congratulations. No pats on the back. Only the hollow echo of my footsteps as I retreated into the quiet, into the dark.
I was alone now.
And the darkness was my only company.
I wasn’t crying. I wasn’t in pain. I wasn’t anything. I only…existed.
Lying on my bed, the memories of the day played on repeat in my mind.Blood. So much blood.
Then. A soft knock. Probably James who would’ve heard about the incident by now.
I rose to my feet and walked to the door slowly, not ready to face what I had done just yet. I opened the door, fully expecting my boyfriend to greet me, but to my surprise, it was Sean McGrath who stood there.
His eyes widened at the sight of me, and I remembered the red horror still staining my clothes.
“What thehellhappened to ye?” Sean gasped, his accent familiar and warm despite the shock in his voice.
I quickly translated the blood away, my clothes returning to normal, but I shook my head, signaling I wasn’t in the mood to talk about it.
“Ye know, at Crown, we talk ‘bout stuff with our friends,” Sean pressed, undeterred.
I snorted, crossing my arms. “I’ve met youonce. ‘Friend’ might be a bit of an overstatement.”
Sean winced, and the flicker of hurt that crossed his features made me immediately regret the harshness of my words. I hadn’t meant to be so cutting, but everything was kind of crashing down on me at the moment.
“Sorry,” I muttered, glancing away. “You caught me at a bad time.”
Sean nodded, his tone instantly softening. “Well, talkin’ might’ve been an overstatement as well. I meant drinkin’. I hear ye like Scotch?”
My head shot up before I could stop myself, and Sean’s grin widened like he’d won the award for most creative idea. “Ah. Seems like I found the magic word.”
I smirked. “Good thing too, for a magician. What did you have in mind?”
He swirled his hand and translated a fourteen year-old Finn Thomson, holding it up like an offering, letting the label do allthe talking. And, gods help me, it did. One look at the year, and any intention of denying him my company, evaporated like a gambler’s last chip in a high-stakes poker game.
“All right, let’s go,” I conceded, a little easier than expected. Honestly, I needed the distraction. And Scotch was as good a place to start as any.
I didn’t bother asking where we were headed. Didn’t care, either. If he was leading me into an ambush, well, at least that would be a fun change of pace.
With the effortless confidence of someone who probably portaled in his sleep, he flicked his Nexus, and reality folded around us. The Academy’s dull, suffocating walls vanished, replaced by a familiar riverbank. Peaceful. Serene.
