The meaning hung, unspoken, in the chilled air between us.Even if you live, you will be broken. You will not want him, nor he you.
“Walk away,” she urged, her voice softening with pity that stung worse than contempt. “No one would blame you. Professor Ravencrux would understand. This is the cleanest end. The kindest.”
“No sane person would choose the lashes just to stay with Ravencrux,” Kingsley cut in, his laugh a dry, scornful thing. “He isn’t worth it.”
“I’ll take the flogging.” My quiet words dropped into the stillness like a lit fuse.
I hadn’t known Nero long, and not long ago, I’d suspected him of murdering every redhead who looked like me. I’d been certain I was next. But somewhere in the chaos, in the danger, I had learned to trust the man beneath the myth. I felt him in my marrow, a recognition older than memory, a truth that defied reason.
And there was this void that had gnawed at me, a hollowed-out ache that had made me carve bloody lines into my skin. With Nero, it vanished. The abyss sealed. To have him torn away, to have the memory of that wholeness erased would be worse than anything the pain and humiliation of lashes could deliver.
Existing wasn’t living. I was done just breathing.
Stardust blinked in disbelief. “What?”
“He’s worth it.” I held her gaze in defiance before I glared at Kingsley. “Do your worst. But I am not leaving him.”
Nero’s eyes trained on me, furious tears glinting before they were gone the next instant, burned away by a hotter, darker fire.
“You understand that even if you survive the lashing, you cannotbewith him?” Stardust said, her voice edged with frustration. “That is the unchanged rule, Miss Aurelius.”
“I’ll still take it,” I said, my voice steady. “At least I’ll see him here. Even from a distance.”
“You’re a fool, girl!” Kingsley scoffed, glaring at me. “So be it. You won’t survive even three strokes anyway. Ravencrux is welcome to cradle your corpse afterward.”
“I will take the lashing for Bloom.” Nero’s voice cut through the room. All eyes turned to him. “The rule does not forbid a professor from volunteering to bear the punishment in a student’s stead.”
“Because no one has ever volunteered before!” Stardust countered.
“There’s always a first then,” Nero stated coolly. “I will take every lash for her. No one touches her. No one even looks at her wrong.”
“No, Nero,” I protested, my heart seizing. He didn’t know that I had a plan. My newly awakened weaving magic hummed beneath my skin, a secret promise of survival. “I can withstand it. I?—”
“Bloom.” His voice softened, but the command in it was iron. “Let me handle this. I won’t allow a hand to be raised against you. Anyone who harms you does not get to live. And even in death, they’ll find no peace.” He turned his gaze toward Kingsley, and the room temperature plunged. “I’ll make certain of it.”
“As Headmistress of Reaper Academy,” Stardust drawled, “I accept Professor Nero Ravencrux assuming responsibility for the breach of the cardinal rule. As he correctly notes, the code does not forbid it.”
“He’s exploiting a loophole!” Kingsley snarled.
“He’s clever.” Stardust conceded. “Too late to stop him now.”
“Then the number increases,” Kingsley countered, a vicious light in his silvery eyes. “Two hundred lashes.”
“That is excessive, even by your standards,” Stardust scoffed, though her tone was weary, not defiant. “Be reasonable. Fifty will suffice.”
“I accept,” Nero said, without hesitation.
“Then it will be Hera’s Whip,” Kingsley declared, his smirk returning, fuller and crueler. “And I will be the one to wield it.”
“Kingsley, seriously?” Stardust’s voice carried a rare, sharp rebuke.
“Or I won’t relent,” he said, his gaze fixed on Nero, hungry for concession.
“Done.” Nero’s single word was ground out between clenched teeth.
Stardust’s face paled. Kingsley’s grin widened into something truly grotesque.
Hera’s Whip.
