I felt it before I understood it—a press of ancient awareness, coiling at the edge of my necromancy like it had been waiting for me to arrive.
A cold shudder climbed up my spine.
You okay? The words came out thin. Stupid. I already knew the answer.
I’m fine. Flat. Empty. Her voice without her in it.
Lucas pushed back from the table, his chair scraping against stone and his familiar taking flight. Raven? You’ve been off all morning, but this—
I said I’m fine. Her voice was sharper now, not hers anymore, just coming from her mouth.
Scout went rigid against my arm.
Raven…
Her eyes were still black, same familiar features. But something old and hungry stared out from behind them.
The master was looking at me through her. I knew it without knowing exactly how. This wasn’t Raven anymore.
Aurora stood slowly. Marigold, what’s wrong with her eyes?
Lucas, Aurora, move—
Too late.
Reddish-black magic erupted from Raven’s hands—no trace of normal necromancy, nothing meant to exist. It lashed across the table, slamming into Lucas’s chest.
He hit the floor hard, blood already spreading across the stone.
Lucas!
Aurora dropped to her knees beside him. No, no, no… Her hands pressed against the wound, blood pooling between her fingers. Lucas, stay with me…
Wards blared above us—sharp, magical tones that meant active threat. Librarians scrambled to contain the exits, herding students away while trying not to panic. Somewhere in the distance, I heard someone shouting for the Shroud Guard.
I edged around the table toward Raven, feeling my magic rise. The library’s dead stirred beneath my feet—old bones in the foundation, lingering echoes of lives long gone.
Raven rose slowly, the wrongness still looking out through her black eyes.
The master knows you, traitor’s daughter. The thing using Raven’s mouth smiled. He knows who you love. Who you’d bleed for. And now he knows how easy it is to take them.
Ice flooded my veins.
Raven, fight it! I stepped between her and Lucas’s bleeding body, between her and Aurora kneeling in his blood. I know you’re in there. You’re not alone.
Alone? Her laugh was bitter, broken. I’ve been alone my whole life, Marigold. You know what that’s like, right? Being the one people forget about. The one who doesn’t matter.
My throat closed.
But he saw me. Raven’s eyes—or whatever looked through them—gleamed. While you were gone, living your life, he listened. He told me I mattered. That I was important. That I could be more than invisible.
Raven, that’s not—
He gave me what you never did. The wrongness smiled with her face. Attention.
The corrupted magic lashed out again.
I dove aside, the air burning with rot and ruin.
