"Go." Her voice brooked no argument. "Ada's probably frantic. Milan can help me finish here."
"I want to?—"
"Go." She pointed the knife at the door without looking up. "And Hakan? Whatever happened in those human realms, whatever you're not telling me — I trust you have your reasons. But don't keep secrets from Ada. That girl loves you more than you deserve, and secrets will destroy you both faster than any enemy.”
I kissed her forehead, breathed in the familiar scent of herbs and home, and turned to Milan.
"What happened while we were gone?"
"Three days of chaos." Milan kept his voice low, one eye on the doorway where my mother was settling into the chair. "Serkan pushed through an emergency decree the morning you disappeared — shadow-wielders to be purified on sight, no trial.Ada went to her father. I don't know exactly what she said, but by the second day Gün Ata had overruled the decree and issued a warrant of protection. Serkan's furious but he can't move against you openly. Not yet."
"Ada — is she —"
"She's been at the palace. Waiting for you." Something softened in his expression. "She's been waiting for three days, Hakan. She didn't sleep the first night. Melo had to physically sit on her to stop her trying to open a portal herself."
My shadows were frantic, moving with the anxious need of destroying something. Three days. She'd spent three days not knowing if I was alive.
"Go," Milan said. "I'll stay with your mother."
"There are things I need to tell you. About where we were. About what happened."
"I know. I could see it the moment you walked through that door." His eyes moved to the doorway where my mother was cradling her splinted hand against her chest. He looked at it for a moment with an expression that was working very hard to stay neutral and not quite managing it. "But right now she needs someone here, and you need to be somewhere else."
"She thinks we were in the mortal realms. Erlik planted the memory. She doesn't remember any of it — not him, not what he did to her. She thinks she broke her fingers in a fall."
Milan went pale. "Erlik."
"Later. When she can't overhear." I gripped his shoulder, hard enough to make my point. "Keep her believing the story. Andhave someone look at those fingers properly — a healer she trusts, not a court physician."
"Later," he said. Not a question. A promise.
I stepped out into the fading afternoon light.
* * *
The Academy hadn't changed in three days, but my relationship to it had shifted irrevocably.
I walked through the halls without bothering to hide what I was. Shadows trailed behind me like loyal hounds, curling around my boots, reaching toward the light-magic lanterns that lined the corridors. Students I'd trained beside for years pressed themselves against walls as I passed, their fear a living thing I could almost taste.
Good. Fear kept people at a distance. Fear kept them from asking questions, and I was done hiding my true nature. I was from Shadow Court, and I wasn't ashamed of it.
I found Sarp in the training yard, running drills with a group of younger students. The moment he spotted me, he dismissed them with a wave and jogged over, wiping sweat from his forehead.
"Well, well." He stopped a few feet away, looking me up and down with exaggerated concern. "Three days of unexplained absence and you come back looking like death warmed over and forgot to finish warming. Should I be concerned, or is this just your new aesthetic?"
"Hello to you too."
"Because I have to say, the whole 'brooding shadow prince' thing you've got going is very dramatic, but the under-eye circles aren't doing you any favors. Have you slept? Eaten? Contemplated the futility of existence while staring into the void? Actually, scratch that last one — knowing you, that's a daily occurrence."
Despite everything, something loosened in my chest. This was what I needed — Sarp's relentless humor, his refusal to treat me like a bomb about to explode.
"I'm fine."
"You're clearly not fine, but I appreciate the commitment to the lie." He fell into step beside me as I walked toward the main building. "So. Three days. Mysterious disappearance. Shadows acting weird." He gestured at the darkness pooling at my feet. "There's an order being circulated — something about a shadow-wielder who slaughtered twelve attackers in the Border Forest. Council's very interested in identifying this mysterious figure." His voice dropped, losing its teasing edge. "Wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"
I stopped walking. "What exactly do you know?"
"Enough." His eyes were sharp beneath the casual facade. "I've been watching you for months, Hakan. The gloves. The way you flinch when you're angry, like you're holding something back. The night Tahir died in the forest." He held up his hands when I tensed. "I'm not afraid of you. Just concerned. There's a difference."
