Chapter 13: Blood Price
The ground trembled beneath them, the stones groaning as if the academy itself were in pain. Evan pressed a hand to his chest—where the dagger had been, where the cage of light had burned inside him—and felt only empty, ragged flesh. The storm was gone. Truly gone.
But something else hummed in its place.
Aria was already moving toward the stairs, her stolen alchemy bottles clinking at her belt. "We need to go. Now."
Rowan didn't argue. He hauled Evan up, his grip unyielding. "Can you walk?"
Evan nodded, though his legs shook. The absence of his magic was a raw, screaming void. He had spent his whole life with the storm beneath his skin—its sudden silence was worse than any wound.
Isolde hesitated, her gaze lingering on the dagger embedded in the stone. "We can't leave it."
"We have to," Rowan said. "If Caine finds us here—"
The door above them burst open.
Not Caine.
Mira Solene stood at the top of the stairs, her crimson hair wild, her hands wreathed in flames. But the fire wasn't aimed at them.
"Run," she snarled.
Behind her, the hallway burned.
The academy was coming apart.
Walls cracked like eggshells, veins of black ooze spreading through the mortar. Students and faculty alike ran in chaos, some screaming, others frozen in place as if the very air had turned to glass.
Mira didn't slow. She led them through the carnage, her flames clearing paths where debris blocked the way. "Caine's lost it," she spat. "He's trying to reopen the rift himself."
Evan's breath came in sharp gasps. "Why?"
Mira's laugh was bitter. "Because he'd rather burn the world than admit he was wrong."
A section of ceiling collapsed ahead of them. Mira blasted it aside, but the effort left her swaying.
Rowan caught her arm. "You're hurt."
She shook him off. "Worry about yourselves."
The courtyard was no safer.
The sky had turned the color of a fresh bruise, the clouds churning in unnatural spirals. At the center of the storm stood Headmaster Caine, his arms outstretched, his mouth moving in a chant that made Evan's teeth ache.
And beside him—
Kai Mercer, his body no longer human.
Water and shadow twisted together beneath his skin, his form flickering like a reflection in a disturbed pond. His eyes, when they met Evan's, were full of agony.
"Help," he mouthed.
Then Caine's chant reached its crescendo.
The ground split open.