Sera woke up to the smell of burnt herbs.
And the sound of two people arguing right above her head.
”I don’t care whose orders you think you’re following, get your hands off her” ”I’m a certified healer, Moreau, unlike you” ”You’re a certified headache” ”Both of you shut up,” a third voice said, sounding completely flat and tired.
It was Theron.
Sera opened her eyes slowly.
White ceiling.
Cold stone walls.
The infirmary, then.
Her head throbbed like someone was pounding a hammer from the inside.
Lucien was leaning over her bed, looking upside down from her angle.
His usual smug smile was totally gone.
Caelum stood over by the window with his arms crossed, his jaw set so tight it looked like it might snap.
”She’s awake,” Lucien said, and for once there was no joke behind his words.
Sera tried to sit up.
Bad idea.
The whole room started spinning.
”Slow down,” Caelum said without turning around from the window.
His voice had a heavy weight to it that made her actually listen.
”What happened?” Her voice came out completely raspy.
There was a glass of water sitting near her bed.
She didn’t remember drinking any of it, but her throat felt like dry sandpaper.
”You fainted,” Caelum said, still looking out the window.
”Right in the middle of the hallway while half the academy watched.” Of course they did.
”Your mark,” Lucien said, dropping his voice lower.
”It finished forming this time.
Completely.
No fading away.” Sera instinctively looked down at her palm.
There was nothing there now just plain, pale skin.
But she could still feel it.
A strange, heavy pressure right under her skin that hadn’t been there a week ago.
”How long was I out?” ”Six hours,” a voice replied from the corner.
It was a healer standing nearby, someone who hadn’t spoken until now.
Six hours.
Six whole hours of the entire academy having nothing better to do than gossip about her.
The discarded daughter who collapsed in the hall, glowing like a bright lantern.
”Great,” Sera muttered under her breath.
“Another reason for people to make fun of me.” Nobody laughed.
The heavy silence actually felt much worse.
”It’s not funny,” Caelum said, finally turning around to face her.
His blue eyes were sharp and measuring, just like they were in the corridor before he touched her hand.
”Whatever is inside you reacted to something.
I need to know what it was.” ”I don’t know,” Sera said, hating how small and quiet her voice sounded.
”I don’t know anything.
I found a note, I read it, and then everything just went white.” ”What note?” the healer asked from his chair.
Sera hesitated.
The paper was still tucked in her uniform pocket, unless someone had searched her while she was unconscious.
Which, knowing this place, was entirely possible.
”It’s still there,” Lucien said, catching her look.
”I checked.
Didn’t read it though.
I do have some standards.” ”Barely any,” Caelum muttered under his breath.
”More than you think, Your Highness.” Sera reached over her whole arm aching and pulled the paper out of her pocket.
She handed it straight to Lucien, since he seemed the least likely to burn it out of anger or spite.
He read the lines once.
His expression didn’t change, but something shifted deep in his eyes.
”Your mother’s death wasn’t an accident,” he read out loud in a low tone.
Caelum crossed the room in three quick steps and snatched the note right out of Lucien’s hand without asking.
Dead silence filled the room while he read it.
When he looked up, his face had that same blank, unreadable calm it always had.
Except his knuckles were turning white around the parchment.
”Who gave this to you?” ”I don’t know.
It was lying on the floor, so I picked it up.” ”How convenient,” Caelum said flatly.
”Are you accusing me of writing myself a fake note?” Sera snapped back, much harder than she intended.
Her head was pounding, and she was sick of being talked about like she wasn’t even sitting in the room.
”Because if I wanted attention, Your Highness, I promise you I would find a way far less embarrassing than this.” That actually got a tiny reaction out of him.
Not a smile, but closer to sheer surprise.
”No,” he said after a second.
“I’m not accusing you.” ”I’m saying someone wanted you to read this.
And they wanted you to read it right before your mark acted up.” The mood in the room shifted again.
”You think they’re connected?” the healer asked.
”I think,” Caelum said slowly, “that someone has been waiting a really long time for that mark to wake up.” ”And now that it has, they aren’t hiding the fact that they’re watching her.” Sera pulled her knees up under the blanket and wrapped her arms around them.
Six hours passed out, half the school gossiping, a note about her mother being murdered, and a stalker with perfect timing.
Just another normal Tuesday in Ravencrest’s finest academy for the magically gifted and criminally underappreciated.
”So what am I supposed to do?” she asked.
”Wait for another note?
Wait for the next fainting spell?” ”Just sit here while everyone decides what I am before I even figure it out myself?” Nobody answered her right away.
Lucien was the one who finally broke the quiet, his voice losing all of its usual polish.
”You survive,” he said softly.
“That’s the whole plan right now.” ”Survive long enough to figure out who is playing this game, and then” ”And then what?” Sera pressed him.
His smile came back, a little thin and sharp around the edges.
”And then we make sure they regret ever starting it.” Before anyone could say another word, the door slammed wide open.
An academy healer in robes stood in the doorway, out of breath with a pale face.
”Prince Caelum.
High Priest Varis is here.
He’s asking for the girl.” Everyone turned their heads toward Sera at the exact same time.
Caelum’s jaw set tight.
“Tell him she’s resting.” ”He says,” the healer swallowed hard, “he says the Temple was already informed about the mark.” ”He said it needs to be tested officially.” Sera felt all the color drain straight out of her face.
”Tested how?” she asked, even though some part of her already knew she wouldn’t like the answer.
The healer didn’t get the chance to reply.
Because behind him, in the quiet corridor, another figure was already walking toward the room.
White and gold robes, with blond hair catching the dim torchlight.
He looked like a man doing something he really didn’t want to do, but couldn’t avoid.
Kairos Elowen stopped right in the doorway.
”I’m sorry,” he said softly to everyone in the room.
”But I don’t think you’re going to have much of a choice in this.”