A bell rang once across the grounds.
The sound was deep, metallic, and ancient—a vibration that didn't just strike the ear, but rattled the very marrow of their bones.
The students froze in place.
Along the courtyard walls, the candles dimmed simultaneously, the flames shrinking until they were nothing but dying embers. For a heartbeat, the world was plunged into a suffocating, violet gloom.
Then, they brightened.
The flames surged back to life, but the light was different now—sharper, colder. The transition was complete.
Dusk had arrived. Sequence II was no longer approaching; it was here.
Keenan broke the silence, his voice light and jarringly casual against the heavy atmosphere. He leaned back, his eyes glinting with a dangerous kind of amusement.
"Before that," he said, "we should probably discuss survival."
Rowan shot him a skeptical look, his jaw tightening. "You assume we're working together."
"I don't assume friendship, Rowan. I assume you're smart," Keenan replied, his grin never reaching his eyes.
Lucian didn't join the argument. Instead, his gaze drifted to Aeris.
She understood the unspoken message immediately. This wasn't a pact of loyalty. It was alignment—temporary, fragile, and absolutely necessary. In an academy that measured appetite, you either hunted together or became the meal.
Liora's voice was small, barely audible over the sound of the rippling fountain.
"Sequence II… do we even know what it is?"
"No," Rowan said, his voice dropping an octave. "But Academy history is clear: Sequence trials escalate psychologically before they ever escalate physically."
Keenan's eyes flicked toward Aeris, his playful expression sharpening into something predatory.
"And someone here," he added, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper, "accelerated Sequence I."
The implication hung heavy in the cooling air. Aeris didn't flinch, but she felt her shadow stir in response to the attention.
"I didn't break the system," she said, her voice cutting through the heavy air with chilling calm.
"I matched it."
The words hung in the silence like a challenge.
Lucian exhaled a quiet, sharp breath. Rowan's gaze turned inward, his mind clearly re-evaluating the threat she posed. On the other side of the fountain, Keenan's grin widened—he looked genuinely pleased, as if he had finally found a game worth playing.
Only Liora looked truly worried, her eyes darting between the others as if looking for a sanity that no longer existed in this courtyard.
The bell rang a second time.
It was closer now, the metallic vibration rattling the stone beneath their boots.
Suddenly, the fountain water went still.
It wasn't a natural transition; it happened in a heartbeat. One moment it was rippling, and the next, it was a sheet of black glass, smoother than any mirror.
The reflection on its surface showed the courtyard perfectly. They could see the black ivy, the arched windows, and their own figures standing around the rim.
But Aeris noticed the anomaly first.
In the reflection, their shadows weren't following their bodies. They were turned away, facing the opposite direction.
In the water's world, their shadows were standing perfectly still, staring toward the heavy academy doors.
Waiting.
Her pulse rose again, a rhythmic drumming that echoed the tolling bell.
Deep within her, the shadow she had just "fed" stirred like a waking animal sensing prey. It didn't want to hide anymore.
It wanted to be let out.
The announcement cut through the tension like a blade.
"Sequence II candidates," the voice boomed, echoing off the high stone walls. "Assemble in the Lower Hall."
The courtyard transformed into a sea of clockwork precision. Students began moving immediately—no hesitation, no questions asked. The Academy had trained them well; obedience wasn't just a requirement here, it was a survival reflex.
As they approached the massive, iron-bound main doors, Liora leaned in, her voice a mere breath of sound.
"Does it scare you?"
[End of the chapter 10]