The clearing around the Sun-Dial was silent, but the air felt like a physical weight pressing against my skin.
I burst through the final line of silver leaved trees, my lungs burning and my vision swimming in gold. In the center of the clearing stood the Dial; a massive, rotating disk of bronze that hummed with the collective heartbeat of the Academy. I just had to touch it. I just had to end the Hunt.
But standing between me and the Dial was the one person I feared more than the hunters behind me.
Lord Valerius.
He wasn't standing with the other judges. He was leaning against a stone pillar, his face ghostly pale and his hand clutching the front of his shirt. As I approached, he looked up, and the fury in his amber eyes was enough to make me stumble.
"You," he hissed, the word coming out as a jagged rasp.
I reached for the Dial, but he moved with that terrifying, supernatural speed, intercepting me. He grabbed my shoulders, his fingers digging into the heavy fabric of my uniform.
"Do you have any idea what you just did?" he growled, his face inches from mine. "I felt it, Kaelia. I felt my soul catch fire. Every guard within five miles just felt a surge of ancient magic they haven't seen in three centuries."
"They were going to drain me!" I yelled back, trying to shake him off. "Seraphina and her goons they cornered me. What was I supposed to do? Die so you could keep your secret?"
Valerius's grip tightened, and for a second, I thought he might actually shake me. "You were supposed to run. Now, the Elders are asking questions. They saw the readout on the central clock. A spike of Golden Time just registered on the monitors."
Suddenly, his knees buckled. He let out a choked sound, his head dropping onto my shoulder.
The tether. The adrenaline was leaving my system, and the "crash" was hitting us both. Because I had overexerted the stolen magic, his body was paying the price for the stabilization. I felt his cold sweat soaking into my collar.
"Valerius?" I whispered, my anger flickering into a strange, unwanted spark of concern.
"Don't... talk," he breathed, his voice weak. "Just stay still. The connection... it needs to level out."
For a long minute, we stood there in the center of the clearing the powerful Time Lord clinging to a street thief for support. To anyone watching from the shadows, it looked like an embrace. To us, it was a survival tactic.
Slowly, his breathing evened out. He pulled away, though he kept one hand on my arm to steady himself. He looked at the cracked gauge on my wrist, where the gold light was finally dimming.
"Seraphina saw it," I said quietly. "She knows I'm not who you say I am."
Valerius wiped his brow, his composure returning like a suit of armor being buckled into place. "Then we change the play. If we can't hide the fire, we label it. From this moment on, you aren't just a distant relative."
"Then what am I?"
He looked toward the treeline, where the first of the other students were starting to emerge, looking battered and confused.
"You are my Apprentice," he said, his voice regaining its sharp. The only person in Aethelgard chosen to handle the Raw Chronos. It's a lie that puts a target on your back, but it's the only one that keeps the Elders from dissecting you on a table.
He leaned in, his eyes cold. "But make no mistake, thief. If you pull a stunt like that again without my command, I won't wait for the Elders. I'll find a way to break this tether myself, even if it kills us both."
He turned and walked toward the Sun Dial, leaving me standing alone in the dirt.
He's lying, I thought, watching his retreating back. He's terrified of me. And for the first time since I broke into that vault, I didn't just feel like a victim. I felt like a threat.