THE ARRIVAL:
The skies above the Warborn Kingdom were a permanent shade of storm-gray, as if the clouds themselves had been carved from iron. Sharp winds howled down from the jagged peaks beyond the academy walls, rattling the banners that bore the crest of House Thornhart—a black sword entwined with thorns. The kingdom was a place of warriors, of conquest, of strength forged in steel and blood.
Liora Vale stepped off the iron carriage, boots touching Warborn soil for the first time. She wrapped her worn gray cloak tighter around her slender frame and glanced up at the towering academy gates. The obsidian spires loomed like fangs against the horizon.
This place wasn't meant for girls like her—quiet, bookish, foreign. Especially not from Wyrmere.
She could already feel the stares. Students in deep crimson uniforms with silver trim parted in clusters across the stone courtyard, each group turning to glance at the new arrival. Whispers trailed behind her like cobwebs.
"Who is she?"
"From Wyrmere? I thought that place was abandoned."
"She won't last a week."
Liora said nothing. She moved with steady steps, eyes lowered but alert, committing every detail of her surroundings to memory—the guards' placements, the escape routes, the way shadows stretched across the flagstones.
Then she felt it: a presence. Cold and sharp, like a blade pressed to her spine.
She looked up—and met his eyes.
Riven Thornhart stood at the top of the marble steps, surrounded by his usual court of admirers and sycophants. Seventeen years old, the youngest student ever to lead the Bladeward Council. Tall, broad-shouldered, his black academy coat open just enough to reveal the scarred collarbone beneath. Hair the color of midnight. Eyes like burning coals.
He was beautiful. And deadly.
A smirk curled his lips as he descended the steps, slow and deliberate. The crowd parted for him like frightened prey.
"You must be lost," he said, voice smooth and venom-laced. "The kitchens are that way. Unless Wyrmere's sending their maids to class now?"
Liora looked at him fully. Her gaze was calm. Unshaken.
"I'm exactly where I'm meant to be," she replied softly.
The smirk faltered.
And for the first time in his life, Riven Thornhart didn't know what to say.