The alarm split the silence.
Two short, blaring screams that rattled in my chest more than my ears. The kind of sound that meant something bad was coming. The kind of sound that usually came before someone vanished and never came back.
"All assigned females, Section Nine, Hallway Theta through Kappa — face forward against the wall."
The announcement came cold and tinny from the overhead speaker. I didn't move.
I knew what that meant. Inspection. One of them. A pureblood. Maybe even a noble. And I was still sitting cross-legged on the floor like an idiot.
Around me, I heard the others shuffle to their feet in practiced silence — bare soles slapping against stone, the nervous hitch of breath, someone whispering a prayer under hers. The smell of blood — not fresh, just faint and metallic — rose with the panic. I stayed where I was. Facing the wrong way.
"I said face the wall!"
A voice. Sharp. Male. Too fast. Not one of the regular guards. Too high-ranking to hide the arrogance. I didn't need to see him to feel it — the weight of authority, the expectation that no one would dare disobey.
He grabbed my wrist and yanked me to my feet, harder than necessary.
"She's blind," someone muttered nearby. Another girl.
I didn't know her name, but I recognized her voice — the smallest in our unit, the one who cried into her sheets when she thought no one could hear.
"She can't tell which way—"
"She can stand like everyone else."
The guard twisted my arm until my shoulder burned, then shoved me toward the wall. I stumbled, catching myself with my palms. Cool stone. I pressed my forehead to it, just like they wanted.
"All girls in position. Section Nine, ready."
Another voice. Female this time. Probably a handler. I could hear her shoes clicking closer down the hall, the scent of perfume struggling to mask rot. The air shifted again. Everyone around me held their breath.
Then... silence.
A silence that scraped.
You don't need eyes to feel something unnatural enter a room.
It was like the air was being vacuumed out. Like the building itself bowed in reverence. A thousand things I couldn't name bent to make space for one.
He was here.
Whoever he was, he hadn't spoken yet. But I could feel it — like someone standing behind you, watching, daring you to move.
One step.
I heard a few boots. The rustle of a cloak. The distinct stop of motion beside me. Right beside me.
I didn't move. Not even a twitch.
Then nothing.
No breath.
No words.
Whoever he was, he stood there — in front of me — long enough for my stomach to knot.
Long enough to make me sweat.
Long enough for me to wonder if he was going to kill me.
And then… he walked on.
No words.
No orders.