Carson Vale:
The gates were too tall.
Not in the normal, "wow, nice architecture" kind of way. No. These black iron things arched over me like they were built to keep God out.
Dominion Academy wasn't just a school. Everyone in the country knew it. Everyone feared it.
It was where the heirs of power came to sharpen their claws before inheriting the world.
And I was walking in without a single one of those claws… at least, not that they could see.
The bus that dropped me off hissed away, and I stood there in my thrift-store jacket while kids stepped out of sleek black cars, their drivers holding umbrellas to block sunlight. The air smelled expensive cologne, leather, and something faintly metallic.
Eyes.
I could feel them before I even looked up.
Dozens of them, slicing into me from across the courtyard. Laughter in pockets, low whispers. My name, muttered with mockery by people who hadn't even met me yet.
Welcome to the lions' den, Carson. Don't bleed too fast.
I kept walking. The courtyard stretched in polished stone, statues lining both sides, not saints or scholars, but warriors and kings with faces I swore I'd seen in history books. Their marble eyes followed me like they were waiting for something.
Halfway to the main building, the crowd parted not for me, but for him.
Knox Courtney.
Every story I'd heard about him was laced with the same three words: untouchable, ruthless, dangerous. He moved like he owned the air in this place, and judging by how people looked at him, maybe he did.
He smiled when he saw me.
Not friendly. The smile of someone who's already picked where your bones will be buried.
"You're Vale," he said, stopping in my path. His voice carried not loud, but sharp enough to cut through every other conversation. "Scholarship kid. Right?"
I didn't answer.
He tilted his head, pretending to think. "I guess even the Academy needs someone to clean the marble floors."
The crowd chuckled, like they'd all been paid for the laugh.
I was ready to keep walking. Really, I was. But then one of his lackeys big, smug, with hands like meat hooks stepped forward and shouldered me hard.
I looked up at him. Just looked.
Something… shifted.
The noise of the courtyard dulled, like someone pressed their palm over the world's mouth. The meat-hook boy froze mid-smirk. His eyes widened not in surprise, but in terror.
A tremor rolled through his body. His lips moved without sound, as if he was pleading with something only he could see. Then he stumbled back, pale, and bolted.
Gasps. Murmurs.
Knox's smile thinned. His gaze flickered to something behind me.
I didn't turn around. I could already feel her.
Elera Vrynx.
Even her name was a rumor that tasted like forbidden fruit. The girl I'd crushed on years ago in high school, who'd never once looked my way.
She was taller than I remembered, sharper, her beauty edged like a blade. And in this place, she was queen — feared, admired, untouchable.
But right now, she wasn't looking at Knox.
She was looking at me.
Her lips curved not a smile. Something more dangerous.
Without a word, she walked past Knox, past the gawking students, and stopped beside me like she'd been walking there for years.
The murmurs rose again, disbelief thick in the air. Elera didn't stand beside anyone.
She leaned in close enough for only me to hear.
"You have no idea what you just did," she murmured. "And no idea how many people are going to want you dead for it."
I glanced at her. "Then why are you standing here?"
That smirk again.
"Because from now on, Carson Vale…" She straightened, her voice cool, sharp enough to slice the tension in two. "I take my orders from you."
And just like that, we walked into Dominion Academy together. the untouchable queen at my side, and not one person here knew why.
.....
If there's one thing you learn quick in Dominion Academy, it's that the walls have ears.
And they gossip.
By the time Elera and I made it to the main building, I could already feel the ripple I'd caused. Knox's lackey running like he'd seen a ghost? The untouchable Elera Vrynx walking beside me? In a place like this, that was social war, and I'd just fired the first shot without even loading the gun.
Inside, the air was colder, heavier. Marble floors stretched like polished ice, chandeliers dripping crystals that caught every movement. Students lingered in cliques, dressed in the kind of fashion that said my family could buy your family.
And every single one of them stared.
At her.
At us.
Elera's heels clicked against the marble as she walked half a step behind me now. To anyone else, it might've seemed like coincidence. To me, it was a tell.
We didn't speak until we were in one of the east wing's long, dim hallways quiet enough to hear our own footsteps.
She waited until the last shadow swallowed us whole before saying,
"You're going to make enemies faster than you can breathe here."
I stopped. "You're still here."
She tilted her head, assessing me like I was a puzzle with teeth. "Because I've seen what you are."
Her voice lowered, every word like the drop of a match into dry grass. "That… thing you did in the courtyard? That wasn't luck, Carson. That was power. Raw. Untrained. Dangerous."
I didn't respond. Partly because I didn't understand it myself. Partly because watching her measure her words for me felt… good.
"You're dominant," she continued, eyes narrowing like she was testing the word on me. "Whether you realize it yet or not. People like Knox"
"I don't take orders from people like Knox."
Something flickered in her gaze. Not anger. Something closer to recognition.
Then, she stepped forward close enough that her perfume wrapped around me, some dark, expensive thing that made the hallway feel smaller.
"And you won't take them from me, either," she said, tone sharper.
I let the silence stretch until it was almost uncomfortable. Then, I leaned in just enough for her to hear the weight in my voice.
"I don't take orders, Elera. You do."
It wasn't loud. But the way she stilled told me she heard more than just the words.
Her chin lifted, defiance flashing for half a second then, it was gone.
A faint smirk curved her lips, and when she stepped back, it wasn't the same queen I'd seen in the courtyard.
It was something else.
Something that would kneel for no one… except me.
"Fine," she said finally, voice silky, almost amused. "But if I'm yours, then you're mine to protect. That's the deal."
I started walking again, and she fell into step exactly one pace behind.
It hit me then.
In public, she'd still be the storm everyone feared.
But in private?
She'd be my shadow.
And no one here would ever see it coming.
.....
Dominion Academy ran on schedules the way the rest of the world ran on oxygen.
Every minute here was mapped, not just for classes, but for meetings, events, and "accidental" run-ins designed to remind you where you stood in the food chain.
And this morning, my place was apparently under Knox Courtney's shoe.
It happened just outside the Assembly Hall. The wide, sunlit space was already filling with students, most of them dressed like they'd walked out of a fashion spread.
I'd barely stepped through the archway before Knox's voice cut across the room.
"Vale!"
Conversations died. Heads turned.
Knox stood in the middle of the polished floor with two of his cronies one of them the same meat-hook idiot from yesterday, now wearing a stiff smile like his nerves had been scrubbed clean.
"You left yesterday without… properly introducing yourself," Knox said. His tone was smooth, but it dripped with something that said I own you. "Why don't we fix that?"
I could feel the room holding its breath, waiting for the scene.
Elera stepped forward before I could open my mouth.
"Is this really how you spend your mornings, Knox?" she asked, her voice like ice cracking. "Picking fights with people who don't even notice you?"
Laughter rippled through the crowd, quick and nervous.
Knox's jaw tightened, but his smile didn't break. "I notice him just fine. I just don't see why he's here."
Elera shifted slightly, not toward him, but toward me, her body angled in a way that told me she was waiting.
It wasn't obvious to anyone else, but I recognized it now.
She wouldn't speak unless I let her.
I didn't look at her. Didn't need to. I just said, "Answer him."
She did.
And when she spoke, it was like watching someone draw a blade.
"He's here," she said, her gaze locked on Knox, "because he can be. And because the day he decides you're not, Knox, you won't be."
That one landed.
Even Knox's cronies shifted, uneasy.
But then Knox stepped closer close enough that I could smell the faint, metallic tang of whatever cologne his family probably had custom-made.
"You think you've found yourself a guard dog, Vale?" he said softly. "Let me tell you something about dogs. They can be bought. Or broken."
I stared at him for a long moment, then let my eyes drift to the meat-hook boy beside him.
When our gazes locked, I felt that shift again the silence in my skull, the faint pulse like something waking up.
His breathing quickened. His eyes darted away. And for a moment, I saw it the shadow of fear, raw and real, flickering across his face before he looked down.
Knox noticed.
His smile faltered just enough to make me file the moment away.
"Enjoy the Assembly," he said finally, stepping back. But his eyes promised this wasn't over.
Elera moved beside me as we walked toward our seats.
"You didn't even need to say a word," she murmured under her breath. "That's why they'll never see you coming."
And I realized something as we sat something that made the corner of my mouth lift without meaning to.
Knox wanted me to play defense.
But I wasn't here to play defense.
I was here to win.