ARIA POV
Caspian Everhart stares at me from across the empty classroom, holding that note in his hand like it's a bomb about to explode.
Good. Let him be scared for once.
I gather my books slowly, keeping my face blank even though my heart is racing. Leaving that note was risky—stupid, even. But after he humiliated me in front of everyone, making them laugh at the "pathetic Null girl," I wanted him to hurt too.
Now he knows someone's watching his family. Someone knows his secrets.
"Wait." His voice cuts through the silence. "Did you write this?"
I look up, meeting those ice-blue eyes that see too much. "Write what?"
"Don't play games with me." He crosses the room in three long strides, getting too close, towering over me. "This note. It was on my desk. You were the only other person in here."
"Maybe you're just paranoid." I try to step around him, but he blocks my path.
"My father is NOT a killer," he says, but his voice shakes slightly. He's not sure. That's interesting.
"Then you have nothing to worry about." I meet his glare without flinching. "Now move. I have class."
For a long moment, we just stare at each other. I can see the gears turning in his head—he wants to threaten me, report me, do something. But he can't, because that would mean admitting the note rattled him.
Finally, he steps aside. "Stay away from my family, Nightshade. That's a warning."
"And here's mine, Everhart." I lean closer, dropping my voice to a whisper. "Your father is dying. You have maybe six months before whatever's killing him finishes the job. If you want to save him, you'll need help from people you consider beneath you."
His face goes pale. "How do you know he's—"
"I know lots of things." I walk past him toward the door. "The question is whether you're smart enough to figure out which ones matter."
I leave him standing there, shocked and confused, and I feel a savage satisfaction burning in my chest.
But the satisfaction dies the moment I step into the hallway.
Luna Ashford is waiting for me, her silver-white hair wild around her face, her moon-pale eyes wide with terror. Blood drips from her nose—she's had another vision.
"Aria," she gasps, grabbing my arm with shaking hands. "I saw it again. But this time I saw MORE."
My stomach drops. "What did you see?"
"The ritual. The murders." Luna's voice breaks. "Five students dead, their magic stolen. And the sixth sacrifice—" She chokes on the words. "It's you. You're the final sacrifice. The killer needs Siphon blood to complete the resurrection spell."
The world tilts sideways. "When?"
"Thirty days from now. At the new moon." Luna's fingers dig into my arm. "Aria, we have to stop this. But we can't do it alone. We need help."
"Help from who? I'm the most hated type of magical being in existence. The Council would burn me themselves if they knew what I was."
"That's why we need people who can get close to the Council. People with power and access." Luna glances back at the classroom where Caspian is still standing, staring at that note. "People like him."
"Are you insane? He just humiliated me in front of everyone. He hates me."
"He doesn't hate you. He's scared of you." Luna wipes blood from her nose. "I saw that too in the vision. Caspian Everhart is going to help us stop the killer, whether he wants to or not. Because the killer is someone he loves."
A chill runs down my spine. "His father."
"I saw Lord Silas performing the ritual. I saw him draining magic from students. I saw him preparing the final sacrifice site." Luna's eyes fill with tears. "And I saw Caspian's face when he realizes the truth. It destroys him, Aria. Completely destroys him."
I look back at the classroom door. Through the window, I can see Caspian crumpling that note in his fist, his jaw tight with anger and fear.
He's an arrogant prince who's never suffered a day in his life. He made me feel worthless in front of everyone. He represents everything I hate about this school and the people in it.
But he's also someone's son, about to discover his father is a monster.
Just like I'm someone's daughter, trying to survive in a world that wants me dead.
"What do we do?" I ask quietly.
"We need to break into the Forbidden Archive," Luna says. "There's a grimoire hidden there—the Codex Animarum. It contains information about the resurrection ritual and how to stop it. But the Archive's wards are too strong for just the two of us. We need at least five people with different magical signatures to break through."
"Five people I'm supposed to magically trust with my secret?"
"Five people who have just as much to lose as you do." Luna squeezes my hand. "Please, Aria. I've seen how this ends if we do nothing. Everyone dies. The killer resurrects the First Sorcerers, and they burn the world down. You have to trust someone eventually."
I want to say no. I want to run and hide and disappear like I've always done when things get dangerous.
But I'm tired of running. I'm tired of being invisible and powerless and scared.
"Fine." The word comes out harder than I intend. "But we do this my way. Carefully. And if anyone betrays us—"
"They won't," Luna interrupts. "I've seen it. This group of five—we're meant to be together. We're the only ones who can stop what's coming."
I want to believe her. But trust has never come easy for me.
Luna starts walking toward the exit, but I grab her arm. "Wait. Who are the other three? Besides Caspian and us?"
"Ezra Wraith, the Half-blood scholarship student who deals in shadow magic. Felix Zhao, the transmutation prodigy whose family lost everything. And Caspian Everhart, the perfect prince with a monster for a father." Luna smiles sadly. "Five broken people trying to save a world that never wanted them. It's almost poetic."
"It's almost suicide," I correct.
"Maybe. But it's our only chance." Luna heads for the door, then pauses. "Oh, and Aria? You should probably know—in my vision, you and Caspian end up—"
The classroom door slams open and Caspian storms out, nearly running into both of us. He stops short, his eyes moving from me to Luna and back again.
"You," he says, pointing at me. "Whatever you know about my father, I want answers. Now."
"Funny," I say, crossing my arms. "I was about to say the same thing to you."
His jaw clenches. "Fine. Meet me in the abandoned greenhouse at midnight. Come alone."
"I'll bring Luna."
"Then I'll bring my father's guards," he shoots back.
We glare at each other, neither willing to back down.
"Midnight," he finally repeats, then walks away without another word.
Luna watches him go, then turns to me with a knowing smile. "This is going to be interesting."
"This is going to be a disaster," I mutter.
But as I watch Caspian disappear down the hallway, I feel something strange flutter in my chest. Not attraction—I refuse to be attracted to someone who humiliated me. But maybe... possibility?
My phone buzzes in my pocket. I pull it out and see a message from an unknown number:
We know what you are, Siphon. Surrender yourself to the Council within 24 hours, or we'll expose you to the entire Academy. Your choice: come quietly, or burn publicly like your ancestors did.
My blood turns to ice.
They found me. After seventeen years of hiding, someone finally found me.
And I have exactly one day before my entire world burns down.