Olivia's POV
"THEY KNOW."
The frosted words on my window won't disappear. I rub at them with my sleeve but the ice stays frozen. My hands shake.
Who knows? The professors? Director Thorne? Those figures in the courtyard?
And what exactly do they know—that we found the map? That my power level is actually Level 10?
I'm still staring at the words when exhaustion finally drags me to bed. Melissa is already asleep, snoring softly on her side of the room. I crawl under my thin blanket and close my eyes.
Sleep comes fast. Too fast.
And with it come the visions.
I'm walking down a dark hallway. Stone walls press close on both sides. Torches flicker, casting dancing shadows. I hear screaming ahead.
"No! Please! I don't want to go in there!"
A girl's voice. Young. Terrified.
I run toward the sound. The hallway opens into a massive chamber. My breath catches.
Crystal pods line the walls. Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands. Each one holds a sleeping person—teenagers, all around seventeen or eighteen years old. Their faces are peaceful but wrong. Too peaceful. Like they're not really sleeping. Like they're frozen.
"Subject 247, prepare for containment," a cold voice says.
I spin around. A man in a white coat drags a struggling girl toward an empty pod. She's crying, fighting, but he's too strong.
"The system requires your power," he says emotionlessly. "You should be honored to serve."
"I don't want to serve! I want to go home!"
He pushes her into the pod. Crystal walls slide closed around her. She pounds on the glass, screaming. Then her eyes glaze over. She stops moving. Stops screaming. Just... stops.
Another student frozen forever.
"Olivia."
I whirl around. A boy stands behind me. He's seventeen with kind eyes and old-fashioned clothes from centuries ago.
"Olivia Hart," he says again. "You're finally here."
"Who are you? How do you know my name?"
"I'm Edmund Thornwood. I was the first." He gestures at the pods. "We've been waiting three hundred years for someone strong enough to free us."
"Free you? I don't understand—"
"The map found you. The five gathered. You must complete the trials before they stop you."
"Before who stops us?"
His form starts to flicker like a hologram losing power. "They're coming. They know you found the map. They'll try to stop you from reaching the covenant chamber. Don't let them. Don't let our sacrifice be for nothing."
"Wait! What covenant? What's in the chamber?"
"The truth about Thornwick. The truth about why we're all—"
Everything goes white. Blinding. Painful.
I wake up gasping.
"Shut UP!" Melissa throws a pillow at me. "Some of us are trying to sleep!"
I sit up, my heart pounding so hard it hurts. Sweat soaks my nightshirt. The vision felt so real. Edmund Thornwood—Sebastian's ancestor. The one whose name was in the metal book.
He's trapped in one of those pods.
They all are.
I look at the clock. 3:47 AM. Too early to be awake but too scared to sleep again.
I get out of bed and go to the window, needing fresh air. The frosted words "THEY KNOW" have finally melted, leaving only water droplets behind.
I look down at the courtyard. Empty. Dark. Quiet.
Then movement catches my eye.
A figure in a dark cloak stands near the fountain. Just standing there. Perfectly still.
My skin prickles. Something about the way they stand feels wrong. Not human.
As I watch, the figure slowly tilts their head up. Looking directly at my window. Looking at me.
I can't see their face under the hood. But I feel their eyes on me. Cold. Calculating. Angry.
I stumble backward, away from the window. My wrist suddenly burns where the map scanned me. I look down and gasp.
A glowing symbol has appeared on my skin. The same symbols from the book, from the floor, from the map. It pulses with blue light.
When I look back at the courtyard, the figure is gone.
But now there's something written in the dirt near the fountain. Letters big enough to read from up here:
"STAY AWAY FROM THE TOWER."
I need to tell the others. Now.
I throw on my uniform and slip out of my room. The hallways are dark and empty. I'm not supposed to be out after curfew, but I don't care.
I need to find Sebastian, Kira, Marcus, and Ash. We need to talk about what's happening.
I'm halfway down the stairs when I hear voices. Professors. I duck behind a pillar.
"—can't believe they found it so quickly," a woman says. Master Chen's voice.
"The map was designed to find them," another voice responds. Director Thorne. "We knew it would happen eventually. The real question is whether they'll survive the trials."
"And if they don't?"
"Then we proceed with Recalibration as planned. All five of them. Their power levels are too high to leave unchecked."
My blood runs cold. Recalibration. The process that erases magic permanently.
They're planning to erase us.
"What about the Hart girl?" Master Chen asks. "Level 10 is unprecedented. If the Council finds out—"
"The Council won't find out," Thorne snaps. "She's been suppressed since birth. As long as she doesn't complete the trials, her power will never fully manifest."
"But sir, if she does complete them—"
"She won't. I'll make certain of it."
Their footsteps fade down another hallway.
I stand frozen behind the pillar, my mind racing. They've been suppressing my power my whole life. Since birth. That means...
They've been watching me since I was a baby. Waiting. Planning.
The map, the trials, the countdown—it's all a test. And if we fail, they erase our magic forever.
My wrist burns hotter. The symbol glows brighter. I look down and see new words forming in the light:
"6 DAYS, 18 HOURS REMAINING. FIRST TRIAL BEGINS AT DAWN. NORTH TOWER. ALL FIVE MUST ATTEND."
Dawn is in two hours.
I run back to my room and grab a pen and paper. I scribble five identical notes:
"Meet me at the North Tower entrance. Dawn. Come alone. Don't tell anyone. —O"
I have to deliver these to Kira, Marcus, Ash, and Sebastian before sunrise. We need to start the first trial before Thorne can stop us.
I slip out of my room again and creep through the dark hallways. I slide the first note under Kira's door. The second under Marcus's door. The third under Ash's door.
Sebastian's room is in a different tower. The tower for disgraced nobles. I have to cross the entire academy to reach it.
I'm almost there when I hear footsteps behind me.
I spin around. The hallway is empty.
But I know someone is there. Watching. Following.
"Show yourself," I whisper.
Silence.
Then a voice speaks from the shadows. Not Director Thorne's voice. Not any professor's voice.
This voice is young. Female. And impossibly old at the same time.
"Olivia Hart. Descendant of the covenant bloodline. You're running out of time."
A girl steps out of the darkness. She's seventeen with long dark hair and eyes that glow faintly blue. She wears clothes from centuries ago—a dress with a high collar and long sleeves.
She's not solid. I can see through her, like a ghost.
"Who are you?"
The ghost girl smiles sadly. "My name is Elara Thornwick. And I've been trapped in this academy for three hundred years, waiting for you."