I woke the next morning to the sound of a bell.
Not a small, polite bell ant to gently rouse sleepy students. This one was enormous, thunderous, hanging sowhere high above the academy and being struck with rciless force. The deep, resonant clang vibrated through the stone beneath , through my bones, and straight into my skull, dragging out of sleep whether I wanted to wake or not.
The first thing I realized, with a strange mix of relief and disbelief, was that I hadn’t died of cold.
Which, honestly, felt like a small but significant achievent after everything that had happened the day before.
Soone had covered during the night. A heavy black cloth lay draped over my body, thick enough to shield from the worst of the freezing temperatures. Whoever had done it... whether a silent guardian angel, a guilty observer, or soone simply acting out of pity... I silently thanked them in the quiet of my mind.
You saved my life. I won’t forget that. Probably.
Still, when I tried to move, my body protested violently. Everything ached with a deep, bone-weary pain, as if I had walked for miles instead of sleeping on unforgiving stone. This wasn’t just the lingering effect of the sedative anymore.
Sothing else was wrong. My limbs felt heavier than they should, weaker, as though my strength had been quietly drained while I slept.
That scared more than I wanted to admit.
Even without a wolf.
Even without my vampire powers or any other supernatural gift.
I had never felt this weak before.
I forced myself to my feet, joints protesting with sharp stabs of pain, and joined the stream of students heading toward the field. Yesterday I had almost been executed in front of an audience. Today, apparently, I was expected to line up like nothing had happened, like two students hadn’t died because of cursed ropes ant for .
The sa people who had locked out the night before passed without a single glance. No concern. No curiosity. Not even a flicker of relief that I was still breathing. They simply walked on, eyes forward, as if I were invisible.
I tried to keep up with the crowd, but my legs betrayed .
One mont I was moving, the next my knee buckled.
I would have hit the ground hard if a gentle hand hadn’t caught my arm, soft, steady, like it had never known hardship or cruelty.
I turned and saw her.
She was beautiful. Long, flowing black hair that caught the morning light like polished obsidian. Calm, kind eyes the color of warm earth. And a smile, soft, genuine, and real.
A real smile.
She was the first stranger in this academy who had ever smiled at without mockery or hidden intent. Before I could stop myself, I found my lips curving upward in return.
"How are you?" she asked gently, her voice warm and lodic, like sunlight breaking through clouds.
I considered lying for half a second. Then decided honesty might be more entertaining in a place like this.
"I’m trying not to give up on life," I said, my voice still rough from sleep and cold.
She smiled wider, a small laugh escaping her lips.
"Thank you," I added quietly, though I still hadn’t properly looked at her face. Experience had taught sothing important, anyone who started off kind to usually ended up betraying sooner or later.
Lysera.
Ysara.
Perfect examples.
"My na is Liora," she said as we continued walking with the rest of the students.
"Nyx," I replied simply.
"The goddess of the night," she said softly, like the na itself carried sacred weight.
I finally glanced at her properly. "Your na ans light," I said. "And you truly look like it."
I said it so she would know I wasn’t as dumb or broken as everyone probably assud, especially after they had locked out like unwanted baggage the night before.
I realized too late how that might have sounded.
Imagine soone saying, "Because my na is Nyx, I must look like the night."
Ridiculous.
But instead of mocking or correcting , Liora simply smiled again, warm and sincere. "Really? Thank you for the complint."
She didn’t laugh at .
She didn’t make feel small.
She didn’t twist my words into sothing pathetic.
And sohow, that kindness made more uneasy than all the cruelty I had faced yesterday combined.
Liora walked beside the entire way to the field, or whatever they decided to call that wide, unforgiving expanse of open ground. She even linked her arm with mine at one point, as if we were old friends who had been separated at birth and finally reunited by fate. She was far too familiar, far too comfortable with my presence, like my company didn’t bother her at all.
It almost made want to ask if we had t before.
I wanted to ask why she hadn’t helped last night, why she hadn’t said a single word when I had nowhere to sleep and no one willing to open a door. But I kept my mouth shut. Questions like that could wait. People who appeared suddenly in my life and acted kind usually ca with hidden intentions.
Enemy or ally...
ti would expose her.
The future always did.
We reached the field, and the noise swallowed us imdiately. Hundreds of voices rose and fell around us, students milling about in their crisp uniforms, so laughing, so whispering, so already sizing each other up with competitive glares.
Before I could even step fully into the crowd or disappear among the bodies like I had planned...
"Miss Valoria."
The voice cut through everything like a blade.
I froze mid-step.
Slowly, I turned toward the source.
Ysara stood there, arms folded, with a beautiful smile, if I don’t know any better I might have fallen for that.
Not again.
I looked at her with only one thought running through my mind, heavy and resigned.
Am I about to be used for another test?
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