Page 70 of Shattered & Returned

“No, no!” I struggled against my rescuers. “I have to help my friend!”

Orren’s grip tightened. “You’re our priority.”

I dug my heels in. “I won’t leave without Sindy!”

“Take Carrot to safety,” Dante ordered. “I’ll go for her friend.” He plunged back into the chaos, diving through the watery tendrils with inhuman speed.

“Please help other students too,” I called after him. “You’re stronger than them.”

Every student with magic tried to shield themselves or flee. Protective bubbles flared to life across the hall. Some held, others shattered under the storm of elemental fury.

Orren pulled me through the splintered doorway to safer ground. Behind us, destruction raged, water crashing, shadows howling, ancient powers settling old scores.

Through a shattered window, I caught one last glimpse of the training hall. Kingsley stood at the heart of a swirling vortex, silver hair whipping around his face. Ravencrux had become living darkness, shadows pouring from him like dark blood, consuming everything they touched.

A blinding light suddenly flooded the corridor, forcing us to shield our eyes. The very air vibrated with new power. The walls around us hummed with recognition.

Headmistress Stardust appeared, gliding toward the destruction, her normally serene face contorting with fury, her eyes blazing with prismatic fire. At that moment, I experienced déjà vu, as if I were facing the Goddess of Magic and Witchcraft again.

She swept past us without a glance, light bursting from her fingertips, forming swirling arcane symbols.

“Stop, you two!” she bellowed, her command multiplied into echoes that slammed into the walls with physical force. “THIS IS MY SCHOOL!”

Chapter

Twenty-Three

Bloom

Hunt in the Mist

Headmistress Stardust stopped the fight before the immortal professors tore apart the school. No one seemed to remember what started their fight. Yet I knew.Iwas the spark. The knowledge settled in my bones like frost. I wasn’t going to dwell further on the gravity of it. If you don’t stare at darkness, it doesn’t stare back.

Classes were canceled for the day, but I refused to hide in my room. Not after they’d all seen me gasping, trembling, gripping my inhaler like a lifeline. Their disdain clung to me as I crossed campus, heavier than a drenched cloak.

Sindy caught up with me at the eastern edge of the Fae Copse.

“Hey, you’re not weak,” she said, bumping my shoulder. “The move you pulled at the end, even with your inhaler in your mouth like a baby’s bottle, was badass.”

I smiled despite myself. “Only you’d call choking elegantly ‘badass.’”

“Seriously though,” she pressed, “where’d you learn to fight like that? You fumbled the sword like a toddler at first.”

“It…came back to me.” I flexed my fingers, remembering the blade’s weight. “It’s like riding a bicycle.”

The lie tasted bitter. How could I explain the swordplay? The magic? These things lived in my flesh like they’d always been there.

Was I possessed? The thought slithered through my mind. I’d need to research exorcisms, but when I’d cut myself last night, watching blood bloom under my breast, the pain had felt entirely mine.

And how could I tell her about the women who wore my face, all of them dead?

Kingsley’s taunting words echoed in my head:weakest of them all. Had he been comparing me to those murdered redheads?

“Whoareyou really?” Sindy’s question sliced through my thoughts.

“A homeschooled Frenchwoman with asthma and terrible luck?” I offered, yet the words rang hollow. “I’m nobody.”

She snorted. “Powerful beings don’t feud over nobodies. Ravencrux and Kingsley may hate each other, but you’re the fuse that lit them today.

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