Page 61 of Darkness and Deceit
And now something inside me is splintering with it.
Someone moves toward me, a blur of white coat and hesitation, but stops short when the glyphs flare again. A whisper: “It’s her tether. It’s unraveling.”
“We should call a Keeper?—”
“They’ll say it’s outside our scope. We’re not trained for Dual collapse?—”
The words buzz in my ears like static.
Tears sting at the corners of my eyes, but I don’t wipe them away. The helplessness clawing at me is suffocating. I can’t help him. I can only feel his pain bleeding into mine, thread by unraveling thread.
Simon tightens his hold, but it’s not enough.
It can’t be enough.
Because something’s broken.
Not just Kai.
Not just the wards.
Not just the lie of safety we’ve been fed since stepping into this academy.
The Balance itself is shifting.
And if we don’t move, if I don’t fight my way out of this cage and do something?—
I’m going to break into pieces too small to put back together.
I bury my face in my arms and let the tears fall freely. Something inside me shifts, sharpens, readies.
I don’t want to be the girl they lock away while the world burns.
And next time, I won’t be.
Let them call me storm.
I’ll show them why.
Twenty
LILITH
The door creaks open,and at first, I don’t move.
It doesn’t feel real. Like maybe the silence has finally cracked me, and I’m imagining the groan of hinges and the faint rush of cooler air.
Everything feels muffled, underwater. Too quiet and too loud all at once. My pulse thunders in my ears, and my body won’t listen, frozen in that space between fear and disbelief.
Then the voices start.
Someone says it’s clear. Someone else shuffles past me. And just like that, the spell breaks.
I shove off the wall and stumble into the corridor, blinking against the sudden brightness. The light feels wrong. Too sharp. Too normal. The scent of scorched stone and blood clings to the air, but the hallway looks... fine. Too fine.
No fire. No wreckage. No monsters waiting in the shadows.
Just dust in the air, floating like ash.
