"Every choice felt like betrayal, yet every path led to him."

The courtyard stretched around us in perfect stillness, the only sounds my ragged breathing and the distant whisper of wind through the ancient oak branches. Darius's question still hung between us like a blade suspended by silk thread, sharp and gleaming in the moonlight. Do you feel it too?

The Academy's stone walls rose on all sides, their surfaces carved with protective runes that glowed faintly silver in the darkness. ...