Snow froze at Adrian’s words.

Ten years?

she whispered inside her mind, the words trembling as if they would shatter.

The number echoed again and again, like a hammer striking metal.

Ten years. Ten whole years of her life, gone.

Her chest tightened as memories surged back. The doctors. Their hushed voices. She’s awake… her heart rate… below twenty degrees. She doubted it then. But now, hearing it from Adrian, the truth cut her open.

Her mind rushed to one thought

the Nightowls.

The scholarship… the competition… I lost to Adrian?

The name burned inside her head. Adrian, her father’s pride, his chosen one. While she had been trapped in darkness, her dreams crumbled, and her brother had taken the victory she had fought so hard for.

Tears welled in Snow’s eyes, hot and stinging. They slipped down her pale cheeks, falling like shattered glass.

Her knees buckled. She sank to the ground, her fingers digging into the damp earth as a cry tore from her chest, not in sound, but in silence that carried heavier than screams.

And then the sky answered.

Dark clouds rolled above them, heavy and swollen, rumbling with a force that mirrored her rage. A cold wind rushed through the courtyard. The air thickened, the trees bent, and the first drops of rain fell.

Anger. Pain. Betrayal.

The emotions surged through her veins like fire, and finally became storm.

The drizzle turned into a shower. Then the shower into a downpour. Thunder cracked in the distance. Water splashed around her, yet her body remained untouched, her hair glistening as though the storm itself bent away from her.

Adrian stared, wide-eyed.

What in the world…” he muttered, his voice barely audible.

Ignacio’s face darkened, but his voice stayed steady, almost too steady.

“It’s about to rain harder. We need to move,” he said firmly, though the crease in his brow betrayed unease.

Snow didn’t move. She knelt there in the mud, her body fragile, but her presence so raw and heavy it seemed to command the sky itself.

“Snow.” Ignacio’s tone sharpened. He took a step forward, hand stretched toward her. But just as his fingers reached, he froze.

The doctor’s warning flashed in his mind. Don’t touch her

His hand curled into a fist. His jaw tightened. And then, slowly, he stepped back.

One by one, the others retreated.

Kendra clutched the baby tighter, her eyes darting nervously between Snow and the storm. She muttered something under her breath, though the pounding rain drowned it out. Adrian shook his head, disbelief plain on his face, and turned toward the house.

The door shut behind them, muffling their voices.

Snow was left alone.

The storm mirrored her grief. With every sob that tore through her chest, the rain poured harder. The ground beneath her became rivers of mud, but she felt none of it. She only felt the ache, the hollow inside her chest, the truth she couldn’t run from.

Her hair floated as though alive, strands lifting with the storm’s static. Her tears mixed with the rain, but the water never touched her face. It was as if the sky itself refused to harm her.

Hours passed. Time blurred, broken by the rhythm of thunder and her own shallow breaths.

Finally, her sobs slowed. Her chest heaved as she pulled in one long, shuddering breath.

Her hand, trembling, lifted to her face. With the back of her palm, she wiped her tears away.

And as she did, the storm shifted.

The clouds thinned, unraveling like fabric torn apart. A beam of sunlight pushed through, piercing the gray sky. Slowly, the rain weakened. The downpour softened into a drizzle. The drizzle faded into a mist.

The storm obeyed her.

The sky cleared, blue and sharp, as though nothing had happened.

Her hair fell back onto her shoulders, smooth and heavy with water. Her pale skin glistened, glowing faintly in the newborn sunlight.

The world seemed to exhale with her.

From the house, Adrian stood at the window, watching. His voice carried a tension he couldn’t mask.

“What happened to her during the coma?” he whispered.

Ignacio didn’t look at him. His cigarette burned between his fingers, the smoke twisting upward into the humid air. His jaw was locked, his expression unreadable.

“I don’t care,” Ignacio said coldly. His voice was flat, but underneath it was something darker.

Adrian turned to him sharply. “You don’t care? Father, look at her. Look at what she just did. That wasn’t....”

Ignacio cut him off with a glance sharp enough to silence.

“We need to find a way to get rid of her,” Ignacio said, his tone low, dangerous. “Before she destroys everything.”

Adrian swallowed, his throat tightening. He turned his gaze back to Snow, still kneeling in the courtyard. The storm was gone, but her presence lingered like a scar.

If Snow had heard those words, perhaps the storm would have returned.

But she didn’t.

She only felt the strange stillness inside her, the flow in her veins. Something had changed. Something she couldn’t explain.

Her grief had touched the sky.

And the sky had listened.

Now the scholarship was gone. The competition, the Nightowls, her dreams, all stolen.

She was no longer the academic beast she had been.

But something else had awoken in her place.