Chapter Unedited
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Chapter 6
~Spring’s POV~
By the ti I reached class, my heart had steadied, but my mind hadn’t. The na Rael still echoed in my skull like a bell I couldn’t unring. I forced my feet to carry forward and slid into my seat near the back of the room.
I didn’t open my new phone. I didn’t even glance at it. Right now, I need to stay calm. Invisible, if possible. Though after today, that was laughable.
The room buzzed softly as students filed in, their voices low and scattered. So eyes flicked my way. I ignored them. I sat up straight, pulled out my notebook, and waited.
A mont later, the door opened and the professor walked in.
He was young—maybe late thirties—with short, dark chestnut hair and a lean, sharply cut fra.
His tailored blazer and ironed slacks gave off a casual authority, and the silver-rimd glasses he adjusted on his nose as he moved to the board only amplified it.
"Good morning, everyone," he said, his voice smooth and deep. "Today, we begin a new unit on Pre-Modern Magical Politics. I don’t expect you to know anything about it."
So students groaned softly.
He smiled. "Which makes it all the more interesting."
He turned, chalk in hand. "Let’s start with sothing simple," he said, scribbling a date on the board. 1212 AE.
"Question one: What marked the beginning of the Ashen Pact? And why was it seen as a betrayal to the Eastern Tribes?"
Silence.
A few heads tilted. So flipped pages uselessly.
Then my voice filled the room. Calm. Clear.
"The Ashen Pact was signed in 1212 by the Western Archmages in secret. It brokered land treaties with human kingdoms without informing the Eastern Tribes, who had long-standing ancestral ties to those lands. The betrayal wasn’t just political—it broke a soul-bond treaty that had stood for centuries."
Silence again.
Not groaning now. Staring.
The professor raised his brows. "Correct."
He stepped away from the board, leaning slightly against his desk.
"Alright then. Question two: What clause within the pact allowed for human expansion into the Nyreth Wilds without breaking existing magical laws?"
Nobody dared answer.
"The Fifth Clause," I said again. "It used a legal loophole by defining the Wilds as spiritually dormant, even though everyone knew they weren’t. The clause was argued by High Scribe Dotheniel, whose bloodline conveniently disappeared after the pact passed."
A ripple of whispers. Even the kid chewing gum two rows ahead sat up.
"Very good," the professor murmured, almost to himself. "And last—perhaps harder. What strategic benefit did the Western Council gain from the collapse of the tribal alliance?"
Everyone looked around.
"Easy," I said, tapping my pen softly. "Trade dominance. Without a unified front, the Eastern Tribes couldn’t control export routes through the Mornvale Pass. The Western Council seized control and rerouted arcane trade through their own rchants."
Soone whispered, "Holy crap."
The professor blinked slowly. "That’s... exactly right."
Whispers spread.
"Who is she now?"
"Where the hell did that co from?"
"Did she cheat?"
The professor raised a hand. "That’s enough," he said sharply. The room quieted again.
When class ended, students shuffled out, a few casting sideways glances my way. I kept my expression neutral. Calm. It was as if I hadn’t just flipped the academic hierarchy on its head.
As I stood to leave, the professor called out, "Miss Kaine, please stay behind."
I froze and nodded. When the last of the students cleared out, he approached his desk and glanced at his tablet.
"Your academic records from your previous school... they’re average. Below average, actually. Yet you just answered three graduate-level questions with the poise of soone who’s taught this course."
I didn’t respond. I only smiled—just enough to be polite.
He eyed curiously. "Tell . Is it because you’ve... taken this class before?"
The smile held on my lips, but sothing tightened behind it.
"I read," I said.
He nodded slowly. "Keep it up."
I grabbed my books and headed for the door. But just as I turned down the corridor, I stopped dead.
Lucien.
He leaned against the wall like he’d been waiting, arms crossed, his eyes dragging over with a sneer curling at his lips.
"So you’re the buzz of the school now, huh?" he drawled. "First, the kiss stunt. Now answering high-level questions like so reford genius."
I kept walking. I didn’t even look at him.
"Is this your desperate attempt to make notice you?" he added, pushing off the wall.
I ignored him.
Until he grabbed my wrist.
I spun on my heel so fast the air snapped around . He reached out—probably to grab my neck or pull close—but he miscalculated.
I ducked low, twisted behind him, and in a blink, had his left arm pinned behind his back, shoulder pressed against the wall. Hard.
Lucien cursed, grunting. "What the hell—"
"Next ti you touch ," I said calmly, tightening my grip just enough to make him feel it, "I’ll break more than just your pride."
He tensed.
I shoved him off, letting him stumble forward. He didn’t fall—but he sure didn’t look as smug anymore.
I walked off without a word.
But as I turned into the next hallway, the professor’s words echoed back. "Is it because you’ve taken this class before?"
And just like that, a door inside my mind opened.
Spring’s mories flooded back.
Scenes—flashes—of sitting exams. Finishing tests with confidence. Submitting answers. Then—confusion.
Her scores always ca back wrong. Or missing.
Once, she hadn’t even appeared on the results list.
And then Rose.
"You’ll never amount to anything," Spring had heard her say. "Even if I have to destroy every answer sheet with your na on it."
She rembered being frad for cheating.
She was expelled. Not because she failed, but because Rose made sure she did.
Her grades were altered, and her future derailed. And so Spring ended up at Noxshade Academy, repeating her sophomore year while her peers moved on.
I gritted my teeth as I stepped into my next class.
My voice rang firm in my mind.
Do not worry, Spring. For giving this body, I will clear your na. And I will avenge you.
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