The heavy door of the academy administrative building creaked open as Kieran pushed it with a single hand. The hallway inside was dark, sterile, and eerily quiet. My footsteps echoed softly against the polished marble floors, a stark contrast to Kieran’s confident, silent stride beside .
Every instinct in my body scread that we weren’t supposed to be here. This building held the academy’s secrets, its rules, its hierarchy, its power. We were walking straight into the heart of it.
We moved past the staff offices, the council room, until we reached a tall black door with a brass plate:
ASTRID VOSS – HEAD COORDINATOR
And of course it was locked.
Kieran didn’t hesitate. He reached for the handle, gave it a lazy tug, then prepared to shove the whole thing open with a burst of his strength. I panicked.
"Wait—stop!" I hissed, grabbing his arm before he could splinter the wood like it was made of paper. "You can’t just break it down."
His golden eyes narrowed, irritated. "Why not?"
"Because," I whispered, moving in front of him, "if you break it, we won’t be able to fix it. She’ll know soone ca in. The whole point is to go unnoticed, rember?"
Kieran stared at with sothing that almost resembled amusent, then stepped back with a shrug. "Fine. Then impress ."
I didn’t reply. I reached up and unclipped the thin, tallic accessory from my hair, a long, sleek pin I had sharpened on one end. I knelt at the door, slipped the pin into the lock, and began working silently.
Kieran watched , arms crossed, and for once, he didn’t interrupt.
With a soft click, the lock gave way, and the door opened.
I stood, turned to him with a small smirk. "There. One thing I know how to do that you don’t."
Kieran raised a brow, clearly unimpressed. "I don’t need to learn how to pick locks," he said as he walked past into the office. "Not when I can just bring the whole damn door down."
I scoffed, stepping in behind him. "Subtlety. Ever heard of it?"
The office was dim, blanketed in shadows. Shelves lined the walls, stuffed with thick folders, disciplinary records, scrolls, and ledgers. A desk sat near the back, papers stacked in chaotic towers. The air slled like ink and wood polish
"I suppose you can’t see much in the dark," Kieran said lazily. A second later, he flicked the light switch.
The room was instantly flooded with brightness, and I blinked as my eyes adjusted. It looked even more intimidating now that I could see everything clearly.
"Start searching," Kieran said as he made his way to a plush couch by the window. "Shelves, files, drawers. Anything that looks hidden or out of place."
I turned to him, stunned. "Aren’t you going to help?"
He didn’t even look at . Just sank into the couch like he belonged there. "Why would I? That’s what you’re here for."
My lips parted in disbelief.
"You didn’t think I brought you here for company, did you?" His voice was laced with mocking amusent. "You’re my servant now. And I don’t intend to waste the night doing grunt work when I have you to do it for ."
He crossed one leg over the other, draping his arm across the back of the couch like a bored king. "Now get on with it, unless you want to spend the whole night here. I certainly don’t."
I bit the inside of my cheek so hard I tasted blood.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t expected this from him, but after everything today, after the mont in the study room, so foolish, traitorous part of thought he might actually.... help. Or at the very least, not use like I was disposable.
I turned to the shelves without another word, suppressing the burning in my throat. I would find out what Astrid was hiding, whether Kieran helped or not. Even if I had to comb through every cursed file in this room.
And maybe, just maybe, I’d find sothing dangerous enough to burn this whole academy to the ground too
I turned away from Kieran with a quiet scoff and began searching the shelves.
Most of it was what I expected, rows and rows of thick, aging files, all labeled by year. Inside were student records. Nas, dorm placents, academic performance, disciplinary actions. Everything about every student who had ever attended Lunar Crest Academy.
I moved from shelf to shelf, careful not to leave anything out of place. Then I turned to the drawers lining the far wall, tugging one open and sorting through the contents.
My fingers stilled when I pulled out a heavy black folder labeled: DECEASED STUDENTS.
A cold weight dropped in my stomach.
I opened it slowly, the pages thick and official, each one holding the na of a student, a date, and a death record.
Callum’s na was already there.
My heart clenched.
)
So were the nas of the ferals who died today. Already printed, already docunted. As if their deaths had been expected.
I swallowed hard, forcing my eyes to keep scanning the pages, but that was when I saw sothing that didn’t make sense.
Selene Ashthorne.
Elise Myles.
And so other nas I recognized as so of the ferals’ nas
What?
They weren’t dead.
They were alive. Breathing. Walking around these halls. Elise had been crying earlier, holding Felix’s hand like she was the one still fighting to survive. I had talked to her.
So why the hell were their nas here?
Confused, I stepped back, clutching the folder tighter. "Kieran—" I started, but I didn’t need to call him.
He was suddenly at my side, appearing like a ghost.
I gasped, stumbling back a step as he snatched the folder from my hands and flipped through it, his expression darkening with every second.
He didn’t say anything for a long mont. Just scanned the pages like he was trying to solve a puzzle in his head.
Then his brows knit together
"These nas... this might not be just a list of the dead." I said
He glanced at , his eyes hard
"This could be a list of students Astrid plans to bring to their deaths."
Before he could say anything, Kieran suddenly went still.
Like a predator sensing movent in the trees.
His head tilted ever so slightly, and his eyes narrowed. "Soone’s coming," he whispered.
"What—"
He vanished before I could even finish my sentence.
In the blink of an eye, the lights cut out, the door clicked locked, and he was back in front of . "Drop the file," he ordered under his breath.
I let it slip from my fingers, and he grabbed my wrist, yanking behind the largest bookshelf near the back of the office.
We slipped into the shadows, the cramped space forcing us chest to chest, breath to breath.
I could barely think.
Kieran’s body was pressed against mine, firm and unyielding, radiating heat in the darkness. His arm was braced behind , blocking the slightest movent. I could hear the faint rhythm of his breath, but it was his eyes, those wild, glowing red eyes, that had frozen in place.
He wasn’t just glaring.
He was watching . Reading .
And I..... goddess help , I couldn’t look away.
My breath stuttered as I shifted slightly, just to ground myself. My hand lifted to steady against the shelf behind , fingers brushing against sothing cold and smooth.
A small wolf statue.
I barely touched it, but it shifted with a faint click.
Then sothing moved.
A soft grinding sound ca from behind Astrid’s desk, and to my absolute shock, a section of the wall slid open.
A hidden door.
Reviews
All reviews (0)