The council chamber was colder than Evelyn expected.
The round table at its center gleamed under the crystalline lights above, its surface engraved with runes older than the Academy itself. Faculty, wardens, and advisors gathered in silence, their eyes flickering toward Alexander—and then, pointedly, to her.
She wasn't supposed to be here.
Yet no one said a word when he held the door open and waited for her to enter first.
The Headmaster was already seated. His gray robes were impeccable, his expression unreadable as he gestured to the seat beside him.
"Miss Hawthorne," he said. "We welcome you… if only under pressing circumstances."
Evelyn didn't flinch. She sat.
Alexander took his usual place beside the Headmaster, but the energy in the room shifted noticeably with her presence. It wasn't that they didn't trust her. It was that they feared what her presence implied.
That something ancient was stirring.
That someone was awakening.
"We've received reports," the Headmaster began, "of unauthorized movement along the southern boundary runes. Traces of old magic, not seen since before the Academy was founded."
"Shadow magic," murmured one of the older wardens. "It's returning."
"No," Alexander said, his voice like steel against stone. "It never left."
The room hushed.
Evelyn's fingers curled around the edges of her chair.
A folded piece of parchment was slid toward her. "This," said the Headmaster, "was found outside your old dormitory. A warning—or a message."
Evelyn unfolded it slowly.
It was a single symbol, inked in black:
A serpent coiled around a sword.
Her heart stilled.
Alexander saw it too. And in his eyes, she saw a flicker of memory—recognition.
It was the same sigil from Isabella's secret letters. The same one tied to the whispered name of an ancient faction long thought to be dead.
The Order of the Hollow Flame.
"They're testing us," Alexander said. "And they're using Evelyn as the bait."
"Not bait," said the Headmaster quietly. "As the key."
Gasps broke out around the table.
Evelyn's voice was calm, but resolute. "What do you mean?"
"The bloodline your mother carried… it wasn't dormant. It was sealed."
He turned toward her fully.
"You are not just the daughter of a gifted mage. You're the last living heir of a covenant that once controlled the boundary between this realm and another."
A silence fell over the room. Heavy. Absolute.
Evelyn's heart thundered.
She didn't look at Alexander. She couldn't.
Because she knew, even without speaking, that everything was about to change.
And somehow—somehow—she was at the very center of it.