Blood still pooled beneath the Headmaster's body.
No one spoke for a long second not Jaxon, not Levi, not Seraphina. The silence was worse than the gunshot.
Then Jaxon grabbed the hard drive. "We have to move. Now."
But Seraphina stood frozen, her mind splintering under the weight of what just happened. He's dead. Levi killed him. For me.
Not even she had been ready for that level of loyalty.
Levi was shaking as he wiped his fingerprints off the weapon. His hands were stained red.
"He was going to kill you," he said, voice cracking. "I didn't have a choice."
"Maybe not," she whispered. "But now everything changes."
The academy was already reacting.
Sirens blared. Steel gates locked down. A mechanical voice echoed across the campus: "CODE BLACK INITIATED. ALL STUDENTS TO THEIR ROOMS. NO EXCEPTIONS."
They weren't just suspects now. They were targets.
Back in her dorm, Seraphina's room had been torn apart her closet gutted, drawers dumped, her private journal splayed open on the floor. A silent warning.
Jaxon handed her a burner phone. "This number? It's our leak inside the Council. Use it once. Then toss it."
Seraphina's hands were still trembling as she punched in the number.
A woman's voice answered: "Say your name."
"Seraphina Vale."
Pause.
"I wondered when you'd call. You're late to your own story, sweetheart."
Seraphina's eyes narrowed. "Who is this?"
"The one who gave you that email about Lila. And the only person who knows the truth about your mother's death."
Seraphina's stomach dropped.
"My mother died in a car crash."
The voice laughed bitterly. "No, darling. She was silenced. Because she wanted you free."
Down the hall, Levi punched a wall until his knuckles bled.
He thought killing the Headmaster would save her. But nothing felt fixed. Everything was worse.
And worse still… Jaxon wasn't looking at Seraphina like a friend anymore. He was looking at her like someone who might save him.
Seraphina didn't sleep that night.
She sat in the dark, holding the black drive, staring out the window at the glittering prison she'd called home for eighteen years.
Her crown was slipping.
And this time, she wasn't sure if she even wanted to hold it up again.