Chapter 4
Part I
By the next morning, everyone knew. They knew something had changed about me. What they didn't know was how and when it happened. Students stared too long in the hallways. Conversations stopped when I passed. Someone had scratched a symbol onto my locker—the same one carved into the disciplinary hall walls. A warning maybe?
I scrubbed at it until my fingers burned. It didn't fade.
"You should stop fighting it."
I flinched.
Liora Gray leaned against the lockers beside mine, smiling like we were friends. Third-year, top student she was a perfect candidate. Perfect? Dead eyes.
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
She tilted her head. "The school's attention. Once it chooses you, resisting just makes it… creative."
My stomach tightened. "You seem to know a lot."
Her smile widened. "I survived my first test too."
That wasn't comforting. Just my first day, my chair collapsing during class—only mine. My name appearing on detention slips I never earned. Whispers following me, louder than usual, urgent and hungry.
By evening, I realized the truth. Someone was feeding the school my name. I need to get help. I found the Head Prefect near the east wing, where shadows clung too tightly to the walls.
"Someone's targeting me," I said without preamble.
He didn't pretend to misunderstand.
"I know."
Anger flared. "Then stop it."
"I can't," he replied. "Once the school marks you, others see opportunity."
"Opportunity for what?"
He hesitated.
"To replace you."
My blood ran cold. "Replace me as what?"
His gaze darkened. "The favorite."
Before I could ask more—
* The bell rang*
Detention bell.
My name echoed down the corridor. The detention room wasn't a room it was a circle of desks floating in darkness students sat in them five this time all staring at me.
Liora sat at the center, hands folded neatly on her desk.
"You're late," she said pleasantly.
"I didn't choose this," I snapped.
"No," she agreed. "But I did."
The bell rang again.
The darkness moved something crawled between the desks, unseen but heavy, breathing wetly, fear thickened the air.
"This is a group assessment," Liora explained. "One of us will be corrected tonight."
A boy to my left started crying.
"Rules are simple," she continued. "Don't be last."
The thing lunged, chaos erupted, desks tipped, screams broke the air, the darkness grabbed ankles, dragged students screaming into nothing.
I ran.
The floor shifted under my feet, responding to my panic, walls formed where I needed them, shadows recoiled when I touched them, the school listened. I hated that it did. I tripped near the edge of the circle, hands shoved me.
Liora.
"You don't deserve it," she hissed. "You didn't earn its favor."
The darkness surged toward me.
A hand grabbed my wrist.
It was burning, which seems familiar. The Head Prefect stood between me and the void, shadows tearing around him like he was cutting through living flesh.
"Enough," he commanded.
The school screamed.
Lights exploded back into existence. Three desks were empty and three students gone.
Liora stared at the Prefect in shock. "You can't interfere—"
"She is under my protection," he said.
The words hit harder than the darkness ever could. The school went still.
Liora's expression twisted with jealousy.
"You'll regret that," she whispered to me as the bell rang one final time.
The room vanished.
I stood alone in the hallway, shaking.
"You lied," I said to the Prefect. "You said not to trust you."
His grip tightened briefly on my wrist before he let go.
"I said not to fall for me," he replied quietly.
***************
Part ii
Liora Gray didn't disappear, that alone told me everything. I felt Liora's eyes on me before I saw her. She stood at the top of the stairwell, perfectly composed, prefect badge gleaming like she'd already won something.
"You broke the balance," she said as I approached. "That was reckless."
"You tried to get me killed," I shot back.
She smiled faintly. "I tried to replace you."
We stared at each other while students hurried past, pretending not to listen.
"You don't understand the system yet," Liora continued. "Blackthorn needs a focus a focus favorite when one weakens, another takes their place."
"I don't want it," I said.
"That's why it chose you," she replied smoothly. "You don't beg."
Her eyes flicked down the hallway, then back to me. "But favorites don't last."
It escalated that night.
Someone scratched my name into the punishment board—three times. My dorm lights shut off at midnight and didn't come back on. A note appeared on my pillow, written in red ink... Stop listening....The walls disagreed. She lies, they whispered. She fears you.
I didn't sleep.
The challenge came during assembly. The Head Prefect stood on the stage, unreadable as ever. His presence alone tightened the air. When he spoke, silence followed.
"Due to recent disruptions," he said, "the school will conduct a voluntary trial."
Voluntary, no one moved.
Liora stood.
"I volunteer," she said clearly. "And I nominate Elara Vale."
The hall erupted in whispers. I felt the Prefect's gaze snap to me.
"Elara is already under—" he began.
"—under protection?" Liora cut in. "Then she has nothing to fear."
Her smile sharpened. "Unless that protection is favoritism."
The school reacted instantly, the floor trembled, as everyone soaked in fear.
Trial accepted.
The Prefect closed his eyes briefly.
"You're playing a dangerous game," he said to Liora.
She inclined her head. "I always do."
The trial room smelled like rain and rust. Two pedestals rose from the floor, chains, shadows twisting impatiently beneath them.
"This is a dominance trial," Liora explained softly as the doors sealed. "The school decides who it prefers."
I clenched my fists. "You're obsessed."
"No," she replied. "I'm prepared."
*The bell rang*
Chains snapped toward us.
Liora didn't hesitate. She stepped into the darkness willingly, letting it wrap around her like a lover.
The school purred.
I felt it tug at me too—testing, weighing.
Choose, it whispered. I refused. The chains tightened, biting into my skin. Pain flared—but the shadows recoiled instead of consuming me.
Liora's smile faltered.
"What are you doing?" she demanded.
"Not competing," I gasped.
The walls cracked..... school screamed as the chains shattered.
Liora was thrown backward, slamming into the floor. Her prefect badge cracked down the middle. Silence fell erupted.
The Head Prefect stepped between us.
"The trial is over," he declared. "The school has decided."
Liora stared at me, breathing hard.
This time, there was no jealousy in her eyes.
Only hatred.
"You didn't win," she whispered. "You delayed it."
She smiled through the blood on her lip. "And when you fall, I'll be there to take your place."
The bell rang once more.