THE DARK HEIR OF BLACKTHORN

Chapter Five — The First Power Assessment

The c***k in the window stopped spreading. For one terrible second, Ariana couldn't breathe. The pale creature on the other side of the glass kept smiling, its red eyes fixed on hers.

Then—

DONG.

The bell beneath the academy rang again, and the creature's smile vanished. Its hand lifted slowly off the glass.

Ariana stumbled backward. "What are you?"

The creature only tilted its head. Before it could answer, the corridor lights snapped back on, and when Ariana blinked, the window was empty. No creature. No red eyes. Just a thin c***k running across the glass.

She stood there, frozen, staring at it. Behind her, Selena groaned in her sleep and rolled over. Ariana checked the clock — 4:00 A.M. She hadn't slept more than an hour. She climbed back into bed anyway, though her heart refused to slow down.

Her wristwatch was still glowing.

ORIGINAL BLOODLINE DETECTED.

She touched the screen, and the message disappeared, replaced by her name. She stared at it. "What am I supposed to remember?"

A knock hit the door. Then another, louder.

"Wake up." Selena's voice.

Ariana sat up. "What?"

"Get up."

Selena's eyes were already open, fixed on Ariana's bed. "Go downstairs and fetch water."

"Now? It's four in the morning."

"I know. So why are you still lying there?"

Mira sat up and yawned. "We need water."

Ariana glanced at the empty containers by the door. "You have two hands."

Selena's expression hardened. "You're the new girl."

"So?"

"So you do what you're told."

Ariana climbed out of bed slowly. "I have an assessment this morning."

"And?" Mira said.

"I need sleep."

Selena pointed at the containers. "Fetch the water."

"No."

The room went still. "What did you say?" Selena asked.

"I said no."

Vivian sat up, suddenly interested. Ariana folded her arms. "I'm not your slave."

Selena crossed the room toward her. "You think because you're the girl everyone was talking about yesterday, you're special?"

"No."

"Then act like someone who knows her place."

"I know my place." Ariana held her eyes. "And it isn't beneath you."

Selena's hand moved before Ariana could react.

The slap echoed through the room. Ariana's head snapped sideways, and silence followed.

Ariana slowly raised her hand to her cheek. The sting was sharp, but something far worse was spreading beneath her skin — heat crawling through her veins, her breathing changing without her permission.

Selena took a step closer. "What? You're going to cry?"

Ariana looked up.

Selena's smile disappeared.

Ariana blinked, confused. "What?"

Vivian didn't answer. She was staring at Ariana's face. "Your eyes..."

"What about them?"

Vivian's face had gone pale. "They're red."

For one terrifying second, nobody moved.

Then Selena attacked her again, and Ariana reacted — she shoved Selena hard enough to send her back a step.

"You hit me?" Selena said.

"You deserved it. You don't get to hit me because I refused to fetch your water."

Selena lunged, and the next few seconds dissolved into chaos — Mira grabbing Ariana's arm, Ariana wrenching free, Selena shoving her again, Ariana shoving back. Vivian screamed for them to stop. A chair crashed against the wall. Someone grabbed a fistful of hair. A book went flying across the room.

"STOP!"

The door slammed open, and Mrs. Vale filled the frame, her expression terrifying enough to freeze every girl in place instantly. The moment her eyes landed on Ariana, the red drained out of them, fading back to their ordinary brown so fast that no one but Vivian, still staring, seemed to notice it had happened at all.

"What is going on?"

Nobody answered. Mrs. Vale's eyes moved from Selena to Ariana, then to the broken chair.

"Who started this?"

"She attacked me," Selena said immediately, pointing.

"That's a lie," Ariana said, eyes wide. "She slapped me first!"

"Enough," Mrs. Vale said, her voice flat and final.

"But—"

"I said enough." Her gaze settled on Ariana. "You're new."

"Yes."

"And already causing trouble."

Ariana's jaw tightened. "She hit me."

Mrs. Vale didn't answer that. She pointed at the empty containers instead. "Take those. Fill them."

"Now? The assessment—"

"Your punishment comes before your assessment."

Selena smiled faintly, and Ariana caught it — she knew exactly what Selena had wanted. To make her late.

Mrs. Vale pressed the containers into her hands. "Fetch water for the senior residential floors. All of them."

"That's impossible before the assessment."

"Then you should have thought about that before fighting."

Ariana took the containers and hated every second of the walk out the door — but she went.

By the time she made it back, the sun had already risen, her arms aching, her clothes damp, her cheek still burning. Somewhere in the distance the academy bell was already ringing.

The assessment had begun.

"Oh no." She ran.

Inside the hall, a hundred new students stood crowded beneath a black ceiling, and nothing about the atmosphere felt like an ordinary school exam. At the center of the chamber, a massive crystal sat mounted on a circular platform, almost twice Ariana's height, black veins threading through its transparent core. Seven silver pillars ringed it, carved with symbols that seemed to shift when she wasn't looking directly at them. Above it all hung a giant ranking board.

BLACKTHORN ACADEMY — FIRST-YEAR POWER ASSESSMENT

A boy stepped onto the platform as she slipped in through the doors.

"State your name," the examiner said.

"Marcus Hale."

"Ability?"

Marcus pressed his palm to the crystal, and blue flame exploded from his hand. Several students gasped.

"Ability: Flame Manipulation," the examiner announced. The crystal glowed. "Power: B."

#8 — MARCUS HALE — B RANK

Marcus grinned, and the crowd murmured. "Only B?" "I thought he'd get A." "Who's going to be number one?"

A girl with silver hair stepped forward next. "Seraphina Vale."

She touched the crystal, and the whole room went cold. Ice crawled across the platform, climbing the crystal from its base. The examiner stepped back fast.

"Ability: Cryokinesis." The board flashed.

A RANK

The hall erupted, and Seraphina smiled like she'd expected nothing less. "She's going to be number one," someone whispered. "Definitely." "That's an A-level ability."

The examiner raised his voice over the noise. "Assessment continues."

A boy with golden eyes stepped up next, and by the time he reached the crystal his hands had already changed — claws extending, fangs lengthening, muscle swelling beneath his skin.

"Ability: Beast Transformation." The crystal shook. A RANK.

After him came a girl who lifted three chairs off the ground without touching them. A boy who bent shadows into shapes across the wall. A girl who pulled sound clean out of the air until the whole room went eerily silent, then let it snap back all at once. One student healed a cut on his own palm in front of everyone. Another called down threads of electricity that crawled between his fingers like living things. Someone conjured an illusion so convincing that three students screamed, certain monsters had appeared behind them.

Elemental. Psychic. Physical. Energy. Healing. Illusion. Even a boy who bent a steel rod like it was wire, just by looking at it.

Every student was different. Every power carried its own kind of danger. The board kept climbing, kept shifting, and then the examiner called a new name.

"Damien Cross."

A tall boy walked onto the platform, calm in a way that felt deliberate. He pressed his palm to the crystal.

Nothing happened. Someone laughed.

Then—

BOOM.

A wave of dark energy tore through the chamber, throwing students backward. The silver pillars flared to life, and the crystal turned completely black.

The examiner's eyes went wide. "Ability: Void Manipulation." His voice dropped. "Power level—"

The crystal screamed, a sound with no business coming from stone, and the board flashed once.

S RANK

The hall exploded. "S RANK?!" "He's the strongest!" "Who is that?" "Damien Cross!"

Damien pulled his hand back, and the darkness folded away as if it had never been there. He turned and walked off the platform without a word.

"Damien Cross is currently ranked number one," the examiner said, and students began gathering around him instantly — some in open admiration, some clearly jealous. "He's going to be class captain," a girl whispered. "Obviously," someone answered.

The examiner looked up at the board. "Because Damien Cross currently possesses the highest measured power among the first-year students, he will serve as Class Captain for the initial term." He turned. "Seraphina Vale will serve as Assistant Class Captain."

Seraphina smiled. Damien only nodded, and the two of them stood together beneath the board — the strongest boy and the strongest girl in the room, at least for now.

That was when the doors slammed open and Ariana stumbled inside, breathing hard, every eye in the hall swinging toward her.

The examiner's face darkened. "You."

"Sorry, sir."

"You're late."

"I know."

"You were instructed to report before the assessment began."

"I was punished."

"Excuses." He didn't even look interested in the explanation.

Whispers spread fast through the crowd. "Isn't that the new girl?" "She came late?" "She doesn't even know her power." "Maybe she's powerless." Someone laughed outright.

Ariana ignored all of it and let the examiner point her toward the platform.

"Name."

"Ariana Rose."

"Ability?"

"I don't know."

More laughter. The examiner's face went hard. "You don't know?"

"No, sir."

"Then perhaps Blackthorn admitted the wrong student."

Ariana's hands curled into fists as she stepped onto the platform. Across the hall, Damien watched her with sharp, unreadable eyes. Seraphina crossed her arms.

"She's the girl everyone was talking about?"

"Apparently," Damien said.

Seraphina laughed under her breath. "She doesn't look powerful."

Damien didn't answer, because something about Ariana already bothered him. The crystal had reacted to every student who'd touched it — glowed, cracked, spit out a number. But the moment she stepped close, it went completely, unnaturally still.

"Place your hand on it," the examiner said.

Ariana hesitated.

"Do it."

She pressed her palm flat against the surface. Nothing happened, and the hall burst into laughter. "See?" "She's powerless!" "All that drama for nothing!"

She pulled her hand back. The examiner sighed. "Again."

Still nothing, at first. His expression shifted. "Hold it there."

She obeyed. One second. Two. Three.

Then a tiny rose-colored light bloomed beneath her palm, and the laughter died instantly. The light spread, and the crystal began to tremble.

"What is happening?" Ariana whispered.

The examiner stepped back fast. All seven silver pillars flared to life at once, symbols crawling across the walls in a light that had no business being that bright. The ranking board flickered.

ABILITY: SCANNING...

The crystal shook harder.

POWER: UNDETERMINED.

A c***k split its surface.

CONTROL: ERROR.

Another c***k.

POTENTIAL: ERROR.

The whole hall had gone silent. Ariana tried to pull her hand free and couldn't — something was holding her there, pressing her palm flat against the glass like a hand over hers.

"Sir!"

"Don't move!" the examiner shouted.

The crystal turned black — not dark, not shadowed, black, the way the sky goes black right before a storm breaks. Then a whisper moved through the chamber, and it hadn't come from any of the students.

She's awake.

Ariana heard it. Her eyes went wide.

At the back of the hall, Kael Veyron heard it too, and for the first time since Ariana had met him, his face showed something dangerously close to fear.

"No," he said, so quietly only the students nearest him caught it.

The crystal cracked again — c***k — and rose-colored energy burst outward from Ariana's body, throwing several students off their feet. Damien's hand shot up on instinct, a wall of void energy snapping into place in front of Seraphina and the students closest to him.

"Everyone stay back!" the examiner shouted.

Ariana screamed as the energy around her surged, and her wristwatch lit up against her skin.

REMEMBER.

Then, a second later:

RETURN.

A flash tore through her mind — a burning room, a woman screaming, blood on the floor, a dark figure standing beneath a red moon, and a voice, desperate and close, whispering run, Ariana. Then it was gone as fast as it had come, and she gasped like she'd been drowning.

The crystal shattered.

BOOM.

Silence. Shards of crystal rained across the platform, and Ariana stood in the middle of it, untouched. The ranking board flickered once, then settled.

ARIANA ROSE

ABILITY: UNKNOWN

POWER: UNDETERMINED

CONTROL: 0%

POTENTIAL: ERROR

RANK: UNASSIGNED

Nobody spoke. The examiner stared at the board like he'd just watched something break the laws of the world he taught in. Damien's expression hardened. Seraphina looked furious.

"How can someone have no rank?" she demanded, and nobody answered her.

Then Kael stepped forward, and every student in his path moved aside without being told. He stopped in front of Ariana. Their eyes met.

"Rose," he said, barely above a whisper.

"What?"

He looked at the shattered crystal, then back at her. "You shouldn't have been able to do that."

"Do what?"

He didn't answer. He didn't get the chance to.

Because beneath the academy, something ancient had woken up — and this time, it wasn't whispering.

It was calling her name.

"Ariana..."

The lights went out. The entire assessment hall dropped into darkness, and somewhere far beneath Blackthorn Academy, a pair of ancient red eyes opened.

"The heir has returned."