The parchment quivered. A quill appeared in her grip, though she hadn’t reached for it.
Her hands trembled as though not entirely her own. Names crowded her mind: Baron. Riven. Kaidan. Azpen. Even her mother’s voice ghosted in her ears.
But deeper, a truth throbbed—she had always been the most dangerous secret in the academy.
"Betray Lucian. Betray Lucian Speare. He is the enemy. The son of Haspan Cosmoses. They are enemies!"
Her chest heaved. Her jaw clenched. The quill pressed down.
"No! Myself." Elowyn cried out.
The word bled across the page in her own handwriting:
MYSELF.
The ink flared and the letters burned into the parchment as if carved. The parchment crumbled into ash, but the words echoed through the chamber, through the walls, through the air.
A roar shook the dormitor
