MasksDon’tBleed,ButIDo
1284 Words
I didn’t sleep.
After Headmaster Riven called me by my real name—Ariel Duskborn,something cracked inside me. Not loudly but enough for the cold to slip through.
The vial he’d given me glowed faintly in the moonlight. It sat in my palm like a warning, or maybe a promise. It smelled like mint and iron, like suppression and shame. I stared at it for hours, lying stiff on the bunk in 47-B while the others snored around me, unaware of the storm in our room.
He knows.
He knows everything.
But he hadn’t exposed me.
Atleast not yet.
That made him more dangerous than anyone here.
---
At training the next morning, I was slower.
Not physically—my reflexes were sharper than ever. But inside, my thoughts tangled. Every glance felt suspicious. Every scent in the wind felt like a trap.
Even Xander.
Especially Xander.
He wasn’t looking at me like before. His gaze was harder now, narrowed. Not curiosity—calculation. He’d felt the shift surge that night near the cliffs. The power that crackled off me. Maybe he didn’t know the truth yet, but he smelled enough of it to get close.
And Cassian?
He watched me like a riddle he was dying to solve. Every time we passed in the hall, his eyes lingered just a second too long. I hated that my pulse reacted. I hated that part of me wanted him to look longer.
No distractions,I told myself.
No attachments.
But attachments had already formed, whether I wanted them or not.
---
The day’s trial was a pack sparring gauntlet—six on six.
No weapons.
No rules.
Just blood and dominance.
I was assigned to Team Red—my least favorite instructor’s idea of irony. Bane, the recruit who tried to stomp on me my first day, was now technically on my side. I didn’t trust it.
We were matched against Xander’s team.
Of course.
I swallowed hard when he stepped into the ring. The way the others shifted back told me everything: they feared him.
And they should.
He didn’t roar or posture. He just moved—like gravity pulled differently around him. Like pain was a lesson he enjoyed teaching.
The horn blew.
Chaos erupted.
I ducked under a swing from a bulky wolf shifter, rolled, and kicked out his leg and he fell. Bane pounced to finish him off.
Cassian, from the sidelines, stood with the instructors, arms crossed, observing. He wasn’t in the match today—lucky me.
But Mr.Riven was also watching. On the high balcony. His eyes fixed on me.
I fought harder.
And made a mistake.
I hesitated for one second too long when Xander came for me.
Our eyes locked.
His fist connected with my ribs.
I crumpled.
Not because it hurt—though it did but because I recognized what he saw.
Recognition.
Not of Ari.
But of the real me.
He stepped back, startled, even as I coughed blood onto the dirt. He should’ve finished the hit. He didn’t.
I spat red, pushed to my feet.
“You hesitated,” I muttered.
“So did you,” he said quietly. “Why?”
I glared. “Next time, hit harder.”
His eyes darkened. “Don’t tempt me.”
---
We lost the match— Barely.
I limped to the medic wing alone. Declined a healer. Wrapped my ribs with trembling hands. The binding over my chest had torn. I rewrapped it tighter. Hiding femininity was getting harder by the day.
My skin burned.
The wolffire inside me was thrashing now. The vial Mr.Riven gave me pulsed in my coat pocket like a living heart.
I should’ve taken it already.
I almost did.
Then someone knocked on the infirmary door.
I stilled. “It’s occupied.”
“I know,” Cassian’s voice said. “I brought you this.”
He pushed open the door and held out a steaming bowl. “Moonroot stew,it’s accelerates healing but tastes like death.”
I stared at it. “Why are you being nice?”
“I’m not,” he said. “You look like you’re about to pass out and I hate dragging bodies.”
He set it beside me and sat across the room, legs stretched out, utterly unbothered.
“I saw your fight.”
“Didn’t ask.”
“You held back,” he said.
I didn’t respond.
He leaned forward. “You’re not like the others. You move like prey, but you fight like something that’s been hunted too long.”
I looked up. “You think that’s deep?”
“I think you’re scared of yourself more than anyone else here.”
Silence.
Then I asked the question I hated most: “Why do you care?”
“I don’t.”
“Liar.”
He smiled without teeth. “Maybe I like puzzles.”
“Or maybe you like watching me bleed.”
He stood. “Both can be true.”
Then he left.
But not before he said, “Try not to die before I figure you out.”
---
That night, I didn’t sleep again.
Because this time, I wasn’t alone.
Someone slipped into my barrack while the others slept. I felt it before I saw them.
A shimmer in the air. The scent of blood-magic.
I bolted upright.
Professor Iris stood at the foot of my bed.
She smiled like a blade. “You’re clever, little fox. But not clever enough.”
I said nothing.
She raised a hand and snapped her fingers. A rune flared to life under my bunk — a truthbind sigil.
Pain stabbed through my skull. I gasped.
“You can’t lie inside it,” she purred. “Not even by omission.”
“What do you want?” I rasped.
She crouched, eye level with me. “Your real name. Your real bloodline. I already know the answer, of course. But I want to hear you say it.”
“No.”
“Say it,” she hissed.
The rune burned hotter.
I bit down on my scream.
Then—
The door burst open.
Headmaster Riven.
His presence slammed through the room like a winter storm. Iris stood, startled.
“This isn’t your wing,” he said coldly.
“I had suspicions—”
“And violated half a dozen academy laws?…Leave.”
She hesitated.
“I said now!.”
She vanished in a blink, leaving scorch marks on the floor.
Mr.Riven didn’t look at me.
“Get some sleep,” he said.
I tried to thank him but…
He was already gone.
---
The next morning, the academy buzzed with whispers.
Not about me—for once.
About a new trial.
A night trial.
Voluntary.
High risk. High reward.
And worst of all?
Team-based.
If I refused, I’d look weak and suspicious.
If I accepted, I might expose myself again.
I was walking a blade edge with no end.
But then I heard Cassian’s voice behind me.
“You’re signing up, right?”
I turned slowly. “Why?”
“Because Xander is.”
That stopped me cold.
“Why does that matter?”
“Because he’s already requested you as part of his team.”
My blood iced.
“What?”
Cassian nodded. “I’m requesting you too. That’s two Alpha candidates.”
I shook my head. “I’m not strong enough for this.”
He leaned in. “Ari… you’re stronger than you want anyone to know. That’s your mistake.”
I stared at him. “You don’t know anything about me.”
He gave me a long look.
Then smiled softly.
“Not yet.”
I sighed in defeat.
What do I do?….
- Writer
