Chapter 9
1313 Words
My name cracked across the field like thunder.
Aria.
Not Rory. Not cadet.
Aria.
I froze.
Time seemed to slow around me. The shouting, the smoke, the chaos—it all blurred into static. But that voice, that one word, echoed inside me like a curse I’d spent too long outrunning.
Kael’s grip on my arm tightened.
I turned to him. His eyes were wide with shock, mouth parted like he’d just been punched. “Is it true?” he whispered, as if he needed to hear it again from me to believe it.
I couldn’t answer. My lungs felt like they’d collapsed.
Riven was pushing through the crowd toward us, shoving cadets aside.
The cloaked figure stepped forward, pulling down their hood. A girl, older than me, with eyes like steel. “This Academy harbors a fraud,” she declared. “A female. Disguised. Deceitful.”
Her voice rang with power, like she was used to being listened to. “Her presence here violates every code. She risks all of you—your ranks, your futures.”
The crowd was stunned into silence.
Then murmurs began.
A girl?
Here?
In the Training Academy?
My knees wanted to buckle. I should’ve run. Fled into the trees and never looked back. But Kael was still holding me. And even though his grip had loosened, he hadn’t let go.
Riven reached me, his jaw clenched. “Don’t say a word.”
“But—”
“Not. A word.”
The Head Enforcer came storming toward us, flanked by two guards. He looked me up and down like he was seeing me for the first time. “Is this true?” he barked. “Are you a girl?”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.
Kael stepped in. “She passed every test. She outperformed half the cadets here. That has to mean something.”
“She lied,” the cloaked girl snapped. “And your precious Trials mean nothing if they can be manipulated.”
“Who are you?” Riven growled.
“Agent Solara. Regional Enforcer Command. Sent by the Council.”
Even Riven flinched at that.
“Your Academy,” she said, eyes scanning the instructors, “has become soft. You let a girl slip through your ranks. A wolf-less female. You let her thrive.”
A gasp spread across the group.
They knew now.
Not just that I was a girl—but that I wasn’t even shifted.
Kael’s eyes flicked toward me, but he didn’t back away.
“I don’t care if she’s a girl,” he said. “She earned her place here.”
“She deceived everyone,” Solara hissed. “You call that honor?”
I felt my voice returning. Shaky, but rising. “I didn’t come here to hurt anyone. I came to survive.”
“By lying?” the Head Enforcer spat.
“By escaping,” I shot back. “From being sold off to some brute for a marriage I didn’t want. From a pack that never saw me as anything more than a bargaining tool. I wanted to be free.”
Silence again.
I stepped forward. “So I became Rory. And I fought. I trained. I bled. I never asked for special treatment. I just wanted a chance.”
Solara looked unmoved. “And now your lies threaten the reputation of this entire institution.”
“Then punish me,” I said. “But don’t pretend I didn’t earn what I fought for.”
Riven stepped between us. “She’s still a cadet. And until formal charges are brought, she stays under Academy protection.”
The Head Enforcer looked torn.
Solara sneered. “You’re already compromised. You let her stay this long.”
“She stays,” Riven repeated, steel in his voice.
Solara’s eyes narrowed. “Fine. Then the Council will hear of this. And when they come—there will be no more protection.”
She turned and stalked off, disappearing into the dispersing smoke.
The Head Enforcer gave me a final glare, then followed her, barking orders at the guards.
And just like that, the crowd broke apart.
But the whispers didn’t.
They followed me everywhere.
A girl. A fake. A freak.
Kael walked beside me in silence.
When we reached the barracks, I hesitated at the door.
“Don’t,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow.
“You don’t have to defend me anymore.”
“I’m not doing it out of pity,” he said. “You saved us out there. Flag run, trap evasion—you were better than all of us.”
“That doesn’t matter anymore.”
“It should.”
I looked at him, and his face softened. “I don’t care what they think. I just care about what’s coming.”
I lowered my voice. “The Council.”
He nodded. “They’ll want to make an example out of you.”
“Then I’ll run,” I whispered. “Before they come. Before it gets worse.”
Kael grabbed my hand. “You run, they win. Stay. Fight.”
“I can’t win this one, Kael.”
“I’ll fight with you.”
I stared at him. He meant it. I could see it in his eyes.
But it terrified me more than anything—that someone like him might fall because of me.
Riven appeared in the doorway. “Pack your things,” he said quietly.
“What?” I asked.
“They’re not waiting. The Council’s already on the way.”
My heart dropped. “When?”
“Tonight.”
Kael cursed. “We need a plan.”
“No,” Riven said. “You need to move. I’m getting her out.”
“What?” Kael and I said at the same time.
“You’re not safe here anymore,” Riven told me. “I’ve seen how they work. This won’t be a hearing—it’ll be a sentencing.”
I swallowed. “But if I run, I prove them right.”
“And if you stay, they’ll destroy you. No one survives the Council’s wrath, Aria. Not like this.”
Kael looked between us, torn.
Riven added, “There’s a contact in the north woods. A resistance group. They’ve been looking for someone like her. Someone who knows the system from the inside.”
I frowned. “Resistance?”
Riven gave me a sharp look. “You think you're the only one who wanted things to change?”
It clicked.
The whispers I’d heard. The secret conversations. The cracks in the Academy’s perfect shell.
There was a resistance.
Kael exhaled. “Then I’m going with her.”
“No,” Riven snapped. “You stay. If she’s going to survive this, she needs someone here who can still influence things. Someone on the inside.”
Kael gritted his teeth. “I’m not just going to let her go.”
“You’re not letting me,” I said quietly. “I have to.”
I turned to Riven. “When do we leave?”
“Now.”
Kael stepped closer, took my hand again. “Come back to me.”
I nodded, but couldn’t speak. The lump in my throat was too big.
He kissed my knuckles and stepped back.
Riven led me out through the back corridors, away from the noise and suspicion.
Every step I took felt heavier.
This wasn’t how I thought my story would go.
But maybe it was the only way it could.
We slipped into the woods just as the first torches from the Council’s envoy flickered in the distance, their shadows long and dangerous.
And then—
A howl split the night.
A warning.
Followed by another.
And another.
I turned to Riven.
“What is it?”
He went still. “They know. They're already hunting us.”
- Writer
