Saoirse
The academy looked colder than I remembered. Stone corridors echoing with silence, early morning haze still clinging to the stained-glass windows like fog on a battlefield. I walked alone—no Cain, no Cyrus. I couldn’t wait for them, not after everything. Not after last night.
And there she was.
Chloe. Sitting alone in the grand hall like a ghost of herself. Blonde hair tied up messily, mascara smudged under her eyes. First one here, just like me. I took a deep breath and walked straight to her, pulling out the chair across from hers without asking.
Her eyes didn’t even flinch. She was staring somewhere past me, out into the void. But her voice cut sharp when it finally came.
“The hell are you doing here?” she snapped, not even blinking. That signature bitchy tone clinging to e
