Ariane:
When Evie and I were so thoroughly exhausted that all either of us could do was lay there, panting on the floor, spitting blood, and huffing curses, we laughed. It was raw and breathless, a laugh born of shared pain, of surviving something brutal together.
But it didn't last.
The clock chimed the hour, and time—merciless and unbending—reminded me I wasn't finished.
"You're late, Ariane!" Evie barked, already on her feet, yanking me up from the floor where I'd landed during our final spar.
She dragged me outside. The sun had just risen—barely. Twilight had passed, but the sky still held a violet hush.
Gate Two was waiting.
It thrummed with a magic so thick it buzzed against my skin, a vibration that seeped into my bones. My vision blurred for a moment like the air itself warp
