Secrets Can Kill You
1068 Words
I wake up gasping, my chest heaving like I’ve been drowning.
Light burns my eyes. White. Too white. The smell of herbs and metal fills my nose. My head throbs, sharp and deep, like something is drilling into my skull.
Voices crash over me before I can even move.
“She shouldn’t be awake.” “You saw the markings!” “This is beyond protocol.”
I blink hard and turn my head.
The infirmary.
Mooncrest’s medical wing is cold and quiet in a way that feels wrong. Glowing wards line the walls, humming softly. My arms feel heavy. When I try to lift them, metal clicks softly.
Restrained.
Panic slams into me.
“April…stop.”
Eryx is there instantly, standing so close I can feel his warmth. His eyes are red-rimmed, exhaustion carved deep into his face. His hands hover near my shoulders, not touching, like he’s afraid contact might hurt me.
“You collapsed,” he says gently. “Your body went into shock. Please don’t move yet.”
“What happened?” My voice is hoarse. My throat burns. “Why does it feel like my heart is breaking?”
Before he can answer, shouting explodes across the room.
“You felt it too!” Riven roars. “Don’t lie to me!”
“I felt something,” Lucien replies smoothly. Too smoothly. “That doesn’t mean she’s what you think.”
“It means everything!” Riven snaps. “The bond reacted…”
“That’s enough.”
Jodan’s voice slices through the argument.
He stands near the far wall, arms crossed, posture rigid. His face is calm, but his eyes are dark with tension. Guards line the doorway now. More arrive every second, their armor clinking softly.
A professor steps forward, shaking. “This is being handled internally.”
A guard scoffs. “You can’t bury this. The Royal Council will demand answers.”
“The council doesn’t need to know yet,” Jodan says coldly.
Riven spins toward him. “Yet?”
Lucien smiles faintly. “Careful, cousin. Secrets rot fast.”
“Get out,” Jodan growls.
Lucien doesn’t move.
My stomach twists.
“What are they talking about?” I whisper to Eryx.
His jaw tightens. “They’re scared.”
“Of me?”
He doesn’t answer.
The infirmary doors slam open.
More guards flood in, royal insignias flashing silver and blue. Power presses down on the room so hard it’s difficult to breathe.
“She’s awake,” someone mutters.
A teacher steps between the guards and my bed. “The student needs rest.”
“This student,” a guard replies coldly, “is now a political threat.”
My blood turns to ice.
“Where’s Selene?” I ask suddenly.
Silence.
I push myself up, ignoring Eryx’s protest. The restraints tug painfully at my wrists. “Where is my roommate?”
Eryx looks away.
Riven’s fists clench. “She was taken for questioning.”
“Taken?” My voice shakes. “By who?”
Lucien answers, his tone almost bored. “Council informants. Seems she talked more than she should.”
My chest tightens. Selene’s nervous chatter flashes through my mind. Her questions. Her smile.
“And Jax?” I ask. “What about him?”
A guard snorts. “Arrested. Inciting unrest.”
“That’s a lie!” I shout.
No one denies it.
The room erupts again.
“You can’t detain students like this!” “She’s under my authority!” “You don’t get to decide that!”
Eryx leans close, his voice urgent and low. “April. Listen to me.”
I turned to him.
“You need to run.”
My heart stutters. “What?”
“Now,” he whispers. “Before the council arrives in full force.”
“I can’t just leave!”
“They will claim you,” he says, eyes fierce. “Bind you. Control you. Break you if you resist.”
“No one is claiming her,” Riven roars. “I’ll kill them first.”
Jodan steps forward. “Enough.”
The room goes silent again.
“We are on lockdown,” Jodan announces. “No one enters or leaves Mooncrest without my command.”
A guard laughs harshly. “You think that will stop the council?”
“It will slow them,” Jodan replies.
Lucien tilts his head. “You’re choosing sides.”
“I’m choosing the order.”
Lucien’s smile sharpens. “Dangerous choice.”
I swing my legs off the bed, ignoring the dizziness.
“They’re talking about me like I’m not here,” I say.
All eyes turn to me.
“I didn’t ask for this,” I continued. “I didn’t choose it.”
Riven looks at me, something raw and conflicted in his eyes. “We know.”
Lucien studies me like a puzzle. “The moon did.”
Jodan meets my gaze. His voice is quiet, heavy. “Everything has changed.”
I don’t like the way he says it.
Slowly, the room clears. Guards leave to report. Teachers whisper urgently as they follow. Riven storms out, rage rolling off him. Lucien lingers, giving me one last unreadable look before turning away.
Jodan leaves without a word.
Only Eryx stays.
He finally takes my hands, warm and steady. “April,” he says softly. “You need to disappear.”
“Where would I go?”
“There are tunnels under the campus. Old ones. I can take you.”
“And Selene? Jax?”
Pain flashes across his face. “If you stay, they’ll use them against you.”
Footsteps echo in the hallway.
Voices drift closer.
“…ancient law…” “…confirmed markings…” “…multiple bonds…”
Eryx stiffens.
I freeze.
Two figures stop just outside the door.
A male voice speaks first. “If she resists, sedation is authorized.”
Another replies quietly, “And if she refuses the bond?”
There’s a pause.
Then the answer comes, calm and final.
“They will claim her.”
My breath catches.
I step back, heart pounding.
The floor creaks.
Silence.
Slow footsteps enter the infirmary.
I turn
A woman stands behind me. Tall. Cold. Her eyes are sharp silver, her presence crushing. Power rolls off her in suffocating waves.
She smiles without warmth.
“Or,” she says softly, “we will execute her.”
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