Chapter 8 School Was Never Normal
925 Words
Elara POV
“My kingdom?”
I stopped walking so suddenly Kael nearly dragged my shoulder out of place.
He turned back slowly. “Yes.”
“No.”
“No?”
“I am not going to your evil mystery kingdom.”
“It is not evil.”
Seraphina raised a brow. “That is debatable.”
Kael ignored her.
Rain still poured around us. Sirens screamed through the city. Far above the rooftops, the tower of bone and shadow kept rising like the world’s worst construction project.
I pointed at it. “Whatever that is says evil.”
“That,” Kael said, “is a gate.”
“Wonderful. Still no.”
He stepped closer.
“You are seconds away from becoming prey to armies, hunters, and creatures that smell royal blood.”
“I don’t smell royal.”
“You smell like burning magic.”
I sniffed my sleeve.
He wasn’t wrong.
“I need my things,” I said.
“You need to live.”
“I need both!”
Seraphina crossed her arms. “She is exhausting.”
“You’re welcome to leave,” I snapped.
“Tempting.”
Kael pinched the bridge of his nose like he had a headache named Elara.
“Where do you live?”
“Why?”
“Because apparently we are collecting your belongings before the apocalypse.”
I blinked.
Then grinned despite myself.
“That sounded almost helpful.”
“It was regret.”
---
Ten minutes later, we stood outside my apartment building.
Calling it a building was generous.
The narrow structure leaned slightly to one side like it had lost hope years ago. Flickering lights buzzed above the entrance. Trash bags sat near the broken stairs.
Seraphina looked horrified.
“You live here?”
“Some of us aren’t born into magical privilege.”
Kael’s gaze swept the street.
Too still.
No traffic.
No voices.
No neighbors shouting through windows.
My stomach tightened.
“It’s never this quiet.”
Kael drew his black blade instantly.
“Stay behind me.”
“That phrase again.”
“Behind me, Elara.”
Something in his tone made me obey.
We climbed the stairs slowly.
My apartment was on the third floor.
The door already hung open.
My chest dropped.
I rushed forward.
Kael caught my arm. “Wait.”
“That’s my home!”
“It may now be a trap.”
“It’s one room and bad plumbing. How elaborate can the trap be?”
He gave me a look.
Fair.
We entered together.
The apartment was wrecked.
My mattress had been ripped open. Drawers overturned. Dishes shattered. Books torn apart.
Someone had searched everything.
Anger burned through the fear.
“This is all I had.”
Kael studied the room.
“No valuables taken.”
“Because there were none.”
“They were looking for something.”
Seraphina stepped inside delicately, avoiding debris. “Perhaps they expected the crown to be hidden here.”
I swallowed hard.
“Who knows where I live?”
“Everyone now,” Kael said.
Great.
I crouched beside my broken bookshelf and picked up the only framed photo I owned.
A picture of me at ten with the woman who raised me Mrs. Harlow, the elderly neighbor who had taken me in after foster care spat me back out. She’d died three years ago.
The glass was shattered across her face.
My throat tightened.
Kael knelt beside me.
“You can bring it.”
I looked at him.
It was a simple sentence.
But gentle.
Unexpectedly gentle.
That somehow hurt more.
Before I could answer, footsteps thundered in the hall.
Many footsteps.
Kael stood instantly.
Seraphina’s fingers glowed with ice.
The doorframe splintered as men in silver armor burst inside.
Hunters.
Their masked leader pointed directly at me.
“Seize the heir.”
I grabbed the broken photo and threw it at his head.
It bounced uselessly off the mask.
Kael sighed.
“Was that strategic?”
“It was emotional.”
The hunters charged.
Kael met the first with a brutal s***h.
Seraphina froze two more to the floor.
I backed into the kitchen nook, heart hammering.
One hunter lunged around Kael and grabbed my wrist.
Pain shot through my skin where his silver glove touched me.
I screamed.
The crown blazed.
My hands ignited again.
Black-gold fire raced up the hunter’s arm.
He howled and let go.
I stared in shock.
Then smiled.
“Okay… that one was strategic.”
Kael cut down another attacker and looked over his shoulder.
“Less commentary. More moving.”
The apartment walls began to crack.
A spear of blue energy blasted through the ceiling.
Then another.
The whole floor trembled.
Seraphina’s eyes widened.
“They brought siege mages.”
“You have siege mages?” I shouted.
“Unfortunately.”
Kael grabbed my waist before I could protest.
“Hold on.”
“To what”
Shadow swallowed us whole.
The apartment vanished.
When the darkness peeled away, we stood somewhere else entirely.
A vast stone courtyard beneath a blood-red sky.
Black towers pierced the clouds.
Mountains of bone surrounded a colossal castle lit by rivers of fire.
Creatures with wings circled overhead.
Rows of armored soldiers dropped to one knee the moment they saw Kael.
Then their eyes lifted to me.
And every single one bowed lower.
Seraphina muttered, “Well… that’s new.”
Kael’s hand remained at my waist.
His voice was calm, dangerous, certain.
“Welcome to the Shadow Realm.”
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