SERINA POV
The Academy hunter's blade missed my throat by inches.
I hit the ground and rolled, Drakthar's training kicking in automatically. The hunter—a woman with a Seven tattooed on her wrist—lunged again. This time I was ready. I pulled on the Void Magic humming under my skin and the air around her rippled.
She stumbled, disoriented, giving me half a second to scramble behind a market stall.
"That was Void Magic!" she screamed to her partners. "The Ashveil heir is here!"
So much for staying hidden.
Three more hunters appeared, surrounding me. Drakthar was fifty feet away, fighting off his own group. He'd shifted partially—obsidian scales covering his arms, eyes glowing gold. He was terrifying and magnificent, ripping through hunters like they were paper.
But there were too many. At least twenty Academy soldiers had been waiting in Silver Moon City, and they'd recognized us the moment we entered.
"Surrender, girl!" the woman shouted. "Lord Cassian wants you alive, but we can hurt you plenty before delivering you to him."
I grabbed a knife from the fallen stall and pointed it at her with shaking hands. My Void Magic was there, waiting to be used, but I barely knew how to control it. Earlier, I'd accidentally made Drakthar trip over nothing. Now I needed to actually fight.
Think, Serina. What did Drakthar teach you?
Void Magic bends probability. Find the thread where you win, then pull it.
I closed my eyes for half a second, feeling for the invisible threads of possibility around me. There—one where the woman's boot caught on a loose cobblestone. One where her partner's sword strike went too wide. One where Drakthar broke free and reached me in time.
I grabbed all three threads and pulled.
Reality shifted.
The woman's boot caught on the stone exactly as I'd envisioned. She stumbled. Her partner's strike went wide, hitting the stall instead of me. And Drakthar appeared beside me in a rush of wind and fury, his hand closing around the closest hunter's throat.
"Touch her again," he growled, "and I'll show you why gods feared me."
But more hunters were coming. I could see them pouring into the market from every direction.
"We need to run!" I shouted.
"Agreed." Drakthar grabbed my wrist and pulled me into a sprint. Behind us, the hunters gave chase, shouting orders to cut off our escape routes.
We ducked through alleys and leaped over walls, my lungs burning. The Void Magic was draining my energy faster than I expected. My legs felt like lead.
"I can't—" I gasped. "Can't keep going—"
Drakthar scooped me up without breaking stride, carrying me like I weighed nothing. "You're not dying in a market chase after surviving everything else."
He jumped, and suddenly we were on a rooftop. Then another. Then another. Moving faster than any human could follow.
Finally, he dropped into a hidden alley behind an abandoned building and set me down carefully.
"Are you hurt?" His hands checked me over with surprising gentleness.
"Just tired. The magic—it takes a lot out of me."
"You did well. That probability manipulation was advanced for someone who started training three hours ago." He smiled slightly. "Elara would be proud."
Before I could respond, a familiar voice called from the alley entrance.
"Well, well. The lost Ashveil princess and her pet dragon."
A man stepped into view, and my blood ran cold. He was beautiful in a cruel way—platinum hair, ice-blue eyes, and a Nine tattooed on his wrist in silver. Everything about him screamed power and danger.
"Lord Cassian Vor'alan," Drakthar said, his voice dropping to a lethal growl. "The coward who murdered children in their sleep."
"It wasn't murder. It was necessary." Cassian's smile was poisonous. "The Ashveils were too powerful to exist. Their Void Magic threatened the natural order." His eyes fixed on me. "But I see we missed one little cockroach hiding in the slums."
"You killed my family," I whispered. The words felt too big for my throat.
"I killed traitors who refused to submit to proper authority." He stepped closer. "But you, little Zero—or should I say, little princess?—you're going to be useful. Your blood will complete my research. Your magic will fuel my ascension to Rank Ten. You should be honored."
Rage exploded in my chest. Purple light flared around my hands. "I'll kill you—"
"Serina, don't!" Drakthar grabbed my shoulders. "He's baiting you. He wants you to attack so he can capture you while you're magically exhausted."
Cassian laughed. "The dragon knows me well. We've danced before, haven't we, Drakthar? Three thousand years ago, you slaughtered my ancestor in your rampage. I've been waiting to return the favor."
"Then try." Drakthar pushed me behind him. "Face me now, without your army of cowards."
"Oh, I will. But not today." Cassian raised his hand, and suddenly the alley was filled with hunters. Dozens of them. "Today, I'm just here to deliver a message."
He snapped his fingers.
The hunter beside him threw something at our feet. Something small and bloody.
A child's shoe. Kael's shoe.
"Your brother is very brave," Cassian said conversationally. "He barely cried when we cut off his toe to get this shoe. He said his sister would save him. Such touching faith."
I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Kael. They'd hurt Kael.
"You have fifty-four hours left," Cassian continued. "But let's make this more interesting. The auction is canceled. I'm moving your brother to a more secure location—one the dragon can't reach without destroying the entire building and everyone inside." His smile widened. "If you want him back, you'll have to trade yourself for him. Come to the Academy main gates at dawn in two days. Alone. Or I start removing more pieces."
"Don't you dare—" I lunged forward, but Drakthar held me back.
"This is between you and me, Ashveil," Cassian said. "Your brother is just leverage. Turn yourself in, and I'll let him live. Keep running, and I'll mail you his body parts piece by piece." He turned to leave, then paused. "Oh, and dragon? If you interfere, if you attack the Academy, I'll know. And the boy dies instantly. Are we clear?"
He disappeared in a flash of teleportation magic, taking his hunters with him.
The alley fell silent except for my ragged breathing.
I picked up Kael's bloody shoe with trembling hands. My baby brother. They'd hurt my baby brother.
"Serina—" Drakthar started.
"Don't." My voice came out flat. Dead. "Just don't."
Fifty-four hours. I had to trade myself for Kael at dawn in two days, or Cassian would torture him to death.
But if I surrendered, Cassian would use my blood to complete whatever evil magic he was planning. And I'd die anyway.
I was trapped. Completely trapped.
Unless...
"Drakthar." I looked up at him, and something in my expression made him tense. "You said my Void Magic can manipulate reality. Can it manipulate death?"
"What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking that if I die on my terms, Cassian can't use me. And if I can bind my death to his life somehow..." I smiled grimly. "Then when I go, I take him with me."
"Absolutely not." His hands gripped my shoulders. "You are not sacrificing yourself."
"Then what's your plan? How do we save Kael without me surrendering?"
Drakthar was quiet for a long moment. When he finally spoke, his voice was careful. "There is one way. But you won't like it."
"Tell me."
"We fake your death. Make Cassian think you're dead so he releases Kael, thinking his leverage is worthless. Then we attack while his guard is down." He met my eyes. "But to make it convincing, we'd need real death magic. You'd have to actually die for a few minutes. And there's no guarantee I could bring you back."
My heart pounded. "How high are the chances I don't come back?"
"Fifty-fifty at best."
Fifty percent chance of dying permanently. But if I did nothing, Kael died for sure, and I died anyway when I surrendered.
"Let's do it," I said.
"Serina—"
"We're doing it. I'm not letting Cassian win." I stood, still clutching Kael's bloody shoe. "Teach me how to die."
Drakthar stared at me for a long moment, something like admiration flickering in his gold eyes.
"You really are Ashveil blood," he said quietly. "Brave and reckless and completely impossible."
"Is that a compliment?"
"It's a warning." He took my hand. "Come. We have fifty-four hours to teach you how to kill yourself and survive it."
As we disappeared into the shadows of Silver Moon City, I couldn't help thinking about how far I'd fallen from the girl who woke up two days ago just trying to steal medicine.
Now I was planning my own death to save my brother and destroy the man who murdered my family.
And the scariest part? I wasn't even hesitating.