Chapter 78
*Jiselle*
Nate couldn’t explain the truth to them.
Blood oath.
But nothing said I couldn’t.
That’s how it started–our last full day before Solstice. Sitting in the back corner of the library with Eva and Ethan, surrounded by ancient books that no longer mattered, the smell of dust and moon–sealed ink curling in the air. My palms were damp. My throat felt like ash. But I told them everything.
Not just about the council.
Not just about the mark on my chest and what it meant.
But about Solstice. What it really meant. What happened in that chamber beneath the mountain. What the rituals were designed to do. And the fact that none of us were ever meant to survive it as ourselves.
Eva didn’t say anything at first. She just stared at me, her brown eyes wide and wet with something like grief–but deeper. More raw. She reached across the table and took my hand, her fingers trembling.
Ethan swore under his breath. “This place is sicker than I thought.”
“You think this is why Max started acting the way he did?” Eva whispered.
I didn’t answer. I didn’t have to. We all knew the answer. Max saw it–maybe not clearly, maybe not fully–but he saw enough. He knew what I was first, before anyone else. And it had eaten him from the inside.
They sat in silence as I told them the rest. The plan. The barest fragments of what Nate and I intended to do–not how, not where, but why.
When I finished, the quiet between us
was solid and sharp.
Eva looked up, her voice dry. “Well, shit.”
Ethan exhaled hard through his nose, leaned back in his chair, and nodded once. “Then let’s tear it all down.”
And just like that, they were with me. Completely. No hesitation.
That night, I barely slept. I lay on Nate’s chest, counting each rise and fall like it might stop without warning. I’d gotten used to the way his arms curled around me in the quiet hours, used to the rhythm of his fingers brushing up and down my spine when he thought I was asleep.
We didn’t speak
We didn’t need to.
Because the next day–today–was Solstice.
They dressed us
in
silence.
No words. Just motion. Just hands adjusting lapels and pinning silversilk cloaks across our shoulders. My dress uniform fit too tightly at the neck. My boots were polished but scuffed at the toes from too many battles that no one saw.
The academy had never looked so pristine.
The stone courtyards were lined with banners etched in lunar script. Torches floated in perfect circles around the perimeter, enchanted to burn in silver and violet hues. Music drifted through the halls–low and ceremonial, the kind of tune that made your chest ache even if you didn’t know why.
And the people…
Everyone was here.
Students. Instructors. Council envoys. Even some of the final years who rarely emerged from the upper wings. It was lik royal court, watching as we–the first years–lined up in silence.
We were to be escorted, one by one, into the Solstice Chamber beneath the school.
A rite of passage.
A ritual of power.
A blood–soaked lie.
An instructor stood in the middle of the courtyard, ensuring we all had our daggers that were issued to us weeks ago–the daggers that I now realized were to be connected to our life force.
I figured it was also the dagger that would be used to perform the blood oath. This school was sick.
1/3
Chapter 78
I stood beside Eva and Ethan, the crowd murmuring around us like distant waves. The air was too still. Like it was holding
its breath.
I looked around.h
Most of the list had made it.
Some faces were missing–names I remembered circled in red. Two more had died since the day Nate told them about it. Quiet deaths. Quiet cover–ups.
But Nate and I were still here. We made it.
For now.
My fingers itched toward my chest, where the mark throbbed faintly under the fabric of my uniform. I could feel it responding to the magic that hummed through the air–like it knew what was coming.
“Whatever happens,” Eva said beside me, her voice soft but steady, “make sure you come back to me.”
I turned, forcing a smile. “You too.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Ethan muttered. “You’re both stuck with me.”
Nate approached then, his uniform tailored like it was built to hold his rage. He looked too sharp, too lethal–his dark hair slicked back, the faint shadows beneath his eyes darker than usual. But his gaze softened when he looked at me.
He stopped in front of me. Reached out. Brushed a loose curl from my cheek and tucked it behind my ear. “This can either go extremely well…” I said softly, “or we both die.”
His hand cupped the back of my neck. His thumb stroked once along the edge of my jaw. Then he leaned in, kissed me with all the gentleness and finality of someone trying to make a memory last forever.
When he pulled back, he whispered, “Then ensure you don’t die, Jiselle.”
I smiled through the knot in my throat.
“You too. Or else I’ll kill you.”
He laughed. Just once. A soft exhale of something human before the weight of what was coming sank in again.
From the far end of the courtyard, a horn sounded–low and echoing, vibrating through my bones.
The Headmistress emerged from the archway above, flanked by Bastain and two council members I didn’t recognize. She raised her hand, and silence fell instantly.
She didn’t give a speech. She didn’t offer encouragement.
She just looked down at us all and said, “Begin.”
And the doors opened.
A massive double gate set into the mountain wall–doors most of us had never even noticed–split open with a deep groan. Magic spilled out in shimmering waves of cold and color. The path beneath glowed with old runes, pulsing once with each heartbeat like it was alive.
We moved forward in silence.
Single file.
Nate brushed his fingers against mine briefly before stepping ahead of me. I held onto that touch. Memorized it. Clutched it like armor.
One by one, the students vanished into the chamber.
And when my name was called, I stepped forward.
Toward the gates.
Toward the truth.
Toward whatever waited in the mountain’s heart.
