Chapter 37: Chapter 38: I might not be coming back at all
"Why are we being sent to Morvalis so early?" I asked, my voice sharper than I had intended, the words slicing through the heavy tension that still lingered in the dorm room like a blade dragged across stone.
I knew I wasn’t the only one thinking it.
Even if no one else dared voice the question out loud, I could feel the collective hesitation thickening the air, he subtle shifts in posture, the way a few of my dormmates glanced sideways at one another, their eyes flickering with unspoken unease and quiet agreement. But none of them stepped forward to challenge Mr. Asher’s decree.
Everyone... even Elion.
He lounged against the edge of the single bed with that infuriating, effortless calm, arms loosely crossed over his chest, one ankle hooked over the other. His expression remained completely unbothered, as if being ordered into Morvalis on the very first night was nothing more than an inconvenient stroll through the academy gardens.
A faint, almost amused glint lingered in his hazel eyes, and somehow that nonchalance annoyed me more than anything else in the room.
But a darker, colder thought crept in behind the irritation, curling tight and venomous in my chest like smoke from a dying fire.
Why does it feel like I’m the one being sent there to die... right after someone just casually predicted my death?
As a child, if you had ever heard the old stories whispered around flickering campfires or passed down in hushed warnings from parents who knew better, you would understand the bone-deep dread that name carried.
Morvalis wasn’t a place meant for anything with warm blood running through its veins.
Not humans, with their fragile bodies and short lifespans.
Not animals, driven by instinct and fear.
And definitely not... something like me. A wolfless girl. without power or purpose.
"You should have thought about that before fighting and destroying academy property," Mr. Asher said, his voice level and unraised.
It didn’t need to rise.
The anger simmering beneath it was tightly controlled, restrained, precise, and far more dangerous because of it. Each syllable carried the quiet authority of someone who had seen far worse chaos than a single dorm-room brawl and had no patience left for excuses.
And honestly?
He had every right to be angry.
We had been placed under his watch only hours ago. And within that short span, we had already turned the Red dorm into a battlefield... broken furniture, shattered glass, blood on the floor, and a punishment that now dragged the entire group into the abyss.
But still...
What does he mean "we"?
My jaw tightened until the muscles ached, a sharp pulse of resentment flaring hot behind my ribs.
I didn’t break anything.
I didn’t throw a single punch.
I had tried.... clumsily, desperately.... to pull them apart before the Sentinels arrived.
So why was I being punished alongside the ones who had actually started the mess?
The unfairness burned through me like acid, eating away at my hesitation until I couldn’t keep the words locked inside any longer.
"But sir..." I started, my voice hesitant at first, trembling on the edge of uncertainty, then slowly gaining strength as fear and frustration pushed it forward. "To be fair, only two people were fighting. The rest of us were trying to separate them."
I swallowed hard, my throat dry and tight, even as my heart hammered wildly against my ribcage like a trapped bird desperate for escape.
"If anyone is to be punished... it should be those two."
The moment the words left my mouth, I felt the shift ripple through the room like a cold wave crashing over everyone present.
The looks.
The sudden, heavy silence.
The way eyes narrowed and shoulders stiffened.
And I hated it.... hated the way it made my stomach twist with guilt and self-loathing.
Because I knew exactly what I had just done.
I had thrown my own teammates under the bus.
*Coward.*
The word echoed loudly in my head, sharp and accusing, cutting deeper than any insult Kaden had hurled earlier.
But fear was louder.
Louder than shame.
Louder than loyalty.
Louder than whatever fragile sense of group unity we were supposed to be building.
I didn’t want to go to Morvalis.
Not for this.
Not because two hot-headed idiots couldn’t control their fists or their egos for even one night.
And as if the situation wasn’t already balanced on a knife’s edge....
The door opened with a soft creak that somehow sounded louder than thunder in the sudden quiet.
Thorne stepped inside.
His gaze landed on me instantly, locking with mine across the room like a physical touch.
For a brief, excruciating second, something in his expression shifted, a flicker that passed too quickly to name fully.
Disappointment?
Hurt?
A quiet betrayal that cut sharper than open anger ever could?
I didn’t know.
But it made something deep in my chest twist painfully, a dull, unwelcome ache that spread outward like cracks in thin ice.
Still... I didn’t take my words back.
I couldn’t.
Not when every instinct screamed that Morvalis would be the end of me.
"Did you hear her?" Kaden scoffed loudly, his voice dripping with contempt and open hostility. "Dumb."
His glare sliced toward me, sharp and unrelenting, full of the kind of raw disdain that made my skin crawl.
"We’re supposed to be a team, Nyx," Theo added, his tone carrying more disappointment than outright anger, like I had personally let him down.
Lyra nodded in quiet agreement, her brown-streaked braids swaying slightly with the motion, her eyes avoiding mine.
And just like that....
It felt like I was standing completely alone in the center of the room.
Isolated.
Exposed.
The only one desperately fighting not to be dragged into Morvalis while the rest closed ranks around their own survival.
Maybe I had done this wrong.
Maybe I shouldn’t have spoken for everyone, trying to shield the group when they clearly didn’t want my protection.
Maybe I should have just fought for myself.... selfish, raw, and honest.
Before I could sink any deeper into that spiraling pit of regret and second-guessing...
A warm hand landed gently but firmly on my shoulder.
"I agree with you, Gorgeous," Elion said lightly, a playful smile curving his lips as if this were all some amusing game rather than a life-threatening decree.
I turned my head slowly and glared at him, eyes narrowing into slits.
Of course he did.
It was painfully obvious.
He wasn’t agreeing because he truly believed in fairness or justice or in what I said.
He was agreeing because he wanted something from me.... This puppy want to sleep with me and he just saw this as another opportunity to slide closer.
And I wasn’t interested.
Not even a little.
I shrugged his hand off with a sharp jerk of my shoulder, turning my body deliberately away from him, putting physical distance between us as if that could somehow shield me from his intentions.
"I also agree with Nyx," Ivy spoke up suddenly, her voice cutting through the thickening tension with unexpected clarity.
That caught my attention, pulling my gaze toward her.
"I shouldn’t be punished for something I didn’t do. It’s not fair."
At least... someone was being genuine instead of acting like an heroine.... We are not... We are living beings and our life ended immediately we stop breathing. So what’s the pretense for?.
I like her for that, even if she had been the one casually suggesting I might die naturally only minutes earlier.
Funny how quickly alliances shifted in a place like this... self-interest masquerading as solidarity, fear binding people together in the strangest ways.
"It doesn’t matter what any of you think," Mr. Asher said, cutting through the rising arguments like a blade through silk.
His voice was final, carved from absolute authority.
"What matters is this...." he continued, his gaze sweeping across all of us with slow, deliberate intensity, pinning each face in turn, "....as a group, you share both punishment and reward... together"
No arguments allowed, or exceptions granted.
Just cold, ironclad law.
"In fifteen minutes," he added, already turning away toward the door with unhurried precision, "meet me at the courtyard."
And just like that....
He left.
The door closed behind him with a quiet, decisive click that somehow echoed louder than any shout, reverberating through the suddenly stifling room like the final nail in a coffin.
Silence followed.
Heavy.
Suffocating.
Thick enough to choke on.
And all I could think, as dread coiled tighter and tighter in my gut, was...
In fifteen minutes...
I might not make it back.
The weight of Morvalis loomed larger than ever, a shadow stretching far beyond the academy walls, promising trials that had nothing to do with fairness and everything to do with survival.
My body still screamed from the earlier punishment, every muscle protesting the very idea of movement, yet the clock was already ticking down. Fifteen minutes to gather what little strength I had left. Fifteen minutes before the place that devoured the weak swallowed me whole.
And deep down, in the quietest corner of my mind, a small, terrified voice whispered that this time... I might not be coming back at all.
