They say we get to choose our friends, but I don't remember signing anything.
The mall's artificial skylights bathed everything in warm tones—like sunlight trapped in amber. I kept my hands shoved into my hoodie pockets, trying to act like the excitement in my chest was from the ice cream and not from the fact that I was just... here. Normal. Laughing. With people.
Ari was animatedly swinging a bag of sour candy she'd somehow convinced the vendor to give us half-off. Juno, radiant as always, carried herself like she wasn't aware half the guys in the food court had just tripped over their necks to get a better look at her.
"Seriously though," Ari said between licks of her mango slush, "that exam was chaos. I still don't get how they're going to score it fairly."
Juno nodded, adjusting the strap of her duffle bag. "It was supposed to be a training scenario, not a live combat situation. I've already submitted a report to the faculty council."
I sipped my smoothie and tried not to visibly cringe. Reports. Paperwork. Debriefs. All the parts of the game I didn't care to play unless I was the one writing the script.
"They'll adjust the rubric," Juno continued. "Probably weight reaction time and decision-making higher. Not just raw takedowns."
"I mean… it's not like it really matters to me," I said, flicking my eyes down at my phone. "Grades don't affect me much."
A vibration buzzed in my palm.
I turned the screen, just enough to peek at the notification:
Whisper[1 Unread Message]
My thumb hovered for a heartbeat.
Then I slid the phone back into my pocket.
That name alone pulled a tension wire tight across my spine. If he was messaging now, in public, it had to be important. Urgent, even. But I wasn't ready. Not with the warm smell of popcorn in the air and the girls walking beside me like they weren't part of a world that could kill them.
We passed by a display wall of curved TVs. A crowd was already gathered, heads tilted up at the screen. A woman in a navy blue battlecoat stood center stage on the broadcast, a mic clipped to her high collar, the Hero Bureau logo gleaming behind her.
"We are the first and final wall," she declared, voice confident and stern. "When chaos tears through the city, when shadows rise in the alleys, when demons of magic and madness take root in our world—we do not retreat. We do not break. We are the line."
The crowd clapped on-screen. Her image flickered with subtitles.
"To those with the will, the training, and the courage—applications are now open for the 105th class of the Hero Bureau Initiative. The future is watching."
I recognized her instantly—Captain Valkara. One of the Bureau's top operatives. Ice-type. Reputation for being brutal on the field and brutal in interviews. Her speech had the cadence of someone delivering a war cry instead of a recruitment poster.
"She's amazing," Juno whispered, eyes lit.
"You'd shine there," I said, the words slipping out before I even thought about them.
Juno blinked. "Huh?"
"I'm serious," I added, forcing a small smile. "You've got the strength, the drive, the hero look... and you know how to survive."
Ari grinned and elbowed Juno lightly. "She's right. You've got 'poster girl for heroism' written all over you."
"You guys are overpraising me," Juno said, but her cheeks colored. "I am planning to apply once we graduate."
There was a beat of silence that followed, soft and content.
"Classes start soon," she said, tone shifting gently. "We won't get to hang out like this as much."
The smoothie suddenly didn't taste as good.
I tried to brush it off with a shrug. "Can't say I'm looking forward to it."
Ari glanced at me. "Nervous?"
I nodded, slowly. "Yeah. A little. I don't like the others in my class. They talk behind my back. Look at me like I'm something rotting."
Juno frowned. "You don't need to care about them. Not when you've got people like us."
That hit harder than I wanted it to.
"I mean it," she added, more firmly. "Keep your head up, okay? I'll back you. Always."
She reached out and pulled me into a hug.
And I didn't push her away.
"I…" I hesitated. "Thanks, Juno. Really."
Then came the sound of a throat clearing—dramatic and pointed.
Ari was standing there, pouting like a kicked puppy. "You two are acting like I'm not even here."
Juno grinned. "You are."
"But not in the hug."
"I can help too, y'know!" Ari whined, face flushed. "Don't just assume I'm comic relief!"
We both burst into laughter.
Ari crossed her arms, scowling. "You're lucky I like you idiots."
We bought tickets to see a dumb romcom none of us were really excited about. I let myself get pulled into the crowd, shoulder to shoulder with two girls who didn't know the bloodstains I carried under my sleeves.
But for tonight, I could pretend. Pretend that I wasn't Nyxshade. That I wasn't waiting for Whisper's next order. That I wasn't already calculating how to destroy Captain Valkara's recruitment infrastructure if I needed to.
I could laugh at Ari's popcorn juggling.
I could rest my head against Juno's shoulder when the lights dimmed.
And I could ignore the buzzing in my pocket, just for a little while longer.
—
The air was thick with rot and rust. I walked in silence, cloaked beneath veils of bending light and false footsteps. The illusion—a blend of mirrored walls and sound-muffling static—twisted the perception of any watching eye. Academy perimeter security wouldn't even register a glitch.
Beneath the mask, my lips twitched. Child's play.
Gone were the schoolgirl braids and clumsy posture. No glasses. No soft expressions. Just the smooth lines of my obsidian-black suit, designed for distortion and shadow travel. It shimmered faintly with layered enchantments—Arcane Silence, Vein-Hide, Mind Fracture. Practical. Untraceable. Lethal.
The warehouse loomed like a forgotten corpse, ribs of exposed steel and shattered windows jagging the skyline. I walked in through the side wall—not the entrance. Slipped between a bent column and the scaffolding like water through a crack. Eventually, I stood before a metal door.
Three knocks. Two seconds. Then the passcode:
"The moon breaks not by light, but reflection."
Click. Hiss. The door folded open, and I stepped inside.
The room was lit only by a handful of rune-laced lanterns suspended in the air. Whisper stood in the center, flanked by two unfamiliar figures. He was clad in his usual patchwork attire—long gray coat riddled with message glyphs, one eye obscured by a rotating optic-lens. His presence always gave the feeling of a man too deep in every secret to be trusted.
He smiled, sharp and unhurried. "I thank you for coming… Nyxshade."
I walked forward, boots soundless against the cement. My answer came cool, with just a tinge of amusement. "It's nothing, really. You know I enjoy our little rendezvous."
Whisper's grin widened, but his tone turned professional. "These two," he gestured to the pair beside him, "are your newest prospects. Recruited them myself. They'll assist in our next operation—time to bring Glass Fang into public shadow."
The taller one, lean and angular, bowed his head slightly. "Name's Bleaktide. Stealth and explosive manipulation. Big fan."
The other, a girl with mechanical arms and humming eye implants, crossed her arms. "Hexdrive. Tech disruption and temporal threading. Don't expect loyalty, just results."
I offered them a slow glance. No judgment, no greeting. Just analysis. Too eager. But the edge in their auras told me they'd be useful—for now.
"I hope you're not handing me corpses with opinions," I said dryly.
Whisper chuckled. "Not at all. They're ambitious. Hungry. They've heard the rumors—the girl with two names, the one who dances between lives and makes the Bureau tremble."
I tilted my head. "And they still showed up? Cute."
Bleaktide swallowed. Hexdrive looked away.
I turned back to Whisper. "Do you have the full report? The academy incident. What went wrong, who covered it, who tried too hard to look clean?"
He nodded. "Encrypted and fragmented. I'll send it to your shadowlink. You'll want to see what the Bureau scrubbed from the footage."
"Good." I let the word hang, then stepped back into the murky light. "Call me when it's time. Until then... don't get attached."
I let the illusions collapse and stepped into the folds between light and absence. My body shimmered, refracted… and vanished.
The room was silent.
Only after a long moment did Bleaktide speak. "She… was terrifying."
Hexdrive nodded slowly. "She didn't blink. I didn't even feel her move."
Whisper chuckled and turned to the dark monitors along the wall. "Be grateful you're working for her and not being hunted by her. That's Nyxshade for you. One part shadow… two parts silent goddamn war."