Aiden ran.
Not far. Not fast enough to look guilty. Just enough to feel like his lungs were doing something useful.
The corridors blurred past him, arches, candles, familiar stone suddenly foreign. The bell kept ringing above Sanctum Academy, slow and deliberate, each toll pressing against his skull like a question demanding an answer.
Run, Seraphine had said.
But where do you run when the walls already know your name?
He ducked into the old east stairwell, the one no one used anymore. The steps were worn thin, the air colder, the kind of place sound didn't like to linger. The bell faded here, reduced to a distant throb.
Aiden leaned against the wall, breathing hard.
"That's enough."
The voice didn't echo.
Prefect Calder stood at the base of the stairs, hands folded neatly, as if he'd always been there. As if Aiden had only imagined the chase.
"You didn't think we'd let you leave the courtyard," Calder said gently. "Did you?"
Aiden straightened. "You said I was free."
"For now," Calder replied. "And now has passed."
The pressure behind Aiden's head surged, sharp, insistent. The phantom halo burned, and for the first time, he didn't fight it.
Light leaked through his fingers.
Calder's eyes flickered, not with fear, but with interest.
"There it is," he murmured. "The fracture."
"I'm not your experiment," Aiden said, voice shaking.
"No," Calder agreed. "You're worse."
He raised one hand.
The air thickened.
From the shadows of the stairwell, figures emerged, three of them, robed in white and gold. Their faces were hidden, but Aiden felt them looking at him. Not with eyes.
With memory.
The Choir.
They did not sing.
They hummed.
The sound vibrated through bone and thought, dragging images to the surface, wings folded in ash, a choice made in fire, a fall that never ended.
Aiden dropped to one knee.
"Stop," he gasped.
The humming ceased.
Calder stepped forward, crouching so they were eye level.
"You can make this easier," he said softly. "Return what you remember. Let us seal the break."
Aiden lifted his head.
In the glass of a nearby lantern, he caught his reflection.
Behind him, faint but undeniable, the broken halo glowed.
He smiled.
"No," he said.
The lantern shattered.
Light exploded outward, wild and untrained. The Choir recoiled, robes snapping like wings caught in a storm. Calder staggered back, shock finally cracking his composure.
Aiden didn't wait.
He ran again, this time truly.
Upward.
Toward the roof.
Toward the open sky.
Behind him, Calder's voice cut through the chaos, sharp and furious for the first time:
"Find Seraphine Vale."
The name echoed.
Aiden reached the rooftop just as the sun dipped below the horizon, bleeding the sky into crimson and gold. Wind tore at his clothes. The city beyond Sanctum sprawled beneath him, vast and unprotected.
He stood at the edge.
For a heartbeat, he thought he was alone.
Then a hand slipped into his.
Seraphine.
Her eyes were wide, determined, afraid.
"You chose," she said.
Aiden nodded.
The broken halo flared.
And together,
They stepped forward.