Xavier woke slowly, and for a moment, he didn't remember where he was.
The mattress beneath him was softer than his own bed. The blankets smelled faintly of cedar, ink, and black tea leaves from Thorn's Earl Grey tea.
Then the memory returned all at once.
The phone call.
Vincent's voice.
The way the world had tilted sideways afterward.
Training behind the conservatory with Thorn. How her shadows seemed to slither their way into his drawings.
Xavier sat up carefully.
His head felt clearer than it had in days.
No pounding behind his eyes.
No buzzing in his bones.
Just a sense of calm that he hadn't felt in a really long time.
He blinked, orienting himself.
Thorn's dorm room.
Morning light filtered through the tall windows in pale silver bands, turning dust motes into drifting constellations. Her desk was neatly arranged. Far too neatly, from when her parents had visited. The violin rested in its usual place beside a small stack of sheet music and two open notebooks.
And then he noticed the bed across the room.
Thorn and Pippa were both asleep there.
Pippa had claimed the wall side, curled like a cat beneath a pile of blankets. Thorn had clearly tried to stay on the edge of the mattress but had drifted inward sometime during the night. One arm was thrown loosely across Pippa's shoulder.
Which meant...
Xavier looked down at the bed he was sitting in. He was in Thorn's bed. Her green blanket draped over him.
A slow understanding settled over him.
They had moved.
Not him.
Them.
So he could sleep, and someone laid the blanket over him while he slept.
The realization landed harder than Vincent's voice ever had.
His chest tightened in a way he didn't quite have a word for.
Xavier rubbed his face with both hands, exhaling quietly through his nose.
God.
How long had it been since he'd slept like that?
Not the shallow, fractured dozing he usually managed between visions. Not the restless half-sleep where every sound snapped him awake.
Actual, deep, restorative sleep.
The kind that left your mind quiet and body loose afterward.
He glanced toward Thorn again.
She looked younger like this.
Not weaker, never that, but softer around the edges. The sharpness she usually wore like armor had slipped away in sleep. A strand of dark red hair had fallen across her face, and she had unconsciously tucked part of the blanket around Pippa as if making sure her roommate stayed warm.
Xavier swallowed.
They had given up their own beds.
So that he could rest.
Something about that settled deep and heavy behind his ribs.
He slipped carefully out of the blankets.
The floorboards creaked once beneath his weight, and he froze.
Neither girl moved.
Good.
He moved quietly around the room, grabbing a small scrap of paper from Thorn's desk.
The pen hesitated for only a second before he wrote.
I don't know if you know, but you snore when you sleep.
He paused.
Then added beneath it:
But don't worry, I'm not telling anyone.
For a moment, he considered leaving it there, but a part of him felt like it was unfinished.
So, almost without thinking, he wrote one more line.
Thank you.
Xavier folded the note once and set it beside Thorn's violin, where she would see it.
He glanced toward the bed one last time. Watching as Thorn slept peacefully, the way her mouth parted slightly, the rise and fall of her chest in a steady, careful rhythm. He had never seen her so calm.
He let out a deep sigh, then slipped out of the dorm.
The hallway outside was dim and quiet, the early morning light barely reaching through the narrow windows at the far end. Most of the dorm was still asleep; the usual noise of students moving between rooms hadn't started yet.
His footsteps sounded too loud against the old wooden floors, so he slowed, careful not to let the boards creak beneath his weight.
By the time he reached the stairwell, the building had settled back into silence.
He pushed open the heavy door at the bottom of the stairs.
Cold air rushed in immediately.
The campus was cold that morning.
Reichenbach always felt different in the early hours. Quieter, as if the building itself were still waking up. The stone pathways were damp with frost, and the surrounding forest hung low with mist that hadn't yet burned away.
Xavier stepped out into it slowly, hands shoved deep into his jacket pockets.
He didn't head anywhere specific at first.
Just walked.
Because going back to his own dorm just yet didn't feel right.
And staying in Thorn's... Yeah, that felt like something he wasn't ready to unpack.
So he let his feet decide.
His mind felt… clear.
Too clear.
Like something had been shaken loose overnight.
The call with his father should've weighed heavier than it did. It should've followed him out here, pressed into his thoughts the way it usually did, repeating itself until it stuck.
But it didn't.
Not fully.
It lingered at the edges of his mind, but something else had taken its place.
Something quieter and stronger.
He slowed slightly as he crossed one of the open paths.
It was the Resonance.
He could feel it again.
A faint vibration under the skin of the world.
It wasn't loud or overwhelming like it usually was, but it was present.
And sharper than it had been before.
More… awake.
Xavier frowned, his gaze drifting toward the distant buildings as if that would help him place it.
That shouldn't have changed so quickly.
Nothing about this was supposed to move this fast; old magic moved slowly. Creeping around the edges.
His steps eventually angled toward the main building.
Not intentionally.
Just a force of habit at this point.
The doors to the cafeteria were already unlocked, and a faint hum from the fluorescent lighting spilled into the hallway beyond.
Inside, it was mostly empty.
A few early risers scattered at the far tables, keeping to themselves, heads down over coffee or books. The usual noise hadn't built yet, leaving the space feeling too open, too exposed.
Xavier grabbed something simple.
Coffee.
Toast, he wasn't sure he'd eat. He normally wasn't hungry in the mornings, but he would force himself to get something down before the chaos started, usually.
But today, he didn't bother with anything else.
Then he moved toward one of the tables near the windows, close enough to be seen, far enough not to be bothered.
He sat.
Let the cup warm his hands as he took a deep breath and stared out at the mist still clinging to the grounds.
For a while, he didn't think about anything.
Just sat.
Letting the quiet settle into him.
But it didn't stay quiet.
It never did.
Xavier's grip tightened slightly around the cup.
His jaw set, but he didn't react outwardly.
Didn't move.
But the tension found its way into his shoulders anyway, pulling them tighter than they needed to be.
He exhaled slowly through his nose as the Resonance shifted again.
It was faint, but enough that he noticed.
His gaze flicked up slightly, unfocused now, like he was trying to see something that wasn't visible.
It pulsed once.
Then settled.
Xavier frowned.
"… That's not normal," he murmured under his breath.
Something was changing.
He could feel it.
Not just in the school, but in himself.
And he didn't know what that meant yet.
Footsteps sounded behind him.
He turned.
Thorn approached from the opposite path, pulling the sleeves of her sweater down over her hands as she walked.
Her eyes narrowed slightly when she spotted him.
"So," she said.
Xavier raised an eyebrow.
"So?"
"You escaped."
He blinked.
"Oh."
She folded her arms.
"Pippa and I wake up, and your side of the room is empty like forest demons have abducted you."
"Well, that seems unlikely."
"How can you be sure? Do you have any idea where you are?"
"Yeah, that's fair."
Her gaze flicked over him briefly.
Assessing.
"You sleep okay?"
Xavier nodded once.
"Yeah."
She looked faintly satisfied by that answer, though she tried not to show it.
"Good."
They stood there for a moment in the cold morning air.
Then Thorn tilted her head slightly, and the air vibrated higher. Hitting a different frequency than before.
"Something feels weird."
Xavier's attention sharpened instantly.
"What kind of weird?"
She hesitated.
"Not bad, weird," she said slowly. "I think..."
Thorn looked around to check who was around before she continued.
"It feels different," she whispered, "Sharper."
"Yeah, I can feel that too," he admitted.
Thorn lifted one hand slightly towards her hair, and the shadows around her boots stirred.
Not dramatically.
Just enough to notice.
They moved before she consciously directed them, and Xavier's brow furrowed.
"You didn't mean to do that..."
"I didn't."
The shadow stilled again.
Thorn flexed her fingers slowly, testing the sensation. Her shadows slipped against the stone like spilled ink before they swirled around her boots.
"They're more sensitve now," she murmured. "Usually, I have to push them to react, but now they do it on their own. It's like they know how to react before I do."
Xavier exhaled slowly. "They might be reacting to what's around us."
Thorn stayed silent for a moment, the shadows reaching towards Xavier's boots before they snapped back.
"That's going to be a problem if the wrong person notices." Her eyes stayed trained on the way the black tendrils lingered at her feet.
Xavier nodded slowly. He understood immediately what she meant, how bad it would look if she couldn't control her powers.
"Well," Xavier said lightly, though something cautious flickered behind his eyes.
"I guess that means we just need to practice more."
The Resonance vibrated once beneath their feet, and Thorn nodded,
"I guess so."
"Let me get out of yesterday's clothes." He turned toward his dorm. "You going to grab a pouch?" he asked absentmindedly.
Thorn hesitated for a moment, almost like she was unsure of the answer herself.
"I don't know..."
"Thorn,"
She crossed her arms over her chest, and Xavier noticed the flicker of worry that etched into her delicate features.
"Thorn..." he quickly turned back towards her, "If this is about your shadows... We'll figure them out. Okay? You don't have to be scared of yourself."
Thorn's eyes flicked up towards his, "I don't know what's happening, Xavier," she whispered, the fear in her eyes more evident than before, and he knew she was letting him see it.
"I don't either, but we will figure it out together. I'm not going anywhere."
Thorn opened her mouth like she wanted to protest, to say that Xavier didn't know what he was getting himself into, but she quickly closed her mouth again.
"How can you be so sure we'll figure it out?" She asked, her gaze dropping towards the ground. "How do you know I won't hurt you in the process?"
Xavier huffed, something that could have been a laugh if it weren't for the current conversation, "You're the smartest person I've ever met. I know you can do this. I know you won't hurt me."
Thorn shook her head, taking a step back from him, "You really shouldn't get this close to me, Xavier. Not now..."
"Yeah, well... You've been saying that since the beginning of the semester, and I'm still here."
"That's because you're stubborn," she muttered.
Xavier tilted his head slightly.
"Pretty sure that's your thing."
"Yeah, Exactly. Stop stealing my personality traits," she said automatically, though there was less bite in it now.
The air between them settled into something quieter.
Thorn rubbed the back of her neck, glancing down at the ground as if the frost-covered stones might offer a better answer than Xavier could.
"You don't get it," she said finally.
Xavier waited.
"I was already dangerous before all this," she continued, gesturing vaguely toward the school, the anchors, the invisible vibration of the Resonance beneath their feet. "Now I'm… whatever this is."
The shadows near her boots shifted faintly, reacting to the tension in her voice.
Thorn noticed.
So did Xavier.
She swallowed.
"What if the school isn't the only thing listening now?" she asked quietly.
Xavier didn't answer right away.
Instead, he stepped a little closer.
Not enough to crowd her.
Just enough that she would have to look up to see him clearly.
"Then it's a good thing you're not alone," he said.
Thorn's eyes flicked back to his face.
"You keep saying that like it's a fact."
Xavier shrugged slightly.
"It is."
"How?"
"Because I'm standing here."
Thorn stared at him for a moment like she was trying to solve a particularly irritating equation.
Then she rolled her eyes.
"God, you're so dramatic."
"Only when necessary."
She shook her head again, but the tension in her shoulders had eased just a little.
"Fine," she muttered. "I'll grab a pouch."
Xavier nodded once, satisfied.
"Good."
She turned to walk toward the infirmary path, then paused and glanced back over her shoulder.
"And Xavier?"
"Yeah?"
"If my shadows try to eat you today," she said flatly, "that's on you."
Xavier smirked.
"Worth it."
Thorn scoffed, but the corner of her mouth twitched before she turned and disappeared down the path.
The Resonance hummed faintly beneath the courtyard stones.
Xavier watched her walk toward the infirmary for her ration before turning back toward his dorm.
The morning air bit at his lungs as he crossed the courtyard. Students were beginning to drift between buildings now, their voices low and sleepy, but Xavier barely registered them.
He reached the dorm staircase and grabbed the iron railing to pull himself up the steps.
The world snapped sideways.
His hand locked around the cold metal.
Sound vanished.
Then, firelight.
A long table.
Silverware clattering against porcelain.
Marcellus stood at the head of the dining hall table, knuckles white against the polished wood. Surrounded by other students from his social circle.
"He embarrassed me,"
The voice was low.
Controlled.
The kind of anger that didn't shout because it didn't need to.
"He thinks He's clever?" Marcellus continued.
A glass slammed against the table.
Orange juice sloshed over the rim.
"He thinks defiance makes him strong?"
The room around them felt suffocating. Students sat around him, bracing for the impact of his words.
"He is nothing," Marcellus said quietly. "Without his family name, he would be nothing."
Xavier felt the familiar knot in his chest tighten, the one he had learned years ago not to react to.
The one Marcellus enjoyed pulling tighter.
"He will learn his place."
The words echoed like a verdict.
Then the vision fractured.
The staircase slammed back into place.
Cold air.
Stone steps.
Students were talking somewhere below.
Xavier staggered against the railing, breath catching in his throat.
His hand was still gripping the iron.
Too tight.
He forced his fingers to release it.
"Jesus," he muttered under his breath.
His pulse was racing now.
That hadn't been a memory.
It had been recent.
Marcellus wasn't just angry.
He was planning something.
And Xavier had the sinking feeling that whatever it was, it was going to reach him soon.
The Resonance hummed again beneath the ground.
This time, it didn't feel like anticipation.
It felt like a warning.