EPISODE TWO: The Trap Hidden in My Uniform
Selene pushed my heavy wooden door open without bothering to wait for an answer, walking straight into my private room exactly as if she owned every single shadow inside it.
She had always done this.
She carried two dark academy uniforms neatly folded over her thin arms, and her beautiful face wore a bright, perfectly innocent expression, making it look as if she were doing me a massive favor just by being here.
The soft morning light coming through my thin window hit her golden hair, making her look exactly like a gentle angel descending to help a poor, helpless friend.
"Elara," she called out, letting out a long, heavy breath filled with fake relief. "You really scared me this morning. I honestly thought you were sick again."
That simple word stung deeply, carrying a hidden weight that only I truly understood.
Again.
In my sad, foolish past life, she had constantly used my supposed sickness and my magical weakness as a quiet weapon against me. She had painted me as a fragile piece of glass that needed constant protection, making herself look like a brave, caring hero to everyone watching.
She walked over to my small bed and placed the folded uniform gently on the blankets, offering me a sweet, warm smile that did not quite reach her cold eyes.
"I brought your clean clothes from the laundry room for you. I just knew you would forget to pick them up today. Honestly, what would you ever do without me checking on you?"
I forced my tight facial muscles to relax and offered her a quiet smile in return.
My fingers trembled slightly at the very sight of her, my body remembering the terrible heat of the execution fire, but I quickly hid my shaking hands by carefully adjusting the long, loose sleeves of my soft nightgown.
"I would probably die without you," I whispered softly into the quiet room.
Selene let out a bright, musical laugh that bounced off the stone walls.
If she actually knew how completely and terrifyingly true those quiet words really were, that sweet laugh would have choked her from the inside out.
She sat down close beside me on the edge of the bed, bumping her shoulder against mine like a deeply caring, loving sister.
"You look very strange today," she noted, tilting her head to the side like a curious bird studying a bug. "Did you have another one of your bad nightmares in the dark?"
Nightmares.
That was exactly the light, simple word she would use to describe my painful death and my completely broken heart.
"Yes, I did," I answered her in a smooth, steady voice. "But you do not need to worry about me. I am perfectly fine now."
Selene immediately reached her small hand out and gently brushed a loose piece of dark hair carefully behind my ear.
Her physical touch was incredibly gentle and deeply familiar.
It took every single drop of my new strength not to pull away and flinch in pure disgust.
Because I clearly remembered that exact same soft touch. She had reached out and touched me in that exact same gentle way on the terrible day of my public execution, right before she leaned into my ear and whispered that my rare family bloodline actually belonged to her.
"You do know that today is the great aptitude ceremony, right?" she asked, her voice dropping into a soft, serious tone.
I nodded my head slowly.
How could I ever possibly forget this terrible day?
Today was the famous day Selene officially became the academy's beautiful golden girl, the special student everyone adored.
And today was the day I officially became absolutely nothing but her quiet, useless shadow.
Selene suddenly clasped her small hands tightly together in a perfectly dramatic show of worry.
"I am feeling so incredibly nervous right now," she said, biting her bottom lip. "What if my magic bloodline is not strong enough to impress the high court? What if I fail and deeply disappoint everyone who believes in me?"
Her sweet voice shook with perfectly practiced fear, but her dark eyes did not show a single drop of real panic.
She was not actually nervous about the test.
She was hungry.
Deeply, greedily hungry for the power she was about to take.
In my past life, Selene's natural magic bloodline should not have been nearly strong enough to make the testing crystal glow with the rare golden light.
Not naturally, anyway.
But Selene possessed a very dark, secret skill.
She slowly stole magic power from other students around her. She took it quietly, little by little, drop by drop, until she built herself up into a fake genius.
I forced myself to swallow the burning rage rising in my throat and kept my face completely calm and totally blank.
"You do not need to worry at all. You will be perfectly fine today," I told her.
Selene smiled warmly at my expected comfort.
Then, she leaned a little bit closer to me, lowering her voice into a soft, private whisper meant only for my ears.
"Elara, my dearest friend," she whispered gently. "Please promise me something right now."
When I asked her what she wanted, her eyes filled with fake sympathy.
"If your magic rank turns out to be very low today, you must promise not to feel bad about yourself," she told me with a sickening sweetness. "Not every single person in this world is meant to be powerful and special. Some people are simply meant to stand quietly in the background and support the truly great ones."
There it was, perfectly delivered.
The dark, cruel poison she always managed to serve wrapped inside a beautiful package of kindness.
It was her constant, quiet reminder that she stood high above me, and that I was absolutely nothing but dirt beneath her clean shoes.
In my previous life, I would have looked down at my hands, nodded sadly, and practically apologized to her for even existing in her space.
But now, sitting on this bed with an ancient, heavy power singing loudly through my warm veins, I simply looked directly into her eyes and smiled.
"You are completely right," I whispered back smoothly.
Selene's bright eyes immediately softened with deep, greedy satisfaction.
She absolutely loved hearing me agree to my own weakness.
She stood up quickly and clapped her hands together like a happy child.
"Come on, then. Let us quickly get dressed and go down to the great hall before the morning bell rings."
I turned away from her and reached my hands out for the dark academy uniform she had brought for me.
As I carefully unfolded the thick fabric to put it on, my sharp eyes caught something very small and shiny tucked cleverly inside the inner lining of the waist.
It was a tiny silver needle.
It was incredibly thin, completely sharp, and almost totally invisible against the dark material.
My steady heartbeat suddenly slowed down as a cold realization hit me.
So, she had already started her dark plan this early.
That tiny silver needle was definitely not a mistake from the sewing room.
It was a highly illegal, dark magic blood extractor.
If I wore this specific uniform today, the hidden needle would firmly prick my soft skin and silently steal a single, fresh drop of my blood right in the middle of the crowded ceremony.
A single drop of my royal origin blood was all Selene truly needed to fuel her fake magic.
In my dark past life, she had successfully used my stolen blood to strengthen her own weak aura. She had used it to easily impress the strict, uncaring elders. And she had used that stolen golden light to catch Lucien's attention and eventually take him completely away from me.
My fingers tightened hard around the dark fabric, my new magic burning hotly beneath my skin at the unfairness of it all.
I lifted my head very slowly and looked across the room.
Selene was quietly watching me from the corner of her eye, trying very hard to pretend she was just looking out the window.
"Are you doing okay over there?" she asked, her voice tight with hidden tension.
"Yes, I am perfectly fine," I answered softly, making sure my voice gave absolutely nothing away.
Then, I did something the old, fearful Elara would have never dared to do.
I walked right over to where she stood and reached out to hold her hand.
Her long fingers were surprisingly cold to the touch.
I squeezed her hand gently and smiled right into her beautiful, lying face.
"Thank you so much," I said, putting as much fake warmth into my voice as I could find. "You really do always take such wonderful care of me."
Selene's tense face brightened instantly, a look of pure, sweet relief washing over her.
She absolutely loved feeling needed, and more than that, she loved feeling safe in her lies.
"Of course I do," she replied happily, squeezing my hand back. "That is exactly what true friends are for."
I almost laughed out loud at the heavy, bitter irony of her empty words.
We finally left the quiet dormitory together and stepped out into the busy morning.
The wide, stone hallways of the Blood Academy were completely crowded with nervous students rushing quickly toward the main ceremony hall.
Rich noble girls walked proudly in expensive, heavy cloaks beautifully embroidered with their powerful family crests.
Arrogant boys from wealthy houses walked loudly down the center of the halls, followed closely by tired servants carrying their heavy magic books and bags.
As I walked quietly beside the bright and shining Selene, the familiar, cruel whispers immediately began to follow us like a dark shadow.
"Look, Elara is coming down the hall."
"There goes that totally useless girl again."
"She is always hiding right behind Selene like a scared dog."
"I heard from the teachers that she has absolutely no magic talent at all."
I kept my gaze pointed low toward the stone floor, acting exactly like the frightened, easily broken Elara they all expected to see.
But deep inside my chest, my beating heart was perfectly, beautifully calm.
Because my powerful, sealed bloodline was finally awake, and it was waiting patiently in the dark like a hungry beast ready to strike.
The main ceremony hall was truly enormous, designed purely to make the students feel incredibly small.
Huge, black stone walls reached high up to the dark ceiling, covered in long, bright crimson banners.
A tall, raised wooden platform sat at the very front of the room for the important elders to sit and judge.
And right in the dead center of the massive room stood the famous Bloodline Crystal.
It was a towering, thick pillar of clear stone, glowing faintly from the inside exactly like a giant, sleeping heart.
The teachers quickly forced the nervous students to line up based on their family's noble rank and wealth.
Selene, coming from a highly respected family, was placed very close to the front of the long line.
I, as usual, was pushed away and forced to stand very close to the very back of the hall.
Then, without any warning, the noisy, crowded room suddenly fell completely silent.
The heavy wooden doors at the back opened, and he finally walked in.
Lucien Valemont.
Even at only seventeen years old, he already looked exactly like a dark, beautiful prince carefully carved from the night sky itself.
He was tall, naturally broad shouldered, and his dark black hair was tied back neatly behind his head.
His sharp silver eyes swept over the room, looking completely cold and totally unreadable.
Every single girl standing in the massive hall seemed to hold her breath at the exact same time.
Even Selene, standing far ahead, turned around and leaned back close to me, true excitement violently trembling in her low voice.
"Elara, look quickly," she whispered, her eyes shining bright. "Lucien is finally here. They are all saying that he is already a highly ranked Elite blood mage."
I clenched my jaw so hard my teeth hurt.
In my ruined past life, those exact same beautiful silver eyes had watched me burn to death without a single drop of pity.
I completely refused to look at his face now.
"I really do not care about him," I lied smoothly.
Selene giggled softly, waving her hand at me.
"You always say that to me. But I know you secretly like him too."
I stared at the back of her head.
If she truly knew the deep, bloody hatred I felt for that boy right now, she would turn around and run screaming from the building.
The testing finally began.
One by one, nervous students stepped forward to the center of the room and placed their bare palms flat against the cold surface of the massive crystal.
The tall stone glowed with a pale, weak white light for the students with very poor bloodlines.
It glowed with a solid, bright blue color for the average ones.
But everyone was waiting to see the rare gold.
When it was finally Selene's turn, the entire hall completely stopped moving to watch her.
She stepped forward gracefully and placed her hand confidently against the glass.
For one very long, tense moment, absolutely nothing happened.
The crystal remained dark.
Then, suddenly, the stone burst outward with a blinding, completely bright golden light.
Loud gasps of shock and pure wonder filled the large room.
Even the bored elders sitting on the high platform leaned forward in their heavy chairs to look at her.
Selene dramatically covered her mouth with both hands, looking exactly as if she could not believe her own amazing luck.
But I stood in the back and knew the terrible truth.
She had already stolen enough power from the weaker students in our class over the last few weeks to prepare for this exact moment.
The crowd completely erupted into loud cheers.
"A true golden rank."
"She is incredibly gifted."
"She will definitely be chosen by the high court for special training."
Selene turned around gracefully and rushed toward me, grabbing both of my hands in a highly dramatic show of friendship.
"Elara," she whispered, acting completely breathless and overwhelmed. "Did you see that beautiful light?"
I nodded my head slowly, keeping my face perfectly blank.
"Yes, I saw it."
Her dark eyes sparkled with pure, greedy victory.
Then she leaned very close to me again.
"Please remember, if your rank is low, do not worry at all," she whispered sweetly into my ear. "I am strong now, and I will protect you."
Protect.
That specific word was her absolute favorite lie in the entire world.
The long line continued to move forward.
Soon, it was finally my turn to approach the crystal.
The very moment I stepped out of the line and walked toward the center of the room, cruel laughter rippled quickly through the watching hall.
The whispers instantly became much louder and far more aggressive.
"Why is she even trying to test?"
"She is going to embarrass herself and her family again."
"She is nothing but Selene's little pet."
I completely ignored every single word they said and kept walking smoothly toward the towering crystal.
But just a few steps before I reached out to touch the stone, I felt a sudden, very sharp sting against my lower waist.
The hidden silver needle.
Selene's dirty little trap.
It had finally pricked me straight through the dark uniform.
A tiny, single drop of my blood spilled under the cloth.
And immediately, my new magic felt it happen.
A strange, deeply uncomfortable pull tugged at my stomach.
It felt exactly like a thin, invisible string was firmly attached to my heart, trying desperately to pull my magical life force completely out of my body and send it across the room to Selene.
She was standing quietly in the crowd, secretly activating the dark extraction ritual.
The corners of my lips curled up slightly into a very small, deeply dangerous smile.
How incredibly foolish of her to try this now.
I did not try to stop the connection.
Instead, I confidently raised my hand and placed my bare palm firmly against the smooth surface of the Bloodline Crystal.
At the very first touch, the stone felt completely freezing cold.
Then, a massive, powerful pulse of energy shot violently from my chest, straight down my arm, and directly into the crystal.
The heat was instant and absolute.
The noisy, laughing hall suddenly fell into a dead, terrifying silence.
The giant crystal did not glow with a weak, pale light.
It did not glow with an average blue light.
And it definitely did not glow with Selene's stolen, bright golden light.
The entire massive stone turned a dark, terrifying, blood red color.
A deep, heavy crimson red that looked exactly like fresh death.
Then, a massive heartbeat echoed loudly through the entire grand hall, shaking the very air itself.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
The thick crystal suddenly began to shake violently against the stone floor.
Massive, jagged cracks spread rapidly across its smooth, ancient surface like spider webs.
The tired elders immediately jumped up from their wooden chairs in pure shock.
"What is the meaning of this?" one of them yelled loudly.
I heard a very sharp, sudden intake of air from the front of the crowd.
I turned my head just slightly to the side.
Lucien Valemont was staring directly at me.
His usually cold, unreadable silver eyes were completely wide with pure, absolute shock, if only for a single passing moment.
Then, the giant crystal violently exploded outward with a blinding, heavy crimson light.
The entire massive hall was instantly flooded with a thick red glow.
Deep, ancient magic runes suddenly appeared in the empty air directly above my head, spinning and dancing quickly like living red flames.
The pure weight of the magic pushing into the room was so heavy that several weak students immediately dropped straight down to their knees on the floor, completely unable to breathe and not understanding why.
Even the proud, rich nobles physically trembled in place.
Even the powerful elders cautiously stepped back away from the edge of their platform.
And somewhere in the bright red crowd, Selene screamed loudly.
It was a high, terrible sound of pure agony.
Because the special royal blood she had just foolishly tried to steal through the needle did not peacefully enter her body to make her stronger.
Instead, my newly awakened magic grabbed her invisible connecting string and violently snapped it straight back to me like a heavy iron chain.
And as my power ripped back into my own body, it violently dragged all of her stolen magic right along with it.
The backfire ripped into something dark, something totally sealed and deeply ancient within the room.
Selene fell to the ground and clutched her chest, screaming again.
Her beautiful, bright golden aura flickered violently around her body like a dying candle in the wind.
Then it cracked loudly.
And then, it completely vanished into thin air.
The stunned crowd immediately erupted into total, screaming chaos.
"Selene's golden aura is completely gone."
"She is losing her entire magic rank."
Selene looked up from the hard floor and stared directly at me with a face full of pure, naked terror.
It was not a look of simple jealousy.
It was not even a look of sudden anger.
It was deep, absolute fear.
Because as she looked at me standing perfectly calm in the center of the storm, she finally realized the terrible truth.
I was absolutely not her weak, easily broken little friend anymore.
I looked down at her shaking body and smiled very calmly.
Then I whispered softly, making sure the magic carried my words directly to her ears alone.
"Thank you so much for helping me finally awaken today."
Selene's arms completely gave out beneath her, and she collapsed entirely flat onto the cold stone floor, crying weakly.
High above my head, the spinning red fire runes finally stopped moving and locked together to form a very clear, massive symbol in the air.
It was a grand, beautiful crown made entirely of glowing red blood.
Up on the wooden platform, the old elders completely froze in place like stone statues.
One of them pointed a shaking finger at the air and whispered with a deeply terrified, breaking voice.
"That specific mark. It cannot be."
Another elder quickly stepped backward, his wrinkled face turning as pale as white snow.
"It simply cannot be real."
Lucien's deep, steady voice suddenly cut cleanly through the noisy panic of the hall.
"Elara Nightborne," he said very slowly, his cold tone completely filled with thick, heavy disbelief. "What exactly are you?"
But before I could even open my mouth to answer his question, the High Elder aggressively raised his heavy wooden staff and pointed it directly at my chest.
"Seize that girl immediately!" he screamed loudly, pure panic completely destroying his normal calm authority. "Grab her right now, before the Forgotten Queen returns to us completely!"
And in that exact moment, as the heavy guards began to rush forward, I finally understood the truth.
This magical rebirth was not just about getting simple revenge on Selene and Lucien.
It was about claiming a terrifying, bloody crown that the entire world was deeply afraid of.
And it was about finally holding a true, absolute power that they had desperately tried, and failed, to keep buried in the dark forever.