-Asher-
I feel it the moment the wards settle.
Not relief. Not safety.
Recognition.
The room exhales, like something ancient has decided how this ends, and I'm left standing in the quiet with the weight of it pressing inot my chest. The fox is still curled against me, warm and shaking, but I barely register it. My attention is fixed on her.
Alexia.
She's kneeling where the magic faded, one hand braced agains the floor, breathing steady like none of this cost her anything. Like the school didn't just move for her. Like it hasn't been waiting for her.
She doesn't look at me.
She hasn't since before everything broke open.
And I know why.
It wasn't Gideon.
It wasn't the council.
It was me.
I told myself I acted because things were changing to fat. Because she was changing too fast. Because the way the school bent toward her, the way my friends stred to orbit her without meaning to, scared me more than I wanted to admit.
Because I felt it - the pull, the bond forming, the way my world kept narrowing until it centered on her.
And I panicked.
I told myself I was protecting them. Protecting us. That I was keeping my friends safe from something they didn't understand yet.
But the truth sits heavy in my chest now, impossible to ignore.
I was afraid of what I felt for her.
Afraid of what she was becoming.
Afraid that if I didn't stop it, I'd lose everything I thought I knew about myself.
So I chose control.
I chose distance.
I chose to turn her in.
Alexia shifts slightly, rising to her feet, and the movement draws my attention like gravity. The school feels closer to her now-not louder, not aggressive, just…aligned. As if it has already accepted what I tried to deny.
She doesn't look back at me.
That's the worst part.
Not anger. Not confrontation.
Just the quiet certainty that she knows exactly what I did - and why.
The bond between us doesn't break. It stretches. Thins. A living thing held too tight for too long.
And I realize, with a sick, sinking clarity, that whatever chance I had to be her choice.
I may have already give it away. But as I watched her stand, the heavy weight of my guilt shifted into something sharper—a desperate, driving need to make it right. I had been a coward once, letting fear dictate my loyalty, but I wouldn't let that be the final word. I didn't deserve her forgiveness, nor did I deserve the others' trust, but I would spend every breath I had left proving I was worth more than my worst mistake. If I had to crawl through glass to earn back my place beside them, then I'd start crawling.
The fox shifts restlessly in my arms, its silver fur prickling with tension. It's been like this since we brought it with us - silent but watchful, like it's waiting for something only it can sense. We rescued it with Alexia, breaking her free form Gideon's grasp, but none of us really understand what it is. Not yet.
Zeus is at Alexia's side, the familiar she's bound to - massive, alert, unwavering. He rises slowly, ears pricked forward, eyes locked on the fox with a focus I've never seen in him before. Not hostile. Protective. Like he knows it belongs with her…or maybe that it shouldn't be here at all.
I tighten my hold on the fox as it stiffens, eyes wide and flickering between Alexia and Zeus. Not afraid. Aware.
Finn's voie breaks the tension. "Zeus has been on edge ever since we escaped the fortress. Something about that fox sets him off."
"Not surprising," Alexia says quietly. "The fox came with us from the fortress. It didn't flee when Gideon's wards fell. It stayed."
Jasper nods, rubbing the back of his neck. "It followed us out, like it knew where it belonged."
Soren's eyes narrow. "It's connected to her - and maybe the school - in a way we don't understand yet."
Shade steps forward, her gaze sharp and assessing. "Whatever the fox is, it's part of this now. And that means it's part of the danger."
The fox lets out a low, almost human sigh, and I can't help but wonder if it's as aware of what's coming as we are.
Alexia looks to Shade, then back at the fox. "We brought it with us for a reason. Whatever's coming next, we face it together."
Her voice is steady - stronger than I've heard in days. Zeus settles back beside her, and the fox nestles a little closer in my arms, like it's finally found a place to rest.
I glance at the others - my mates - each lost in their own thoughts but all sharing the same quiet resolve.
Whatever Gideon left behind, whatever the school is waking to, we're tangled in it now.
And we don't get to walk away. I certainly won't. I've spent too long trying to keep my distance, trying to control a bond I was too afraid to feel. No more. I'll be the shield they need and the weapon they use, even if they never look at me the same way again. I will earn my way back into this circle, one battle at a time, until the name 'betrayer' is buried under a mountain of proof that I'm theirs. Completely.