Chapter 4 No Sanctuary

Taya Verric POV

By sunrise, I had been threatened with a knife, watched a good man I literally grew up with die, and listened to seventeen separate parents demand to know why their precious children were being treated like criminals.

I was approximately one complaint away from committing a felony.

"Lady Verric, you cannot seriously expect us to allow our children to be subjected to invasive magical examinations!"

I stared at the woman standing across my desk. "Your son was found carrying a blood-etched sigil beneath his academy robes."

Her face reddened. "It was a family heirloom!"

"It was a forbidden binding charm."

"You have no proof!"

I leaned forward. "Madam, that charm was designed to suppress another person's free will. If you'd like, I can have one of our investigators demonstrate its effects on you."

Silence. Beautiful, glorious silence.

"Now," I continued, "your son will remain under observation until we determine whether he was knowingly involved or magically manipulated. You may cooperate, or you may explain your objections to the royal investigators."

She opened her mouth. I raised one finger. "Choose your next words very fucking carefully."

She left. Finally. I sank into my chair and pressed my fingers against my temples. The academy was dying around me. Not literally, although judging by the state of the Great Hall, that was debatable.

The wards had been breached. Several towers were structurally compromised. The healing wing was overflowing, and frightened students were being escorted through magical examinations to determine whether they'd been marked, controlled, or otherwise tampered with.

Every entrance was sealed. Every student accounted for. Every member of the faculty was questioned. And every parent in Aetheros apparently believed their personal inconvenience was more important than the bodies we'd carried out of the Great Hall.

A knock sounded. "Come in."

Alpha Draven entered, looking as exhausted as I felt.

"How many complaints?"

"Seventeen."

He winced. "Only seventeen?"

"I threatened the eighteenth."

"Of course you did."

He placed a stack of reports on my desk. "Three more students tested positive for magical interference. None appear to have acted willingly."

I exhaled. "Thank the gods."

Zuki grumbled in my mind. She had been quiet since we lost Jace. I understood completely.

Draven's expression darkened. "Don't thank them yet."

I looked up. He didn't have to explain. Jace. My throat tightened. I could still feel that blade against my skin.

Still hear the screams. Still see Amaris holding her mate while his life slipped away. "How's Theo?" I asked quietly.

"With Noctara. He's barely spoken."

"And Amaris?"

Draven shook his head. My heart broke all over again.

"Rivena's staying with her," he said. "She won't eat. Won't sleep. Won't let anyone touch Jace's belongings."

I closed my eyes. Yesterday, they'd been a family. Today, Amaris was a widow. Theo had lost his father.

And I was sitting here arguing with idiots about magical examinations. A sharp knock interrupted us.

One of the guards entered. "Lady Verric, there are several parents demanding an audience."

I stared at him. Draven actually laughed. It was a tired, humorless sound.

"Send them in," I said.

Six parents marched into my office. One carried an official-looking document. Another had the audacity to bring an attorney. An attorney. After a terrorist attack. I folded my hands.

"Speak."

A tall fae lord stepped forward. "We represent several influential families whose children are being unlawfully detained."

"Your children are being protected."

"They are prisoners!"

I rose slowly. "Prisoners?"

The room went quiet.

"Last night, armed extremists entered this academy, took me hostage, murdered innocent people, and attempted to slaughter children."

The lord shifted. I continued. "Those attackers included parents. People who were trusted to enter these halls. People who smiled at our children while planning their deaths."

"That does not justify..."

"DO NOT INTERRUPT ME!"

Magic rattled the windows. The lord stumbled backward.

"I have spent the last several hours watching healers pull cursed fragments from children's bodies. I have personally identified the remains of students who will never go home."

Nobody spoke. "And while those families are preparing funerals, you have come here to complain about safety examinations?"

The attorney cleared his throat. "Lady Verric, there are established procedures..."

I pointed toward the door. "Then establish your ass outside my office."

Draven coughed. Suspiciously. I ignored him.

"The academy is closed. Effective immediately, all academic activities, trials, training exercises, and public gatherings are suspended. No student will be released until cleared by our healers and security personnel."

"You cannot simply close the academy!" the fae lord protested.

I smiled. "Watch me."

The announcement went out an hour later.

Aetheros Academy was officially closed until further notice. Not suspended for a few days. Not temporarily restricted. Closed. The words felt like a death sentence for everything we'd worked to build. But the children came first. They always had. I stood beside Draven in the administrative corridor as the last examination reports arrived.

Then the alarms began. Three sharp blasts. A pause.

Three more. My blood froze. Zuki lifted her head and narrowed her eyes.

"THE DUNGEONS!" a guard shouted.

Draven was already moving. I followed. We reached the lower stairwell just as an explosion shook the stone beneath our feet. Two guards came stumbling upward. One was bleeding heavily from his shoulder. "Prisoners!" he gasped. "Three of them broke their restraints!"

"How?" Draven demanded.

"We don't know! Their sigils activated. They burned straight through the suppression enchantments!"

Another explosion. A section of the stairwell collapsed. Draven threw up a shield as debris rained down. "GET THE STUDENTS AWAY FROM THIS WING!"

Guards scattered. I summoned my magic, sealing the corridor behind us. Below, someone screamed. A masked figure appeared through the smoke. One of the captured attackers. His wrists were blackened where the restraints had burned away.

He grinned. "Your wards won't save you."

Draven hit him with enough force to crack the wall. The bastard dropped. I bound him in three layers of magic. "Try escaping those, asshole."

Zuki purred her approval. "I love the word asshole."

But the other prisoners were still loose. A second attacker lunged from the darkness, throwing a blade of corrupted energy. I ducked. Draven shifted partially, his enormous claws ripping through the attacker's shield.

The third prisoner reached the upper landing. Toward the student residences. My stomach dropped.

"DRAVEN!"

He turned. The prisoner slammed his palm against the wall. A portal began opening. Not outward. Into the academy. Directly behind the protective barriers we'd established around the younger students.

Oh, fuck no. I poured everything I had into a containment spell. The portal twisted. The prisoner screamed as the magic collapsed around him. Draven struck him from behind. He fell unconscious. For several seconds, neither of us moved. Then Draven looked at the ruined stairwell. At the broken restraints. At the portal residue still burning against the walls.

"They can reach inside our wards," he whispered.

I swallowed. "Yes."

His face changed. Not anger or grief. Something worse. Understanding. "We can't keep them here."

The emergency council assembled within the hour. Rylen. Kylion. Noctara. Rivena. Alpha Draven. The King and Queen. The senior guards. The remaining academy administrators. And the adults responsible for the royal children.

Draven stood at the head of the table. "The academy is compromised."

Nobody argued. "The attackers breached our outer wards, infiltrated our staff and families, and nearly escaped our highest-security dungeon. We have no guarantee they won't return."

One of the commanders crossed his arms. "So we strengthen the wards."

"We already did," I answered. "Twice."

"Then we increase the guards."

"And when those guards are compromised?"

Silence. Noctara looked toward Draven. "What are you suggesting?"

He took a slow breath. "We remove the children."

Rivena frowned. "Remove them where?"

"Somewhere hidden. Somewhere our enemies cannot easily find."

"The royal children won't agree," Noctara said.

"I know."

"Nyxaria will lose her mind."

"I know."

"Lyrielle will demand to stay and fight."

"I know that too."

I rubbed my forehead.

"And Lucen and Rhaen will refuse to be separated from them."

Draven gave me a grim smile. "Then we don't separate them."

The room went still. "We move the royal children, their mates, and the other young people directly threatened by these attacks together. A small group. Trusted escorts. No public announcement."

One commander shook his head. "That could look like the royal family is abandoning Aetheros."

Draven slammed his palm against the table. "I would rather have a kingdom question my courage than bury another child!"

Nobody moved. His voice broke. "Jace died protecting his family. I will not stand beside another grieving parent because we were too fucking proud to admit these walls cannot keep our children safe."

Noctara wiped a tear from her cheek. Rivena looked away. I stared at the table. He was right. Every word. Finally, Noctara spoke. "Where would we send them?"

Draven hesitated. "I have a few places in mind. But the fewer people who know, the safer they'll be."

Rivena nodded reluctantly. "And the Trial of the Crown?"

"Postponed until the heirs can safely participate."

I exhaled. "Then we need to tell them."

Draven closed his eyes. "Gods help us."

I almost smiled. "After what those girls did to the Great Hall, I think the gods should be more worried about us."

For a moment, we shared a weary laugh. Then the silence returned. Outside the council chamber, the academy bells rang. Not for classes. Not for celebrations. For the dead. And as I listened, I realized something terrible. We had built this academy to teach the next generation how to live together.

Now we were preparing to send them into hiding just to keep them alive.

The war had followed our children home.

And this time, their parents couldn't fight it for them.