Chapter 68 THE CRACK WIDENS
CHAPTER 068: THE CRACK WIDENS
By morning it stretches across half the courtyard, bleeding darkness that makes the air taste like metal and rot. Faculty members surround it, hands glowing, magic straining against something that doesn't want to be sealed.
Nothing's working.
I watch from the library window. Count heartbeats. One, two, three, four.
"It's getting bigger," Luna says.
"I can see that."
"Three seals are still intact. Scholars said they need five broken before the Covenant can physically manifest."
"Maybe the scholars were wrong."
Oracle Mira's voice carries across the courtyard below us. "Someone is helping them from this side."
Luna and I look at each other.
"The crack is being held open. Actively." Mira's white eyes sweep the crowd. "Someone here is a traitor."
Chaos erupts immediately. Students pointing fingers, faculty backing away from colleagues. Paranoia moving faster than truth.
The interrogations start within the hour.
When they call my name I'm almost expecting it. I walk to the front of the Great Hall alone because Thorne's hand goes up the second the boys try to follow.
"Miss Moonwhisper alone."
Kieran's growl is low and deliberate. "Not happening."
"It wasn't a request wolf."
"Still don't care."
I touch his arm before he does something irreversible. "It's fine. Just questions." I look at Thorne. "Right?"
"Correct."
The boys move to the wall. Don't leave though. Nobody expected them to.
Thorne doesn't waste time. "You've been at the center of every crisis. The Hollow King. Marvin. Caius. The Covenant's awakening. Convenient."
"Are you accusing me?"
"We're considering all possibilities."
The lie detection heat blooms in my chest, sharp and certain. "Your theory is that I'm working with the things actively trying to kill me."
"The Covenant wants you specifically. Perhaps you made a deal."
"I didn't ask for this power."
"And yet here you are." Oracle Mira leans forward. "The True Phoenix transformation happened unusually fast. Almost like it was guided."
"By trauma. By dying five times. Not by cutting deals with ancient evils."
"Can you prove that?" Commander Frost asks.
"Can you prove I did? Burden of proof is on the accuser."
Thorne's jaw tightens. "Your attitude isn't helping your case."
"My attitude is the least of your problems. The Covenant is breaking through and you're sitting here interrogating the person who's been fighting them."
"Or orchestrating everything while appearing heroic."
Kieran moves. Just his weight shifting but the threat is clear.
Alaric appears beside him in a blink. Fangs out, eyes bleeding crimson. Cassian's hands ignite. Zev doesn't move but the air thickens around him, dream magic seeping into reality like smoke.
"Enough." Corvus steps between everyone. "You have speculation and fear. Nothing more."
"The crack opened after her transformation—"
"Correlation isn't causation. You taught me that yourself Magistrate."
Silence stretches.
"You're dismissed Miss Moonwhisper," Thorne says finally. "For now."
I walk out without running. Barely.
The boys surround me the second I'm in the corridor.
"They have no right," Kieran snarls.
"They're scared. So am I." I keep walking. "Doesn't mean they're wrong to ask."
Back in the courtyard the faculty magic finally catches. The tear seals itself slowly, reluctantly, darkness pulling back until only a thin line remains. Like a scar.
"Days," Celeste announces. "Maybe a week. Then they break through regardless of how many seals remain."
"Team hunting Caius leaves tomorrow," Commander Frost says.
Tomorrow.
"Small team," Thorne adds. "Thalira, the four anchors, the twin, the shadow mage. Hit fast. Get the Heart of Shadows before he uses it."
The day dissolves into preparation. Weapons, supplies, strategy sessions that circle without landing.
Sofia doesn't look up when I find her in the lab. She's counting bandages with the focused intensity of someone trying not to cry.
"I'm coming back," I tell her.
"You better. I can't lose my best friend."
"You won't."
"Promise me."
"I promise."
She meets my eyes. Hers are wet. "You die on me and I'll find a way to resurrect you just to kill you myself."
I hug her. She grabs back hard.
Morgana catches me in the hallway after. "We're bonded. If you die I feel it. Don't make me feel it."
"I'll do my best."
"Your best better be enough."
Luna's sitting on my bed when I get to my room. She doesn't say anything. Just pulls me in.
"You're my twin," she whispers. "My other half. Stay alive."
"You're coming with us."
"I know. That's why I'm terrified."
We stay like that until the sun goes down.
I can't sleep.
My feet carry me to the training room without deciding to go there. All four boys are already inside.
"Couldn't sleep either?" Cassian asks.
"No."
I sit beside him. Kieran's pacing near the windows. Alaric stands perfectly still in the corner. Zev's sprawled on the mat like he doesn't have a care in the world except his eyes give him away.
"How does this work long-term?" I ask into the quiet. "Us. All of us."
They all look at me.
"What if someone gets jealous? What if someone feels left out?"
"Then we talk about it," Cassian says. "Like we're doing now."
"We've been connected to you for lifetimes," Alaric says. "We're used to sharing. We're just not used to you being ours to share."
"But we're learning," Zev finishes. "All of us."
Kieran stops pacing, comes to sit on my other side. "It's not perfect. Never will be. But neither am I."
"I love you," I say. "All of you. Equally. Differently."
"We know," they say together.
The synchronization makes me laugh despite everything.
They close in. All four of them around me, holding me. Five people who've found each other across lifetimes and deaths and impossible odds.
"Whatever happens tomorrow," Kieran says quietly, "we face it together."
"Together," the others echo.
The moment holds. Fragile and perfect.
Then alarm bells explode through the academy.
Someone screams.
We run.
Elder Grayson is in the guest wing hallway. Throat torn out, blood still spreading beneath him. Mira stands in her doorway, the scream dying somewhere in her chest.
On the wall above him, written in blood that's still dripping.
The traitor is closer than you think. -C
"He was here," Mira whispers. "Inside the wards."
"Impossible," Corvus says.
"He dream walks," I say. "He could possess someone. Walk them through the wards and they'd never know."
"Or the traitor let him in," Alaric says.
We look at each other. Suspicion threading back through every connection.
Thorne appears, takes in the scene, barely reacts. "Change of plans. You leave tonight. Now."
"We're not ready," Kieran argues.
"You're as ready as you're going to be. Thirty minutes. Pack light."
He leaves before anyone can argue.
Luna finds my hand in the dark. "This is a terrible idea."
"Yeah. But what choice do we have."
It isn't a question and she knows it.
Thirty minutes later we're at the gates. Seven of us. Minimal supplies. No certainty about anything.
Corvus stands at the entrance. "Find him. Stop him. Come back."
"Simple enough," Zev says.
Nobody laughs.
The gates open.
We step through.
Behind us the academy vanishes, wards swallowing it from view. Ahead there's just darkness and somewhere inside it a killer who already got past every defense we had.
My silver marks pulse against my skin.
I can't shake the feeling we're not hunting Caius at all.
I think he's been waiting for us to come to him.