Chapter 14

Sparks in the Silence

By sunrise, my whole body thrummed with tension.

Not the sharp kind that made you jump at every noise, but the kind that lived deeper, settled into your bones like a forgotten curse. My muscles still ached from the morning trial; the fire walls were more than just physical endurance. They tested your instincts, your fear, your willingness to let go of control and still move forward.

And the fire inside me was evolving.

It no longer asked to be summoned. It was there, always. A second heartbeat, a coiled force under my skin. The more I resisted it, the more it pressed against me. I wasn’t sure if that should comfort me or terrify me.

After our grueling morning session in the Crucible, I barely made it to my first class. Magical Histories was already underway when I slipped in, and Professor Olshar paused just long enough to give me that thin-lipped stare of his. I murmured an apology, sliding into my seat beside Naomi. My hands trembled slightly as I pulled out my notebook, the faint silver glint beneath my skin still too visible.

Naomi glanced at me sideways, then leaned in. “Your hair’s still smoking.”

“Thanks for the heads-up,” I whispered, dragging my fingers through the ends. The scent of singed cloth and magic clung to me like an accusation.

“What did Maris do to you today?”

“Maze of flame columns. With rotating walls. And wind glyphs.”

“You mean death by fire tornado.”

“Basically.”

Professor Olshar continued his lecture on the Ashen Rebalancing of the Third Accord, his tone dry as dust. The words washed over me. I tried to focus, to ground myself in the now, but it was like trying to breathe through smoke. Every time I blinked, I saw the flame.

And then Sienna spoke.

“Of course, the Rebalancing was necessary. When rogue hybrids started rising through the lesser circles, no one knew what they were capable of. Their magic was unstable. It was a risk the Council couldn’t afford.”

My heart clenched.

Half the class turned to look at her. The other half looked at me.

I felt the heat crawl up my neck, and not just from embarrassment.

Naomi stiffened beside me. “She’s baiting you.”

I nodded, jaw tight.

“And you’re not going to bite,” she added.

I nodded again, though every part of me itched to let the fire rise.

Professor Olshar didn’t say anything. He never did when it came to Sienna.

I tuned out the rest of the lecture, letting my pen move across the page in loops and shapes that weren’t words. The same flame sigils I kept sketching unconsciously. They formed themselves now. I didn’t know what they meant.

But the fire did.

I made it through class by sheer force of will, but the second we stepped out into the corridor, Naomi grabbed my arm and pulled me aside.

“You can’t let her keep doing that.”

“Doing what?” I asked.

“Poking at you like she knows something.”

I looked down the hall where Sienna lingered, laughing with her coven of elites. Her gaze flicked over her shoulder, directly at me, like she knew I was watching.

“Maybe she does,” I whispered.

Naomi shook her head. “She has guesses, not facts. You think she could prove anything? If she knew, she wouldn’t be whispering in hallways. She’d be announcing it in court.”

I wanted to believe her.

But the fire inside me had started to sense something else.

Not just suspicion. Pressure.

Sienna wasn’t just talking. She was building something.

I skipped lunch.

The thought of food made my stomach twist. Instead, I wandered through the old eastern wing of the academy, where no one ever went unless they were deeply lost or hiding from a summoning. The ceilings were lower here. The air colder.

I found an empty classroom, sat cross-legged on the stone floor, and let the silence press in around me.

The fire responded immediately.

It rose through my spine, curled into my lungs, and settled beneath my ribs like a coiled cat.

I didn't fight it.

“What are you trying to show me?” I whispered.

It answered in heat.

The floor beneath my palm shimmered faintly, and a rune formed, carved in flickering lines of silver and blue flame.

I didn’t recognize it.

But something deep inside me did.

It pulsed.

Then faded.

Naomi found me after my final class. She didn’t say anything at first, just walked beside me as we cut through the quad toward our dorm.

Finally, she asked, “Did you eat?”

I shook my head.

“You can’t keep skipping meals and feeding on flame. That’s not sustainable.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“You’re never hungry anymore.”

I stopped walking.

The words slipped out before I could stop them. “What if the fire is feeding me?”

Naomi stared at me.

“What if it doesn’t need food, or sleep, or rest? What if it just wants more magic, more control, more me?”

She reached out and gripped my wrist. Her voice was low. “Then we figure it out. We make rules. We build anchors. But you do not let it hollow you out.”

I closed my eyes.

“You don’t get to vanish, Riley,” she added. “Not after everything.”

Something inside me softened.

I let her pull me toward the dining hall.

We ate in near silence. I forced myself to eat half a roll and a bowl of broth. Naomi didn't press. She just sat there, humming to herself, occasionally nudging the tray toward me whenever I paused too long.

When we returned to our room that night, I collapsed on my bunk without even undressing. I stared up at the ceiling until Naomi turned off the lights.

In the darkness, the fire stirred again.

But it didn’t burn.

It waited.

And for the first time since this all began, I felt something other than fear.

I felt... tethered.

To the fire.

To Naomi.

To myself.