Chapter 56 The Price of Silence
Chapter 56 The Price of Silence
"Am I interrupting a historical debate," Kieran drawled, his smooth voice cutting through the smoke, "or is the perfect Light Bearer just failing to keep his hands to yourself again?"
Lucius released Ravelyn’s arm, his fingers sliding off her skin with a reluctant friction. His jaw remained locked, a fractured mask of pure discipline. Right now, his celestial energy was fluctuating so violently that his golden halo forced its way out, hovering and pulsing erratically above his silver-blonde hair—completely betraying his unhinged jealousy.
He turned his head toward the demon prince, his tone cold. "What are you doing back here, Infernal? Elder Vane explicitly dismissed you."
Kieran let out a low, mocking chuckle, his heavy boots crunching against the fractured stone path. "Funny. Wasn't it the exact same for you? Vane told you to take care of your precious, screaming little fiancée. Yet, here you are, crouching in the bushes. Why did you come back, Lucius?"
The physical pressure of their rivalry was suffocating, but Ravelyn barely felt it. Her brain was stuck on a loop, processing the bloody history Vane had just dumped into her lap. The Grand Coalition. Angels. Demons.
Every single dominant race in this godforsaken academy had signed the execution order. They had slaughtered her ancestors because they were too cowardly to share the world with the dragons.
She looked at Lucius, then at Kieran. They were the poster boys for the very houses that had systematically erased her family. An ugly realization settled deep in her stomach.
"You both knew," Ravelyn said, her sharp voice making both men freeze.
Kieran’s mocking smile slowly faltered. Lucius kept his gaze fixed on the tree line, his unstable halo flickering intensely before fading back into his skin as he tried to force his emotions into lockdown.
Ravelyn stepped between them, her chest heaving as the stolen vault fluid churned violently against her veins. Her mismatched eyes flashed with a mix of violet and molten gold. "Did you know? Did you know that I am a dragon born?"
The silence that followed was heavy and absolute.
Kieran did not answer. The quick-witted demon prince completely avoided her gaze, shifting his weight and looking over at Lucius instead. When he finally spoke, he completely changed the topic.
"Lucius, you need to leave," Kieran said, gesturing toward the upper ridge. "The evaluation horns are about to sound. Ravelyn hasn't killed nearly enough Vorath to make her advance to the inner ring yet. If you stay here, you are going to compromise her score."
Ravelyn felt something inside her chest snap. The utter dismissal, the casual avoidance, the blatant lying—it was too much.
"Don't you dare ignore me!" she screamed.
She stepped forward and shoved Kieran’s chest with both hands. The sudden spike of raw, hybrid strength made the demon prince stumble back a step. His dark eyes widened in brief surprise, but he still closed his mouth tight. He still refused to give her a straight answer.
"Answer me!" she demanded, her voice cracking with burning fury and deep grief. "Look at me and tell me the truth! Did you know what I was this entire time? Were you just using me as some kind of twisted entertainment?"
Kieran kept his jaw set, his eyes remaining fixed on the dirt.
That was the final straw. Every lie she had been told since waking up in Gryphon’s Gate Academy culminated into a single point of unadulterated rage. The fragile shadow shield completely shattered. The radiant heat of the Aurelian Sun Dragon and the devouring void of the Noctyra Abyss Dragon fused together for the very first time.
"I said," Ravelyn whispered, her voice vibrating with a terrifying, dual resonance, "answer me!"
A massive, violent shockwave of violet-gold energy erupted from her body in a perfect circle.
Lucius, despite his elite training and heavy golden armor, was lifted cleanly off his feet and thrown backward, crashing violently through the thick trunks of the burning trees. Kieran fared no better. The demon prince was slammed backward, flying across the clearing and plowing deep trenches into the dirt before hitting the solid rock wall of the ridge with a sickening thud.
The explosion of hybrid power surged outward, instantly vaporizing the remaining hidden packs of three-eyed Vorath trackers into clouds of black ash.
Ravelyn stood in the center of the ruined crater, shaking from head to toe, her silver hair flying wildly around her face. She looked at Lucius struggling to stand in the brush. She looked at Kieran spitting blood onto the rocks.
"I hate you," Ravelyn yelled, her voice echoing off the valley walls with raw emotion. "I really hate both of you!"
Harnessing the chaotic void energy swirling around her ankles, she collapsed the shadows around her body. In a fraction of a second, the light bent, the darkness devoured her form, and she disappeared entirely from the clearing.