Chapter 43: The Last Night in the Academy

Chapter 43: The Last Night in the Academy

Ella’s POV

The academy had never felt this quiet before.
Not even during the lockdowns. Not even the night we first ran.

The silence now was heavy with the kind of fear that hummed beneath the skin.
I stood by the window, watching the courtyard far below where the torches burned low. The guards were restless. The scent of smoke still clung to the stones from where Alex had fought Darius days ago.
They told the council it was a “training accident.”
No one believed it.

Behind me, Alex moved through the room in tense, sharp motions. He’d packed only what we needed: a change of clothes, dried food, a dagger, and a worn map. The academy insignia still glimmered faintly on his uniform jacket. He was leaving everything else behind.

“Are you sure?” I asked quietly.

He didn’t look up. “We should’ve never come back.”

He was right. We’d fled this place once, bleeding, broken, terrified and somehow ended up here again because it was safer than running blind into the wilderness. But safety was an illusion now.
Darius knew where we were.
And the council… they were starting to ask questions about me. About “Lyra.”

“Alex,” I whispered, “they’ll send trackers.”

“Let them.” His voice was flat. “I’m done hiding.”

He slid a dagger into his belt, his jaw set like stone. The moonlight caught the bruises along his neck, the fading marks from Darius’s claws. He hadn’t healed completely, not even after days.
He hadn’t slept either.

I stepped closer. “You can’t fight everyone.”

“I don’t have to.” He finally looked up, eyes catching mine. “I just need to keep you alive.”

The words hit like a knife.
I wanted to argue, to tell him I wasn’t the fragile thing he thought I was. But the truth was, he’d nearly died for me once already. And if we stayed here any longer, Darius would finish what he started.

“Where will we go?” I asked.

“The forest first,” he said. “Then north. There’s an old pack settlement near the Silver Range neutral territory. We can regroup there.”

I nodded slowly. “And after that?”

He didn’t answer. His silence said everything. There was no ‘after’ yet. Only survival.

A low rumble of thunder rolled in the distance. Storms again. Maybe the Moon was mocking us; how every time we tried to run, it rained.

Alex walked to the window, scanning the shadows below. “The guards will switch shifts soon. That’s our window.”

He moved like he’d already planned this for days. Maybe he had.

I grabbed the small satchel he’d packed for me. “We can’t leave through the main gates.”

“I know,” he said. “There’s a drainage tunnel behind the training grounds. The council sealed it after the last rogue attack, but I reopened it weeks ago… just in case.”

“Just in case,” I echoed softly. “You really thought we’d need it again?”

His lips twitched; half a smile and half regret. “I knew we would.”

He turned toward me then, closing the distance between us. The tension that had lived between us for weeks hummed again, thick and unspoken.
His hand brushed mine. “Once we leave, there’s no coming back. Not to the academy. Not to this life.”

I swallowed. “Then we go.”

The words came easier than I expected.
Because for once, I wasn’t afraid. Not of running, Not of what waited beyond the walls. The only thing that scared me was staying and losing him.

He gave a sharp nod. “Stay close. Don’t look back.”

We moved quickly through the empty corridors, our footsteps soft against the stone. Every shadow looked like a threat, every creak of wood like a warning.
The academy had raised warriors—but tonight, it felt like a prison.

When we reached the outer hall, voices drifted faintly from beyond the corner two guards on patrol.
Alex froze, motioning for silence. We pressed against the wall as the footsteps drew nearer.
I could hear their conversation, low and careless.

“…Council says the Alpha’s son was covering for someone.”
“Who?”
“Who do you think? Darius’s ghost of a daughter. That girl brings trouble.”

My chest tightened.
Alex’s hand brushed mine, a silent warning not to move. But when one of the guards turned down our corridor, my breath caught. His torchlight swept the hall.

Alex’s hand slipped around my waist, pulling me into the shadows behind a pillar. My back hit the wall, his body shielding mine.
I could feel his heartbeat, hard and fast.
So close I could barely breathe.

The guard lingered for a moment, then turned away. The light faded, footsteps retreating.

We stayed like that for a few seconds too long, the air between us trembling. His breath brushed my ear as he whispered, “We have to move.”

I nodded, but I didn’t move away. Not right away.
His eyes met mine, and for that fleeting heartbeat, I saw something break behind them, a quiet, desperate kind of longing.
Then he turned, and it was gone.

We slipped through the training yard, the night thick with mist and the scent of wet earth. The tunnel entrance was hidden beneath an old storage shed, half-collapsed from years of neglect.
Alex pried open the wooden hatch, revealing the dark passage below.

“After you,” he said.

I looked down into the blackness, heart pounding. “You’ve really thought of everything, haven’t you?”

He gave a faint smirk. “I learned the hard way.”

I climbed down first, landing in ankle-deep water. The air was cold, damp. Alex followed a second later, closing the hatch above us. The world went dark except for the faint glow of his eyes.

“This tunnel runs under the western woods,” he said, voice echoing softly. “Once we’re out, we keep moving.”

“Alex,” I murmured, “what if they find out we’re gone?”

“They will,” he said simply. “But by then, we’ll be far from here.”

We walked in silence for what felt like hours, the sound of water and distant thunder filling the space between us.
I didn’t know what waited beyond the tunnel, only that for the first time in a long while, I wasn’t pretending anymore. I wasn’t Lyra. I wasn’t Darius’s shadow.

I was me. And I was finally leaving.

When we reached the end, Alex pushed open the grate. Cold forest air rushed in, sharp and clean. The moon hung low through the trees, pale and watchful.

He turned to me, eyes glowing faint gold. “You ready?”

I looked back once; the faint outline of the academy visible through the mist. The place that had held lies, secrets, and blood.
Then I looked at him.

“Yeah,” I whispered. “Let’s go home.”

He gave a small nod, his hand brushing mine as we stepped into the night.

And just like that, the academy, their prison disappeared behind us.
Ahead waited darkness, danger, and whatever future we were brave enough to claim.