Chapter 28 TESTING
KAI
When she finished, I stepped closer. “You’re not doing this alone anymore. I mean it, Lyra. Whatever comes next, visions, secrets, whatever this darkness is we face it together. Just… promise me you won’t go flying off alone to chase answers. Not until we know more. I was terrified up there. Thought I was going to watch you fall.”
She looked up at me, eyes wide and vulnerable in a way that made my chest ache. I couldn’t help it. I pulled her into a hug, arms wrapping around her fully. She startled for half a second, then melted against me, her arms sliding around my torso.
She fit there perfectly, like she always had when we were kids hiding under market stalls. Warm, familiar, mine, some stubborn part of me whispered before I shoved it down.
“I promise,” she murmured into my shoulder. “I’ll keep you updated. No solo flights into trouble.”
I held her a moment longer than I should have, breathing in the scent of her hair, feeling the rapid beat of her heart against mine.
The rules felt distant and irrelevant in that shadowed space. But I knew they weren’t. Not really.
When we finally stepped apart, the night air felt colder. Cassius was gone. The field was emptying. But the weight of what Lyra had shared and the growing pull I felt toward her remained. Some storms, I was starting to realize, couldn’t be outflown.
They had to be ridden straight through.
LYRA
Back in the dorm later, I lay awake long after Yvaine had fallen asleep. Tempest’s partial warning echoed alongside Kai’s steady presence and the memory of his arms around me. The Academy felt vast and full of hidden currents tonight.
Whatever darkness was stirring, whatever complicated feelings tangled between Kai, Cassius, and me, one truth anchored me:
I wasn’t facing it alone anymore.
And that made all the difference
~
The morning after the Veil Trial dawned gray and heavy, the sky mirroring the unease still coiled in my chest. I barely slept, replaying the corrupted vision behind my eyelids—red lightning, the shadowy figure reaching for Tempest, the overwhelming sense of something ancient and wrong.
Tempest’s partial warning lingered like ozone in the air 'Darkness that wears the face of power'
A sharp knock on the dorm door pulled me from my thoughts. Yvaine was still lacing her boots, muttering about needing more sleep.
I opened the door to find Kai standing there, uniform crisp, black hair neatly pushed back. His green eyes softened the moment they landed on me, though tension lingered at the corners.
“Morning,” he said, voice low and warm. “Father wants us in his office to discuss the Veil Trial. All four of us. I figured I’d walk with you and Yvaine.”
Yvaine appeared behind me, already shrugging on her jacket. “Good. Saves me from getting lost in these endless corridors. Lead the way, golden boy.”
We fell into step together, the stone hallways echoing with our boots. The Academy felt quieter this morning, as if the walls themselves were listening. My violet curls, pulled into their usual low braid with loose strands framing my face, brushed my cheeks with every step.
The leather uniform felt heavier today, weighed down by secrets I wasn’t ready to share.
Halfway to Ser Thorian’s office wing, Cassius rounded a corner, his senior insignia gleaming. His lemon-green eyes lit up when he saw us, especially me.
“Perfect timing,” he said, falling into stride beside me without hesitation. Before I could react, he reached down and took my hand, giving it a gentle, reassuring squeeze.
His palm was warm, calloused from years of riding. “You okay after last night? You looked shaken when we landed. If you need to talk about what happened in there…”
Kai’s jaw tightened visibly beside me. I felt the shift in his posture, the way his shoulders stiffened, the subtle clench of his fists at his sides. He said nothing, but the jealousy rolled off him in waves, sharp and unmistakable.
“I’m fine,” I said quickly, gently extracting my hand from Cassius’s grip, though my cheeks warmed. “Just a rough vision. Nothing I can’t handle.”
Cassius nodded, though his eyes lingered on me a beat longer. “Good. We’re all in this together.”
Yvaine cleared her throat, breaking the thickening tension. “Yeah, let’s just get this over with before Ser Thorian decides we’re late and assigns extra drills.”
The rest of the walk passed in charged silence. Kai stayed close on my left, Cassius on my right, and Yvaine kept shooting me concerned glances. By the time we reached Ser Thorian’s heavy oak door, the air between the four of us felt thick enough to cut.
Ser Thorian’s office was austere but imposing, stone walls lined with maps of ancient flight routes, shelves heavy with leather-bound journals, and a large window overlooking the training fields.
He sat behind a massive desk, posture straight as a blade, his salt-and-pepper hair neatly combed. His gaze swept over us as we entered, lingering longest on me.
“Sit,” he ordered. We took seats in the chairs arranged before his desk. “Begin. What did each of you experience in the veil?”
Cassius spoke first, calm and precise. “For me, it was mostly standard veil interference, shifting illusions, sudden wind shear. But near the end, there was an overpowering gust. Stronger than normal. It felt targeted, like something was testing Lyra specifically.”
Kai nodded, voice steady but edged. “Same for me. Zephyr and I felt the wind spike hard. It wasn’t just random veil static. It reacted to Lyra, like her emotions were feeding it.”
Yvaine leaned forward, brows furrowed. “I saw it happen up close. Lyra went pale mid-flight. The wind exploded around Tempest, almost like something hit her. I thought she was going to fall. It scared me. She looked… terrified for a second.”
All eyes turned to me. I swallowed hard, choosing my words carefully. I had to give him something, enough to satisfy his need to know but not too much that I revealed everything so soon.