After weeks spent dodging homicidal textbooks and reclaiming shards of her magic, Eydis’s reflexes had improved from terrible to slightly less terrible. So when two koalas came rocketing across the cafeteria, she shifted left, leaving their true target to suffer the impact.

  Natalia.

  She was now playing an unwilling eucalyptus branch, while Colette and Birgit clung to her as if they had found their new forever home.

  "Nat! Where have you been?” Birgit asked, tightening her grip.

  Eydis could hear the sound of something cracking.

  Natalia puffed up like a startled pufferfish, finally prying them off and wheezing for air. Only then did the twins notice the pin glinting on her collar.

  D-Class Gifted. Everyone knew the symbol.

  "Is there something you forgot to tell us?” Colete asked.

  Natalia’s gaze flicked to Eydis, then away. In a single, breathless sentence she unloaded the last two weeks: duel, secret Gifted status, forced family bonding exercise.

  Impressive. Really. Eydis was 100% sure Natalia could survive without breathing. She narrowed her eyes at the thought.

  As expected, the twins exploded with a mix of lectures, pretend outrage, and their signature koala-like shenanigans. It didn’t last long, maybe three minutes tops, before real concern started showing on their faces, all about how Natalia was holding up. And honestly, that was the important part.

  Eydis’s mouth gave a little twitch. Certainly not from finding it charming. Perish the thought.

  “You’re… smiling.” Natalia did not just say that.

  Eydis blinked. “Am I?”

  “A real one. Not your usual… Eydis-ness,” Natalia clarified, blushing. “So, uh, I’ll be busy training. Gifted stuff.”

  Eydis tilted her head. Is Natalia overheating? In autumn?

  She touched the back of her hand to Natalia’s forehead. “Sure you’re ready to be back, Natalia?"

  Natalia swatted her away, cheeks now tomato red. “I don't want to be helpless again.” Then she burrowed between Colette and Birgit. “There are people I want to protect.”

  Eydis nodded, but her attention drifted to the cafeteria at large.

  There was an unsettling energy about the place.

  Everyone chowed down as if they’d gone hungry for a fortnight. Forks clashed loudly on plates, and trays cleared out faster than she could blink.

  Could the school be slipping caffeine into the drinks?

  Off to her left, Birgit was putting on a symphony of slurps from her juice box. Six crushed empties littered the table; the seventh wobbled upright for a moment before toppling over, drained dry, naturally.

  Eydis was all set with a snarky comment, but something even more intriguing pulled her focus.

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  “You know, Tiffany had another meltdown and bailed. For like, the umpteenth time,” a girl grumbled through a mouthful of burger.

  “Seriously? After all that pleading and arm-twisting?” her friend replied, tearing into a chicken leg.

  “Maybe the Ice Princess's glare melted her brain." A boy smackes his pizza down.

  “Or that creepy magic she poked turned on her."

  Eydis smirked. A few weeks ago, these same people had been worshipping Tiffany, or at least wary of her. Now they couldn’t distance themselves fast enough.

  No wonder why Envy loved this place.

  The Academy had done its best to bury the Tiffany debacle. In the grave it dug, conspiracy theories sprouted like mushrooms.

  On the other hand, Envy’s search for anomalies within the academy walls had turned up nothing. No lurking Sins.

  It was too quiet.

  Then, as if the universe had taken offense at her observation, the cafeteria’s steady clatter screeched to a halt. Silence.

  Followed by gasps.

  Followed by squeals.

  Or not. Eydis sighed. She glanced up, half-expecting a cleansing fireball. Instead, most students had gathered around… Astra.

  Astra had always attracted admiration, but her viral takedown of Tiffany ignited full-blown fanaticism. Real-life Wonder Woman vibes, according to Natalia, and Eydis hated how apt that was. Not that she’d ever admit to enjoying the movie the girl kept begging her to watch during obligatory movie nights.

  Being Astra must feel like living inside a jar of fireflies, all that buzz and light circling endlessly.

  Irresistible flashed across Eydis’s mind. She swatted the thought away.

  Sure, Astra’s effortless deflection of Envy’s power had been impressive. Impressive enough that Eydis had spent a week dodging her own roommate. The last thing she needed was Astra noticing the faint stain of Envy still clinging to her aura.

  The aura leak was sealed with a binding sigil reinforced by a sealing spell. Crisis averted.

  Except for her current side effect: raccoon eyes. She pondered cucumber slices versus an ice pack as the fan club’s volume hit seismic levels.

  Eydis groaned. But before she could act on her escape plan, which may or may not have involved a strategically placed banana peel (or two, for insurance), the cafeteria parted. In front of her.

  A shadow eclipsed her lunch.

  Astra stood there, gaze locked on Eydis.

  Uh oh.

  This wasn’t good.

  Could Astra sense Envy? Unlikely. Then what did she want? And, more importantly…

  What did she know?

  The streets of Alchymia’s central district were lively, bustling with the lunchtime rush. Office workers threaded past one another, sandwiches and coffee in hand. Professor Indigo Crane walked at a brisk pace into a skyscraper, brushing past a flustered secretary on his way to the penthouse suite.

  Inside, golden sunlight cut through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Dmitri Romanov sat at his desk, staring out at The Eye on the horizon. On the couch, Adrian looked up and gave Indigo a slight nod.

  “How’s it going, Professor?”

  Indigo didn’t bother with niceties. He plunked his laptop down right in front of Dmitri.

  “Chief Advisor, I understand the urgency, but authorising a drone strike on The Eye without my signature? I am still Head of Research, or has that changed without notice?”

  Dmitri leaned back, steepling his fingers. “A far more proactive approach than yours, Professor Crane.”

  “Proactive?” Indigo pressed Enter. The video started, filling the screen with dense purple smoke churning out from The Eye.

  Indigo watched Dmitri instead of the video; he waited for the hairline crack to appear in that composure.

  “So, Chief… do you still call this a step forward? Because it looks very much like you made things worse.”

  Dmitri’s jaw clenched, his hand balling up.

  Adrian eased a folder onto the desk, filled with photos, reports with timestamps. Right there among them were shots of Tiffany Blackwood whose hands were enveloped in that same eerie violet glow.

  “We couldn’t connect the dots before,” Adrian said, guiding Dmitri through the pages. “The first choppers that drifted too close to the Eye were completely erased. Not long after, Tiffany’s Gift awakened at eighteen, even though no one in her family has ever shown the faintest trace of one.”

  “You’re saying every time The Eye was attacked…” Dmitri’s confidence wavered. “…it leaks these things? And it grants power?"

  “We wanted to believe otherwise,” Indigo admitted.

  He scrubbed the video forward. The violet mass slithered as if it was aware of the lens tracking its motion. “This isn’t smoke. It’s alive. And it’s escalating. Tiffany and her peers may be the first victims, but they won’t be the last.”

  Dmitri inhaled, sat back, then signed the approval form decisively.

  “Interrogate Tiffany Blackwood. Find out everything," he ordered Adrian. “You are authorised to use your Gift on Senator Noah Blackwood and his family if needed. No exceptions.”

  Adrian straightened, golden eyes gleaming.

  “Understood, sir.”