CHAPTER 134 - The Explosion.

The deafening explosion shook the masquerade hall to its very core. Flames illuminated the night sky outside the ballroom, their orange and red tongues licking at the castle walls. Smoke curled upward in ominous tendrils as the guests, frozen in shock, exchanged panicked glances. 

The once-vibrant energy of the masquerade dissipated in an instant, replaced by a heavy, suffocating dread.

Alex's sharp eyes darted toward the growing plume of smoke visible through the high arched windows, his face a mask of the graveness of the situation.

He, the rising star of humanity, was out of the academy—a place out of the academy's jurisdiction, where there was no such rule that killing wasn't allowed.

There was no way many out there would let this chance slide.

But for now, he stood back. It wasn't his time to act.