Chapter 10 – The Price of Power

They made their choice. Now the Houses would make theirs.

The aftermath didn't come all at once.

It arrived in whispers.

In slow, cutting glances from instructors who used to pretend she didn't exist. In paired training partners who suddenly refused to spar. In silent meals. Empty seats. Doors that no longer opened when she passed.

Lira knew what exile felt like.

But she hadn't expected to feel it here—after she'd been bonded to someone they feared. After her magic had carved cracks into the atrium dome and left three Wardens bleeding from resonance backlash.

She thought fear would protect her.

Instead, it isolated her.

Kael wasn't excluded.

Kael was targeted.

His own House, once unshakable in its internal loyalty, now watched him with carefully neutral expressions. A half dozen invitations to Nightshade leadership councils were suddenly "postponed." His scheduled solo lessons were reassigned.

They couldn't control him.

So they began to isolate him, too.

And Kael?

Kael didn't react.

He doubled his training. Increased his study hours. Refused sparring partners and fought enchanted dummies until the practice hall was scorched black. He didn't speak unless necessary. And when he looked at Lira, there was always something sharp in his eyes—an edge that hadn't been there before.

Not hostility.

Not resentment.

A kind of hunger.

They met again with Master Veylan at midnight, as requested.

His study was darker now. Half the lights snuffed. New wards had been drawn along the door, jagged and hurried.

Veylan didn't offer tea this time.

He simply gestured for them to sit.

"The Veiled Thorn has moved."

Kael leaned forward slightly. "How far?"

"They've taken three junior instructors. Two were found dead. The third is missing."

Lira's chest tightened.

Veylan passed her a sealed scroll. She cracked it open.

A list of names.

Houses. Students. Staff.

"Suspected sympathizers," Veylan said.

Her name was on the list.

So was Kael's.

"They think we're working with them," Lira said quietly.

"They want you to," Veylan replied. "You're the spark. The symbol. The one thing powerful enough to break the House system and terrifying enough to justify killing."

Kael's voice was low. "Let them try."

"They will," Veylan said. "Which means you need to survive the next two weeks. Stay close. Stay alert. And whatever happens—don't let the bond reach the eleventh line."

Lira looked up. "Why not?"

Veylan met her eyes.

"Because the eleventh line is when you stop being just bonded."

Kael's jaw tensed. "And become what?"

Veylan didn't answer.

He opened a drawer and slid a small object across the desk.

A silver pendant. A perfect circle of metal etched with thorned lines.

Lira touched it.

Her mark burned immediately in response.

"You're not the first," Veylan said softly. "And you're not the last. But you might be the one who finishes what the others couldn't."

Later, in their room, Kael stood at the window, watching the academy lanterns flicker across the grounds below. The towers of each House gleamed faintly, like lighthouses on the edge of a storm.

Lira sat on her bed, the pendant heavy in her palm.

"You're quiet," she said.

"I'm thinking."

"Dangerous habit."

She expected a dry retort.

Instead, he turned.

"There's a threshold," Kael said. "A point where I stop being useful to my House and become a liability."

"You passed that threshold the second you refused to unbind."

"I know."

He crossed the room slowly, sat across from her.

He looked tired. But alert.

Stripped raw beneath the precision.

"I made that choice because I thought I could control it. The bond. You. Me. But every time we grow stronger, I can feel it changing me, too."

She looked at him. "Does that scare you?"

"No."

His voice was too steady.

Lira tilted her head. "You're lying."

He didn't deny it.

Then, softly: "You dreamt again, didn't you?"

"Yes."

She swallowed. "We were on a hill. Surrounded. I could hear them chanting something. I think… I think they tried to unbind us before. In another life. And we didn't let them."

Kael exhaled slowly.

Then reached out, fingers brushing her wrist.

Not possessive.

Not romantic.

A test.

The bond flared, warm and bright.

Eleven lines.

Not complete.

But close.

Too close.

Lira drew back.

He didn't stop her.

But the bond pulsed between them like a living thing. Alive. Waiting.

Hungry.