kill code

I used to think truth was power.

But truth is just a weapon.

And in the right hands

It can cut deeper than any blade.

Isla was the sixth vote.

The one that would decide whether I lived or died.

She'd been the only one who didn't speak during the Trial.

The only one who didn't flinch when I said Ezra's name.

And now?

She might be the one holding the trigger.

I found her at the top of the old observatory.

She was sitting on the ledge like she didn't care if the wind blew her right off.

No mask. No cloak. Just her.

I stepped onto the roof and let the door slam shut behind me.

She didn't turn.

"You opened it, didn't you?" she said quietly.

"The Vote book."

"I saw it," I replied. "I saw your vote. Still pending."

Her shoulders stiffened.

"You think I'm going to kill you?"

"I think you haven't decided yet."

She finally turned to face me. Her eyes were darker than I remembered.

"I watched my brother die in the Trial of Silence," she said.

"He hesitated. They called it weakness. They cut his throat in front of me.

So no, don't 'decide' anything lightly anymore."

A pause.

Then she stood and walked toward me.

"You want to survive, Nova?

Stop asking who's going to kill you.

And start asking who's going to protect you once they try."

She handed me a slip of paper.

One name.

Dr. Felix Mercer.

"He's not faculty," Isla said. "But he runs the Red Trials. He oversees the Kill Code protocol.

Every expulsion, every forced disappearance funnels through him."

"Why are you helping me?" I asked.

She looked me dead in the eye.

"Because I voted no."

My chest tightened.

"And now I'm marked too."

Later that night, I broke into Dr. Mercer's office.

Isla had hacked the door code: 0719, her brother's birthday.

The office looked normal at first. Clinical. Bookshelves. A globe.

But the air was wrong. Too still. Too quiet.

Then I found the hidden door.

Behind a false wall, an archive room. Metal drawers. Cold light.

I pulled one open.

Inside:

Student File: Ezra Hale. Status - Terminated. Method: Neurological Severance. Time of Death: Pending.

But beneath it…

Nova Reed.

Status: Pending

Execution Date: 3 days from now.

My hand shook as I turned the next page.

A signature stamped in red ink at the bottom:

Approved by Keeper A. Vale.

Execution Code: RAVEN-0

They weren't waiting for me to fail.

They were going to kill me either way.

Unless I got there first.

Unless I burned it down.

I left the office with the file in my coat.

And I walked straight into Isla.

"We need to go," I told her.

"Where?"

"To the Graveyard Room. Now."

"Why?"

"Because we're going to expose the Row. All of it. On their own feed."