Jordan hadn't released my hand.
Neither of us noticed until Moira looked down at our intertwined fingers.
"You have to separate." Her voice was flat.
Jordan looked at her.
"No."
"Jordan."
"If they're here because of us, pretending now changes nothing."
Moira's face hardened.
"It changes everything."
She stepped closer, lowering her voice.
"You still have time to survive this."
Jordan laughed .
A quiet, exhausted laugh.
"Mother..."
He finally let go of my hand.
"...I stopped wanting to survive the moment surviving meant losing her."
My chest hurt. Derrick scoffed.
Moira closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, she was Deputy Sheriff Files.
Not his mother.
"Neither of you leaves this room."
Derrick frowned.
"You expect me to believe they'll stay?"
"No."
She reached into her coat and removed a pair of silver cuffs.
Magic cuffs.
They shimmered faintly.
Jordan stared at them.
"You would arrest your own son?"
"I would protect him."
"You call this protection?"
"I call it buying time."
Jordan extended his wrists before she could ask.
The cuffs clicked shut.
Silver light wrapped briefly around them before disappearing beneath his skin.
He didn't resist.
He only looked at me.
"I'd still choose you."
I smiled despite the fear.
"I know."
Moira turned to me.
"I'm sorry."
She fastened another pair around my wrists.
The metal was strangely warm.
Immediately, the familiar pulse of my Dark Magian abilities dulled.
Like hearing music through a stone wall.
The visions vanished.
The whispers.
Everything.
I had never realized how loud my magic was until it disappeared.
Outside, a horn sounded.
Principal Scavenger's amplified voice echoed across the Academy.
"All students and faculty are to assemble immediately in the Grand Quadrangle."
The corridors erupted.
Doors opened.
Feet pounded across stone floors.
Within minutes Raven Hollow was emptying into the courtyard.
Only our room remained still.
Derrick smiled with quiet satisfaction.
"I've waited months to see this."
Jordan looked at him.
"Why?"
Derrick shrugged.
"Because laws that are never enforced become suggestions."
"You'd kill people to prove a point?"
"I'd preserve civilization."
"No," I said softly. "You'd preserve fear."
His smile disappeared.
A sharp knock interrupted us.
Three Council Guards entered without waiting for permission.
Each wore polished black armour beneath white cloaks.
One stepped forward.
"Deputy Sheriff Files."
Moira inclined her head.
"The Council requests your presence."
His eyes shifted to Jordan.
"And the accused."
Silence.
The word hung in the room.
Accused.
Not student.
Not musician.
Not son.
Accused.
"And the girl," the guard added "Is to wait in the cell".
My heartbeat stumbled.
He didn't even know my name.
To him I was simply...
the girl.
Moira nodded.
"We'll accompany you."
"No."
The guard's expression remained blank.
"They are to be escorted separately."
Jordan immediately stepped forward.
"No."
I smiled bitterly. His trademark stubbornness was doing more harm than good.
The guard met his eyes.
"That was not a request."
Two more guards moved between us.
Jordan's shoulders stiffened.
For a heartbeat I thought the wolf would break through the magic cuffs.
Instead he looked at me.
Really looked at me.
Across the widening distance.
"I'll find you."
"I know."
It wasn't confidence.
It was faith.
The guards led him toward the door.
He never looked away until the corridor swallowed him.
Only then did I realize I was crying.