The material of my track jacket is scratching my neck and I keep trying to flatten it to my chest. But it doesn't help my agitation to settle down. I don't think it's the jacket's fault that I'm this way. I purely blame Alexander and what he did to me, and to Jake. People keep looking at me weirdly and I know it's because of somehow I'm a miracle child who died and came back to life. I shouldn't have agreed to come here.
In the last three hours, I've noticing that the people here have a weirdly colored eyes. Some have purple and even yellow eyes. I was standing in line along with 19 other people who looked to be mostly my age or even younger. Anyway we're in the middle of a large basket ball court with absurdly high ceiling.
Then, there's the teacher. She wears a very classic white shirt and checkered skirt above her ankle. Her pin shows a serpent consuming its own tail. But her eyes stop on me with something I can't read, and I realize she knows. Of course she knows. Everyone knows. The sealed girl. The almost-human.
"Welcome to the Aeternum Academy," she says, and her voice booms across the court with deliberate amplification. "I am Instructor Morcant. You are here because you have demonstrated sufficient magical maturity to require structured mastery before assignment to Order service. This is not an honor. This is obligation. Your families have served. You will serve. The only question is whether you survive the training to do so usefully."
She paces the line. Her heels don't click like I assume it will. She stops in front of me.
"And of course I'm also glad to personally welcome you to our society." She nodded at me. "It's an honor to teach a member of the Hightower family." Way to put me in the spotlight. I was hoping I can just disappeared in the background.
She moves on, and I feel the stares intensify. Not just weird anymore. Predatory. Curious. Some of them have never seen who I am, they probably just knew I'm a witch who grew up human.
"Before you learn to master what you are," Morcant continues, "you will learn what you were, your ancestors. We are of the Ælytheran kind. Not to be confused with human, though we have similarities in appearance, but that is where it ends." Her eyes find me again, briefly. "The truth, which our predecessors have preserved through memory. You will receive it now and learn it full in order for you to understand how important it is your duty in The Order."
The court's far wall shimmers. The projection extends into impossible depth, and I realize with a chill that this is not from a projector. Morcant just extend her hand and images started to appeared.
"Before humans existed," Morcant says, "this world was already inhabited."
The image resolves, Earth from outside, but wrong. The continents familiar yet misplaced, the moon closer, the stars somehow looked different. I think, anyway.
"Heaven and Earth," Morcant says, and the words sound strange in her mouth, almost borrowed. "That is how the humans would phrase it. The upper atmosphere held by the angels, beings of ordered light whose main purpose is to serve the will of God and required no worship. Then on Earth there were us, The Ælytheran. We are uniquely made by God to be able to withstand powers on earth and beyond. Every fabric of this Earth's is rich in magic and powers that preceded us and we are the only one who can wield it properly to maintain the balance of this world. We also coexist with the demon kind and the vampire kind."
She gestures, and the image shows four figures in rough balance. Angel, demon, vampire, and us. Each marked by different abstract looks and logos.
"The vampire kind never numerous," Morcant continues. "They also share their appearance with us, but their eyes are the giveaway, the pure blooded ones always have a bright and deep red eyes. They indicate a close relation to the demonic realm and full access to dark magic, a very dangerous and very distinct from our craft. Some scholar even describe it as forces between heaven and hell. They are dangerous but thanks to our Accord with them, we have been coexisting with them for millennia."
Then the images started to blur from a beautiful men and women with glowing red eyes to a fiery depiction of straight up monsters some has many hands, some has many eyes, and the eyes is just want to make me puke.
"Then, there are also the demonic kind. They were made out of fire and the master of dark magic. Their magical prowess is destructive. Where our craft channels living energy and, demonic magic works with taking and giving."
I can feel my leg going numb from too much standing but I don't see anyone but me even got tired from this lecture. Why are we not in a chair anyway. "Before their Fall, their leader held rank equal to the archangels. They were proud creatures. Earths belonged to them, that's what they believed, and vampires as well as all the Ælytheran lineages were trespassers on territory they'd claimed. But when humans were created, he let his pride got the best of him and the response was absolute and he was cast down. The Kill Order is non-negotiable. Any of you encountering a demon is authorized to destroy it. It's one of many rules The Order had expected the younger generations to uphold."
The image shifts. A garden. A single figure, cast downward, a gate closing behind them.
"Then the humans," Morcant says, and her voice changes slightly, almost respect, almost fear. "Created by God from clay they were rewarded with the highest form of mind and free will."
Yes, the story of Adam and Eve. I know the name from many religious texts. But the way she said it here sounds different.
"The humans, when they were casted down to Earth brought mortality," Morcant says. "Linear time. And most significantly, choice without inherent nature. We are in a way more similar to humans however we will never taste death the way they do. I'm sure most of you are familiar with reincarnation, if one of you gets killed you will be reincarnated as someone else, however you will not be able to retain the memory of your previous life. So, keep in mind to always preserve your life."
She pauses, letting that settle. I think of my mother suddenly, if the stories are true, if she really die and cover our death. Then who is she now?
"Our similarities with humans ended there," Morcant says. "While vampires nowadays can get along with them just fine, sometimes too fine that it brought many clusters of half-blood vampires with no magical abilities."
"What about us?" a student asks. Male, confident, yellow eyes like molten gold.
"We chose careful coexistence," Morcant says. "The Council, precursor to the Order, determined that human belief was itself a power source. We would become their myths, allowing them to choose whether we existed, and in doing so, we hide in plain sight."
The image shows temples, standing stones, cave paintings. All the ways humans recorded encounter.
"This arrangement held for millennia," Morcant continues. "Until human technology advanced. Their skepticism grew. Their weapons became capable of threatening even ancient powers. The Order has to maintain their objective as the caretakers of boundaries between the seen and unseen world. We retreated further, only a few contacts were allowed."
She turns to face us directly. Her eyes hold mine longest. Then, she raises her hand, and the projection dissolves.
"Today's history lesson ends here," Morcant says."Next, I want ot assess what your training has left you capable of. Partner up. Hand-to-hand. No limitations on magic."
The court transforms. Lines shift and suddenly we are in individual combat spaces. I find myself facing the girl with blond hair and bright yellow eyes. She smiles now with recognition.
"Elara Voss," she says. "First-year. It's an honor to meet you."
"Emily." I don't offer more. The word she used rings in my ears. Is this how it's going to be? Suddenly I'm the popular one and hold all the cards.
Morcant's voice carries "Begin."
Elara moves before I finish processing. A sweep at my legs that I barely dodge, a follow-up strike to my ribs that connects because I am still recovering balance. The pain is sharp. I am not supposed to be here. I am quite literally getting my ass handed to me. How is she that fast anyway. I blink and she's already landing a punch to my face.
I try to remember Jake's training. Look at their shoulders. Predict their intent. But Elara's shoulders giving nothing away, and her intent seems to be simply attack, which is not specific enough to counter.
She strikes again. I block but barely, and the impact travels up my arm like I have tried to stop a bat with a cardboard tube. My body knows, even if my mind resists, I am not strong enough. My time of hiding, of avoiding notice, of choosing invisibility over confrontation they have not prepared me for this. And these students have never hidden. They have trained since probably since birth and have a functioning family to guide them.
Elara's knee catches my stomach. I fold, gasping, and her hand on my shoulder pushes me down before I can recover.
"Stay down," she says, not unkindly. Just sympathetic.
But I don't. Can't. The word won't come, and something in my chest, that familiar, dangerous warmth stirs in response to threat.
She strikes again, and I take it, and I keep taking it blocks that fail, dodges that arrive too late, the gradual accumulation of proof that I am outmatched in every way. She knows what her body can do because she has always inhabited it fully. I am still learning what mine is, what it wants, what it takes.
When Morcant finally calls my time, I am on my knees, breathing hard, tasting copper. Elara extends a hand. I take it ungracefully, pushing myself up through sheer will of not passing out in my first class.
"Your form is adequate," Morcant says, appearing beside us. "For one who only mixes with humans, there are room for improvement."
Around me, other matches continue. I walk to the court's edge, find a wall, and let it hold me up. Elara find another sparing partner and I was equally terrified and awed seeing her fighting even more harder. Then in the middle of the court someone started to lift off the ground and sparing mid air until one of them dropped to the ground with a loud thud.
I press the back of my head against the cool wall and breathe. Making them my background noise and try not to make eye contact with others who got cast aside after they lose. Then, the bell rings. The court empties. I stay against the wall longer than I should, gathering myself for whatever comes next.
I walked out last when suddenly I got a whiplash of someone running across in front of me toward the long hall to my left. Then I heard other people mention the name Jake and Alexander sparring and it got my attention. If his lesson is as bad as mine, I need to know if he's hurt or not. So, I started running following the guy that was running, along with others who also curious. But I don't think I share their curiosity.
At the end of the hall, I see a double doors opening to outdoors and people is just swarming the doors. When I saw a huge fire explosion I run faster and power through the crowd until I was outside. There, I see the ground is in all kind of mess, some is protruding to the sky, some is just a big crater, some just straight up charred with embers flying and I see Jake standing in the middle of that mess with dirt all over his clothes looking up and there I see Alexander floating on the air with one hand on his hip.
What the hell just happened?
Jake swung his arms in circles and the flame was somehow slowly following his movement before he shot it towards Alexander. I watched in horror expecting the worse but he lift his hand and suddenly a stream of water fly in front of him, creating a shield that quickly doused the flame then it suddenly form a huge wave toward Jake like a tsunami and in a matter of seconds the water froze mid air before exploding into million pieces, forming a sudden snowfall.
I stood frozen, snow settling on my hair, my shoulders, the still-tender bruises Elara had left. The cold bit through my track jacket but I barely felt it. My brother had just created snow from ocean water mid air.
This wasn't the Jake who'd taught me self-defense in the gym. That Jake had been fast, strong, skilled in ways that made sense for a soldier. This Jake moved like the elements themselves were extensions of his will, and the worst part was how natural he looked doing it. Like he'd always known how.
Alexander descended slowly, feet touching scorched earth without sound. He said something to Jake I couldn't hear. Jake laughed, actually laughed, breathless and exhilarated, and ran a hand through his hair, dislodging ash and melting snow.
"Again," Alexander said, loud enough to carry.
"Is this really necessary," Jake said, but he was smiling.
"Yes. I need to know how far you can go."
I must have made some sound, or maybe Jake felt me the way I'd started feeling pulses, pressures, the temperatures. He turned, and his face transformed. The combat focus dropped into something horrified, almost guilty.
"Emily." He was moving toward me before I could step back, hands raised like I was the one who needed calming.
"You can control fire too,"
"It was just a demonstration," Jake reached for me. I stepped back, and something in my chest pulled. I felt his heartbeat stutter in response, felt the warmth of his body flicker like a candle in wind.
He froze. I froze.
"Emily." Alexander's voice, carefully neutral. "You don't have to be afraid. Your brother's power is different from yours. It is only fair that you both follow the correct training and it might seems painful but it's harmless."
"Don't." I didn't turn. "Don't pretend this is about fairness. You kept us apart on purpose, didn't you? Different training, different teachers. So we couldn't—" I didn't know what I was accusing him of. Compare notes? Comfort each other? Realize how thoroughly we'd been manipulated?
"So you couldn't rely on each other instead of learning your own capabilities," Alexander said. "Yes."
The honesty was worse than a lie would have been. I finally looked at him, really looked, and saw what I'd been avoiding. The same stubborn jaw as Jake. The same way of standing, weight shifted slightly left, ready to move. The same eyes, almost, if you ignored the color. Family resemblance. The phrase made me nauseous.
"I need to sleep," I said.
"Emily—" Jake started.
"Please."
I walked away before anyone could stop me, or before I could see if they would try. The crowd parted, whispers rising in my wake. The gossip mill probably started with the Hightower girl. The dead child is miraculously alive among humans. Lost her first spar, afraid of her brother's power.
Let them talk. Let them think whatever they wanted. I kept walking until I found the residential quad, the building with my small window overlooking an ocean that suddenly felt like a prison wall rather than a view.
My room was exactly as I'd left it. Luggage still packed at the foot of the bed. The pin Alexander had given me, my mother's, supposedly sitting on the desk where I'd thrown it. I picked it up, the silver L wrapped in vines catching afternoon light that slanted wrong through the window, too golden, too other.
The door clicked behind me. I didn't turn, knowing who it was by the particular quality of silence.
"You shouldn't be here," I said to the reflection in the glass.
"Probably not," Alexander agreed. He stayed near the door, maintaining distance I hadn't asked for but appreciated anyway. "Your brother is concerned."
"That's all he did everyday."
"He's afraid you're afraid of him now."
I laughed, hollow. "Well, he's not wrong."
The pin dug into my palm. I opened my fingers, watched the indentations fade. I finally turned. "What was she like?"
Alexander's composure cracked, just slightly. "She's annoyingly confident and a pain in my ass during our school years."
"Cool," considering her choices that land her a reputation of traitor and murderer.
"That why I love her even when she made her choices." His voice had gone careful, the way people do when navigating minefields.
"What choice?"
He didn't answer. Outside, something large moved across the sky, another student practicing flight, probably. The shadow passed over us, darkening the room momentarily, and in that dimness Alexander looked almost human. Tired. Old in ways that had nothing to do with years.
"I'll tell you sometimes. I just want you to know that you don't have to be afraid of your brother's power," he said, changing subjects with the precision of long practice. "We can manipulate fire, water, ice, the states of matter itself. It's not as dangerous as you might think. Especially you, you will be immune from his powers since you're related by blood."
"You're telling me this why?"
"So you're not afraid of him." He took a single step closer, close enough that I could see the faint scar above his eyebrow, the one Jake also had in nearly identical placement. "His power exist with nature and it was not meant to hurt or destroy."
The pin felt suddenly heavy. I set it on the windowsill, suddenly unwilling to hold anything connected to this family.
"Get out," I said. "Please."
He left without argument. But at the door, he paused. "Your brother will be in the cafeteria at seven for dinner. He asked me to tell you, he'll order your usual."
I didn't respond. The door closed softly, and I was alone with an ocean that wouldn't stop moving and a power I couldn't stop feeling, humming beneath my skin like a second heartbeat waiting to learn its rhythm.
I lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling until the light changed, until my bruises ached dully and my stomach reminded me I'd skipped lunch. At 6:47, I stood, changed my shirt, and walked to the cafeteria.
Jake was there, two trays, two coffees. He looked up when I entered, hope and fear mixed so openly I almost turned around.
"Monkey," he said, the old nickname cracking slightly.
I sat down across from him. Took the coffee. Sipped it, sweet, hot, and not too bitter, exactly right.
"Show me," I said. "Tomorrow. Whatever you're learning. I want to see it from the beginning."
Some of the tension left his shoulders. "You don't have to—"
"I know I don't have to." I met his eyes, the same eyes as mine, the same eyes as the man who'd lied to us both. "I want to understand what we are. Even if I hate it. Even if I can't—" I couldn't finish.
Jake reached across the table, tentative, and covered my hand with his. Warm. Solid. The same hand that had made snow fall from frozen waves.
"I hate it too," he said. "Sometimes. But then I remember I can protect you now. Really protect you." He squeezed gently. "That's worth something, isn't it?"
I thought of Bailey's cigarettes burning my arm. Of Daniel's hands at my throat. Of every time I'd been small and hurt and Jake had been too far away or too limited to stop it.
"Yeah," I whispered.
We ate in silence that slowly became comfortable again. And when we finished, Jake walked me back to my building, neither of us mentioning Alexander. At my door, Jake hugged me, too tight, too long, exactly what I needed.
"I love you," he murmured into my hair. But I didn't say it back.