The Sovereign Elite Institute was designed to withstand orbital bombardment, bio-chemical warfare, and the collapse of the global economy. It was not, however, designed to withstand the sheer, unadulterated velocity of teenage gossip.
Rian Kuro, the terrifying ghost operative known as IV, was currently hiding behind a marble statue of a Roman emperor.
"This is a tactical disaster," Rian hissed, peering around the edge of the toga-clad statue. Down the grand, sunlit corridor, a group of high-born students from the Vault were aggressively scanning the hallways with their datapads, looking for him.
"This is the most fun I've had since the French Revolution," Nox purred.
She was leaning casually against the pedestal of the statue, entirely unbothered by the fact that half the student body was currently hunting them. She was wearing her pristine academy blazer, though she had paired it with dark, gothic lace gloves that blatantly violated the dress code.
"Kenji's little locker-room outburst has completely compromised my invisibility," Rian muttered, calculating the fastest escape route to the Advanced Physics wing. "The heirs of the Triumvirate are actively tracking my movements because they cannot fathom how a provincial scholarship student is dating you. I am a ghost, Nox. Ghosts do not make the front page of The Sovereign Daily every week."
"Oh, let them stare, Rian," Nox laughed, reaching over to playfully straighten his tie. "I'm immortal, and even I have to admit that watching the Golden Boy, Aurelian, look at you with thinly veiled jealousy this morning was absolutely delicious."
"If we go through the east colonnade, we can bypass the cafeteria," Rian calculated, completely ignoring her amusement. He grabbed her wrist, practically dragging her down the adjacent service corridor. "Move."
While Rian treated the high school rumors like a hostile military blockade, Sia Lin was treating them like the end of the world.
Sia was hiding in the deepest, most overgrown corner of the Institute's secondary bio-dome, sitting cross-legged on a patch of synthetic moss. Her datapad lay abandoned beside her, the screen still glowing with the latest school-wide update: a candid, long-lens photograph of Nox playfully feeding Rian in Geopolitics class.
Sia pulled her knees to her chest, her heart aching with a heavy, suffocating weight. She was Wraith, a hardened rebel commander who had stared down heavily armored Imperial juggernauts without flinching. But right now, she just felt like a broken-hearted teenager. She had convinced herself that Rian—the boy who had stood up to the Grand Inquisitor for her, the boy who had comforted her in the dirty alleys of Sector 4—was hers to protect.
And Nox... Sia actually liked Nox. Despite the gothic coats and the cynical attitude, Nox had fit seamlessly into their friend group. But seeing them together felt like a betrayal she hadn't braced herself for.
"Your aura is incredibly jagged today, Sia. It looks like crushed glass."
Sia jumped, instinctively dropping her hand to her satchel where her tactical gear usually rested, before remembering where she was.
Stepping out from behind a massive, genetically modified fern was a girl named Iris. Iris was a Tier 2 student who somehow managed to make the strict, charcoal-grey academy uniform look entirely bohemian. She wore a necklace made of polished sea-glass, had a quill pen tucked behind her ear, and her silver-blonde hair was pulled into a messy, uneven braid. She possessed a dreamy, perpetually unfocused gaze that made people assume she was slow—until she said something terrifyingly accurate.
"Iris," Sia breathed out a sigh of relief, relaxing her shoulders. "I didn't see you there."
"I was talking to the carnivorous pitcher plants," Iris said reasonably, drifting over and sitting down beside Sia on the moss. She picked up a fallen leaf and twirled it between her fingers. "They are very anxious about Professor Thorne's midterm, too. But not nearly as anxious as you. You're vibrating at a frequency of absolute heartbreak."
Sia looked away, her cheeks burning. "Is it that obvious?"
"The whole school is talking about Rian and the new girl," Iris hummed, her pale eyes locking onto Sia. "You feel like you're losing your anchor. You think he's floating away into her dark, mysterious gravity, and you're just... stuck on the ground."
Sia swallowed hard, the accuracy of Iris's words piercing right through her defenses. "I don't know what to do, Iris. I can't compete with Nox. She's... she's terrifyingly perfect. And Rian just looks at her like she's the only person in the room."
"Fear is just a shadow cast by a lack of information," Iris said, leaning forward, her voice dropping to a surprisingly sharp, lucid whisper. "Shadows disappear when you shine a light on them, Sia. You are carrying a very heavy sword disguised as a flower."
Sia's breath hitched. A heavy sword disguised as a flower. It was the exact phrase the fortune teller on the coast had used to describe her rebel double life. How did Iris know that?
Before Sia could ask, Iris smiled brightly, the dreamy facade snapping back into place. "You shouldn't sit here in the damp, Sia. You should go find the source of the spark. Ask the dark girl herself. The universe rarely rewards those who hide in the ferns."
Iris stood up, humming a quiet tune, and drifted back into the dense foliage, leaving Sia completely alone with her racing thoughts.
She's right, Sia realized, a sudden, fierce power of rebel courage igniting in her chest. She wasn't going to sit here and cry while the boy she loved slipped away. She was going to confront the anomaly.
It took Sia twenty minutes to track them down. She finally found Nox emerging from the girls' lavatory in the West Wing, washing her hands while humming that same terrible pop song from Kenji's car. Rian was nowhere to be seen, likely scouting the hallway ahead.
"Nox," Sia said, her voice echoing slightly against the tiled walls.
Nox turned, shaking the water from her pale hands. She took one look at Sia's deeply rigid posture, the clenched fists, and the fierce, burning determination in her dark eyes.
"Well, well," Nox purred, leaning her hip against the marble sink, highly amused. "If it isn't the little butterfly. You look like you're about to declare war, Sia. Did I steal your favorite seat in Geopolitics?"
"I want to talk about Rian," Sia said, refusing to back down, stepping further into the lavish bathroom. "I know I don't have the right to tell you who to date. But I need you to know... I love him. I've loved him since he transferred here. He's the most genuinely good, innocent person I've ever met in this wretched Empire. And if you're just playing with him because you like the attention, or because you think it's fun to mess with the Triumvirate heirs... I won't let you hurt him."
Nox stared at Sia for a long, silent moment. Her ancient, pitch-black eyes scanned the girl from head to toe. She saw the genuine, raw emotion. She saw a girl who was willing to blow up military armories and bring the wrath of the Empire down upon anyone close to her.
Nox's mind paused. She thought about Rian's confession by the window in Saltcliff. I don't want a war. I just want to live my life peacefully. This boy didn't want the fighting. He had spent ten years agonizingly building a quiet, civilian sanctuary, and if this rebel commander walked further into his life, it would become irreparably chaotic.
Rian was a genuine friend to her. The only true friend she had made in the last six hundred years. And Nox suddenly realized she didn't want to see him hurt or dragged into the fire anymore.
The playful, teasing smirk vanished from Nox's face, replaced by a cold, predatory stillness. She played a very dangerous card.
"If I were to give you my Rian," Nox said, her voice dropping to a smooth, chilling whisper that seemed to absorb the light in the room, "can you quit the rebels?"
Sia physically jumped. The blood completely drained from her face, leaving her pale and trembling. Her mind raced in pure, unadulterated terror and confusion. How? Sia's hands balled into tight fists, her posture instantly shifting into a lethal, defensive stance. She looked at Nox, her dark eyes flashing with a terrifying mix of anger and panic.
"How did you know?" Sia asked, her voice dropping into the cold, hardened cadence of Wraith.
"I have known for a long time," Nox replied simply, her pitch-black eyes completely unbothered by the sudden shift in Sia's demeanor. She took a slow step forward, closing the distance between them. "Answer the question. Can you?"
Sia stood frozen. She thought of Commander Altair. She thought of the desperate people in the coastal sectors starving under the Triumvirate's boot. She thought of the oath she had sworn to the Ember. She loved Rian with all her heart, but she was a soldier in a war that was infinitely bigger than her own happiness.
Sia looked Nox dead in the eye, her chest tight with an unbearable, suffocating weight.
"No," Sia said, her voice heavy and ice-cold.
Nox's eyes narrowed slightly, a possessive, protective power lighting up within them. "Then stay away from my Rian," she warned softly, her tone carrying the absolute, crushing weight of centuries. "He only belongs to me."
Nox stepped past the paralyzed rebel commander, walking toward the exit of the lavish bathroom. But just before she pushed the heavy door open, Nox paused and turned her head one last time.
"Don't worry," Nox added, a sharp, cynical smile returning to her lips. "I won't tell Rian about this little conversation... just like you will keep your feelings away from him, right?"
Without waiting for an answer, Nox walked out into the corridor, the heavy door swinging shut behind her.
Sia was left standing entirely alone in the silence of the bathroom. Her hands were shaking. Her perfect, carefully managed double life had just been violently ripped open by a girl who seemingly knew everything. Mad, terrified, and utterly exhausted, Sia leaned heavily against the marble sink, realizing she had just lost the boy she loved to protect the war she couldn't escape.