Ruby was back in the kitchen.

  Morning sunlight filtered through the blinds in soft golden stripes across the counter. The smell of bacon filled the room, rich and warm, and for a moment everything felt impossibly peaceful.

  Emma stood at the stove flipping strips of bacon in the pan. Her brown hair was tied into a loose bun and she wore one of Ryan’s old college shirts that hung slightly off her shoulder.

  “Looking a little dark, don’t you think?” Ryan teased from behind her.

  Emma smirked without turning around. “Well you know how I like my meat.”

  Ryan chuckled and wrapped his arms around her waist.

  "I know exactly how you like your meat."

  Behind them the boys were arguing at the counter again.

  “YOU ATE ALL OF IT.”

  “I DID NOT.”

  “THERE’S TWO LEFT.”

  Lucy climbed onto a chair at the table and held up a crayon drawing.

  “Dad!”

  Ryan turned toward her.

  “Yeah princess?”

  Lucy grinned proudly.

  “Happy Father’s Day!”

  The world felt warm.

  Safe.

  Ryan reached out to ruffle her hair—

  The kitchen lights flickered.

  Just once.

  Ryan frowned.

  “Did anyone else see—”

  The lights flickered again.

  The bacon in the pan began to burn.

  Not dark brown.

  Bck.

  The smell changed.

  Burnt.

  Sharp.

  The smoke rising from the pan twisted strangely, curling upward like thin bck fingers.

  Emma didn’t move.

  Ryan stepped closer.

  “Emma?”

  She didn’t answer.

  The smoke thickened.

  The kitchen grew darker.

  Ryan reached toward her shoulder.

  When she turned around her eyes were empty.

  Not closed.

  Not blinking.

  Empty.

  Ryan jerked back.

  “Emma—”

  The smoke exploded into fire.

  Crimson fmes burst across the kitchen ceiling, devouring cabinets and crawling across the walls like living things. The heat smmed into Ryan’s face as the room filled with roaring inferno.

  Lucy screamed.

  The boys shouted behind him.

  Ryan spun around.

  The kitchen had become the van.

  The steering wheel was in his hands.

  The road stretched out in front of him.

  Lucy sat behind him clutching her little floral scriptures.

  “Dad?” she whispered.

  Ryan’s stomach dropped.

  “No…”

  The intersection rushed toward them.

  The semi appeared again.

  Too fast.

  Way too fast.

  “Hold on!” Ryan shouted.

  The truck smmed into the van.

  Metal exploded.

  Gss shattered.

  The world spun violently.

  Ryan’s head smashed against the window and white sparks filled his vision.

  When the van finally stopped rolling, everything was silent.

  Steam hissed.

  The horn bred somewhere nearby.

  Ryan forced his eyes open.

  The van was crushed around him.

  Emma sat beside him.

  Her head leaned at that horrible angle.

  Her eyes stared into nothing.

  “Emma…”

  No answer.

  Behind him came a small whimper.

  Lucy.

  “I’m here,” he rasped.

  “I’m here baby.”

  The crying stopped.

  Ryan slowly turned his head.

  Lucy sat in the back seat.

  But she wasn’t holding her scriptures anymore.

  She was holding fire.

  Crimson fmes burned in her small hands.

  The same color as Ruby’s hellfire.

  Lucy looked at him.

  Her eyes were glowing.

  “Dad,” she said softly.

  “You did this.”

  The van began to burn.

  Hellfire poured through the broken windows, devouring the metal frame and crawling across the seats like living blood-red shadows.

  Ryan tried to move.

  He couldn’t.

  The fmes crept closer.

  Lucy watched him calmly.

  “You killed us.”

  Ryan shook his head desperately.

  “No.”

  But Lucy didn’t look like Lucy anymore.

  Her hair burned away.

  Her skin cracked like ash.

  The fmes swallowed her completely.

  Ryan screamed.

  The fire surged forward—

  Ruby woke with a sharp gasp, her body jerking upright before her mind had even caught up.

  For a few frantic seconds she didn’t know where she was. Her hands clenched in the bnkets as her heart pounded wildly in her chest. The memory still clung to her senses with terrifying crity.

  The screech of metal twisting.

  The violent jolt as the car lost control.

  The world flipping sideways.

  Gss shattering across her face like a spray of frozen rain.

  And the moment of horrible, helpless weightlessness before the ground rushed up to meet her.

  Ruby sucked in a shaky breath and pressed both hands against her face.

  “…not again.”

  The words came out hoarse.

  Slowly, the nightmare peeled away from reality. The sound of the crash faded. The smell of burning rubber disappeared. The violent spinning of the world steadied itself.

  Stone walls.

  A domed ceiling painted with silver stars.

  The quiet, unmoving darkness of Obscura Hall.

  Ruby dragged her hands down her face and exhaled slowly, forcing her breathing to settle. The enchanted mps in her chamber had dimmed during the night, leaving the room bathed in a faint blue glow that softened the sharp edges of the stone.

  For a moment she just sat there, staring at the ceiling.

  Her heart gradually slowed.

  The memory of that other life still lurked in the corners of her mind, but it no longer felt like it was happening again. It was just a nightmare now. Just something that surfaced sometimes when her mind wandered too far back.

  “…right,” she murmured.

  The academy.

  She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood, her bare feet touching the cool stone floor. The chill helped clear the st remnants of the dream from her head.

  Still, the quiet of the hall pressed in around her as she dressed.

  Obscura Hall didn’t have the small comforting noises that came with other dormitories. There were no muffled conversations behind thin walls, no doors opening and closing down the corridor, no footsteps of students rushing to beat the morning bell.

  Just silence.

  When Ruby stepped out into the corridor, the emptiness felt even more obvious.

  The long hallway stretched away in both directions beneath dim enchanted mps. Velvet carpets lined the stone floor, and dark wooden doors waited patiently along the walls for occupants that did not yet exist. The entire pce looked ready for life.

  But none had arrived yet.

  Ruby walked through the common room on her way toward the stairs, her footsteps echoing faintly beneath the domed ceiling. The polished tables and chairs were untouched. The shelves still smelled faintly of fresh varnish.

  It was a hall meant for dozens of students.

  And currently it belonged to one.

  “Fantastic,” she muttered under her breath.

  Grabbing her satchel, she climbed the staircase that led back up toward the rest of the academy.

  The moment she stepped into the upper corridors, the atmosphere changed.

  Students filled the halls in clusters as they headed toward breakfast or their first csses of the day. Conversations bounced off the stone walls, ughter echoed around corners, and the whole building carried the restless energy of hundreds of young mages beginning their morning.

  But as Ruby walked through the corridor, something else happened.

  People moved away from her.

  Not dramatically.

  Not openly.

  But enough that she noticed.

  Two students standing near the wall abruptly shifted aside as she approached. A group of second-years lowered their voices and leaned closer together as she passed them. Another pair turned their backs entirely, pretending to study a notice board.

  Ruby kept walking.

  Behind her, the whispers started.

  “That’s her.”

  “The hellfire girl.”

  “She almost killed Cassian yesterday.”

  “I heard she uses dark magic.”

  “Don’t get too close.”

  “She might curse you.”

  Ruby’s jaw tightened slightly, but she didn’t slow down.

  The whispers followed her all the way to the dining hall.

  Inside, the rge chamber buzzed with the usual noise of breakfast. Students crowded long wooden tables while servants carried trays of food between them. The smell of warm bread and roasted vegetables filled the air.

  Ruby grabbed a pte and scanned the room.

  She spotted Lena quickly.

  Lena sat alone at the edge of one of the tables, pushing food around her pte with her fork rather than eating it. Her shoulders were stiff, and her head stayed lowered as if she were hoping no one would notice her.

  Ruby walked over and sat down across from her.

  “Morning.”

  Lena looked up quickly, forcing a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

  “Morning.”

  Ruby picked up a piece of bread but didn’t eat it right away.

  Something was off.

  Normally Lena would already be talking a mile a minute about something ridiculous she had seen in the halls. Instead she just sat there quietly, staring down at her pte.

  Ruby watched her for a moment before speaking again.

  “…What happened?”

  Lena shook her head too fast.

  “Nothing.”

  Ruby leaned back slightly, folding her arms.

  “Lena.”

  The name alone carried enough weight that Lena sighed.

  “It’s just… people are being stupid.”

  “Define stupid.”

  Lena hesitated, clearly debating whether she should say anything.

  Then she muttered quietly, “They’re saying I’m possessed.”

  Ruby blinked.

  “What?”

  “They think dark magic spreads,” Lena said, her voice barely above a whisper. “Like a curse or something.”

  Ruby stared at her.

  “They said if I stay around you long enough I’ll start using it too.”

  For a moment Ruby couldn’t think of anything to say.

  Guilt twisted in her stomach.

  Lena was already a commoner in a school full of nobles and wealthy families. That alone made life difficult enough.

  Being the best friend of the academy’s brand-new dark magic student probably wasn’t helping her reputation.

  Ruby lowered her gaze to the table.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Lena looked up sharply.

  “Ruby—”

  “I dragged you here.”

  “You did not drag me here.”

  “If I hadn’t—”

  Lena smmed her hand onto the table hard enough to make several nearby students jump.

  “Stop.”

  Ruby went quiet.

  “I chose to come here,” Lena said firmly. “You didn’t force me to do anything.”

  Before Ruby could respond, a group of boys approached their table.

  Three of them.

  Older students.

  Broad-shouldered and confident in the way nobles often were when they had spent their entire lives being told they were important.

  One of them looked down at Ruby with open disdain.

  “So it’s true.”

  Ruby gnced up at him.

  “What is?”

  “You almost killed Cassian yesterday.”

  Ruby set her bread down.

  “It was a fair duel.”

  The boy scoffed.

  “Fair? Colluding with demons is fair?"

  Lena leaned forward immediately.

  “She didn’t—”

  “Quiet,” another boy snapped.

  When he stepped closer to Ruby, Lena shoved his arm away.

  “Back off.”

  The reaction was immediate.

  The boy’s hand snapped out.

  The sound of the sp echoed sharply across the table.

  Lena’s head jerked sideways as the blow nded across her cheek.

  For a moment the entire section of the dining hall went silent.

  Ruby didn’t move.

  The scene felt strangely distant, like she was watching it through a pane of gss. Her training surfaced automatically, guiding her thoughts before anger could take control.

  Control your breathing.

  Control your emotions.

  Do not escate.

  Her chest rose and fell slowly.

  And all she felt was guilt.

  Lena had been hit because of her.

  Because she stood here.

  Because they were friends.

  That couldn’t continue.

  If Lena stayed close to her, things like this would keep happening.

  Ruby made a decision.

  If the academy already believed she was the vilin…

  Then she would give them exactly what they expected.

  Ruby suddenly began to ugh.

  The sound startled everyone nearby.

  “Do that again,” she said lightly.

  The boys stared at her in confusion.

  Lena stared too.

  “Oh my god,” Ruby continued, wiping an imaginary tear from her eye. “Lena you’re so funny when you get hurt.”

  She mimicked Lena’s cry with exaggerated mockery.

  “Aaaww!”

  Lena’s face went pale.

  “Ruby… what are you doing?”

  Ruby leaned back in her chair and rolled her eyes.

  “God you’re annoying.”

  The boys exchanged uncertain looks.

  “Thanks for hitting my bitch for me,” Ruby added casually. “Sves should know not to fight their masters’ battles.”

  The word hung in the air like something rotten.

  “What?” one of the boys muttered.

  “…sve?”

  Ruby kicked Lena’s leg under the table.

  “Get up, bitch.”

  “Ruby…” Lena whispered weakly.

  Ruby grabbed Lena’s hair and yanked her head back.

  Gasps spread through the surrounding tables.

  Then Ruby leaned close to Lena’s ear and whispered quietly enough that no one else could hear.

  “Use the compressed air ball on me.”

  Lena froze.

  “What?”

  “Trust me.”

  Ruby shoved her away roughly and raised her voice again.

  “Fucking get up!”

  Lena shook her head weakly.

  “No.”

  “Now!”

  Tears filled Lena’s eyes.

  Then she raised her hand.

  Air spiraled violently into a tight sphere in her palm.

  “Ah!” Lena screamed extending the magic towards Ruby.

  The compressed air smmed into Ruby like a cannonball.

  Ruby had already moved mana into her core to protect her vital organs, but the impact still tore through her body with brutal force.

  Her shirt shredded apart across the abdomen.

  Her feet left the ground.

  Students screamed as Ruby flew backward across the dining hall like she had been unched from a siege weapon.

  Just before she hit the wall, the neckce around her neck fshed.

  A pulse of magic erupted outward.

  And Ruby vanished.

  —

  She nded hard on cracked bck stone.

  The air was hot and thick with the smell of sulfur. Blue light filled the stone walls overhead, casting long shadows across the jagged rocks around her.

  Ruby groaned as she rolled onto her side and pushed herself up.

  “…home sweet hell.”

  She brushed dust off her shredded shirt and looked around at the unfamiliar cave she found herself in.

  Distant sounds echoed somewhere far away. Guttural feral sounds.

  Ruby sighed.

  “Well,” she muttered.

  “Fuck.”