Natalia’s stomach turned as she ran. Exercise wasn’t new. Gifted training involved enough core work to prepare their bodies for holding arcane current.

  Which made it even worse that she was out of breath chasing Eydis, of all people. Eydis, who used to barely survive warm-ups.

  “Wait up! Slow down! Since when have you… been training… for the Olympics?”

  Eydis glanced back over her shoulder. “Training? I like to think of it as adapting.”

  “To what? Marathon-running cheetahs?” Natalia said between gasps.

  Eydis slowed a little, amused. “You’d be amazed what carrying three centuries of historical trauma can do for your arms.”

  Natalia scoffed, rolling her eyes, though a grin tugged at her lips. “Right. You mean the books at the library? Does anyone even read those?”

  “They’re required reading,” Eydis said.

  “And you read them… for fun?”

  “I enjoy history. It keeps the brain sharp.”

  “Apparently the legs too,” Natalia said breathlessly.

  That stopped Eydis, literally.

  Natalia, not ready for it, stumbled and would have eaten dirt if a hand hadn’t caught her at the waist.

  She looked up.

  Eydis looked down, still amused.

  Natalia’s heart skipped. Probably just the running. Yep, definitely that.

  “Not quite.” Eydis smirked. “The proper term is adapting.”

  The words were vague and maybe even a little smug. Natalia wanted to be irritated but her heart disagreed.

  But exercise? Adapting?

  The Eydis she knew would be under a tree with a book, hiding from PE and sunlight. This version, easy and bright like the sun had always been hers, was different.

  Also attractive, unhelpfully so.

  Stopping under an oak, Eydis took Natalia’s water without asking and drank.

  Natalia stared at her throat. Not on purpose, okay? Just… it moved weirdly in a way that caught her attention. Yep, definitely that.

  “Didn’t you used to avoid the sun?” she asked hurriedly.

  “Desperate times.” Eydis's smile softened. “Actually, I don’t think I ever hated it. I just never really got to enjoy it.”

  There was more there, something Natalia could’ve pulled on, but before she could, Eydis was back to her usual self.

  “You, though? You could use some sunlight. I’ve seen ghosts with more colour.”

  Natalia snatched the bottle back. “Pfft. Fire magic is its own form of cardio. Who needs the sun when you are the sun?”

  “Different concept, but anyway. What happens if your magic decides to take the day off? You need to prepare for it,” Eydis said. “Also, what exactly is ‘sexercise’? I keep seeing it on the Bird app.”

  Natalia choked on her drink.

  “First, it’s Tweeter. Second, stop treating it like a dictionary!”

  “How else am I supposed to stay informed about the giant ominous eye in the sky?” Eydis gestured vaguely upward.

  “You stayed up all night in conspiracy threads, didn’t you?”

  “Let’s just say something… captivating has kept me up.” Eydis removed her glasses and cleaned them with her sleeve.

  Natalia looked away immediately.

  Girl takes off glasses, it becomes A Moment. So cliché. But… what the hell? It worked.

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  “What could possibly be that interesting?” Natalia asked, pretending her heart hadn’t just flipped. Definitely didn’t think Astra’s name. No chance.

  Eydis looked at her. “Overwhelmed, are we? Maybe you should head back.”

  “Me? Overwhelmed. By what?”

  Eydis rested her palm gently against Natalia’s forehead and leaned in a little closer. “You look exhausted.”

  “I-I’m not!” And Natalia wasn’t. Not tired, anyway. Quite the opposite, her brain was overclocking with unhelpful, messy thoughts.

  Jealousy? No.

  Absolutely not.

  Ridiculous.

  Eydis didn’t seem to notice. She frowned at her fogged-up glasses. “These again. Any tricks to stop them fogging?”

  Natalia let out a breath, relieved at the space, but slightly annoyed that she missed the closeness.

  “Contact lenses. Or, knowing you lately, maybe a royal monocle would suit you better.”

  Eydis only smiled. The one that meant she knew something and wouldn’t say. She walked off without another glance.

  “Let me see what Tweeter says about contact lenses,” she said over her shoulder.

  Natalia laughed. Only Eydis could pivot from mystical to meme-addled in two seconds. Yet as they cut through the garden, the flutter returned.

  Why did a single look leave her breathless?

  We’re just friends, Natalia told herself. That’s all.

  She focused on the garden they passed through, letting the earthy autumn scents calm her mind. That was what she wanted.

  Normal.

  But that feeling of peace soon popped like a soap bubble.

  The class before lunch was always set aside for Gifted training. Natalia adjusted the small metal pin on her collar and turned it slightly. It was a gold-trimmed badge bearing the symbol of St. Kevin’s, but it was only given to Gifted students, colour-coded by rank.

  Most wore theirs like a badge of honour, all the time. Unlike them, she only clipped it on when she didn’t have a choice.

  Like now.

  Natalia swiped her keycard at the reinforced door to the Sanctuary, and it slid open at once. She headed down the stairs to the underground training ground, expecting the usual pre-training chatter, but the space was quiet.

  Students were spread out in little groups, murmuring in hushed toned.

  “She’s already back?”

  “I thought she got kicked out.”

  “Since when is Tiffany a Gifted?”

  Tiffany Blackwood? Natalia thought, frowning, only to stop in her tracks as she faced the Elite herself.

  Tiffany stood near the center of the room, smiling smugly.

  Natalia’s eye twitched. “What are you doing here? I thought you were—”

  “Expelled? Please. Don’t you know who I am? But you…” Tiffany narrowed her eyes. “You’re the real surprise. Who knew you were Gifted?”

  “It’s not something I advertise like a new handbag.”

  She wasn’t sure what was more surprising, that Tiffany was still enrolled or that she’d somehow made it into the Gifted ranks. That wasn’t supposed to happen.

  The scent of her perfume was as overbearing as the rest of her when Tiffany approached Natalia, standing head-to-head. “I challenge you to a duel,” she intoned.

  The hush whispers grew louder. Everyone knew what a duel meant.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Natalia saw Astra walking gracefully towards them. Her loose ponytail swung as she crossed the floor. She had that same unreadable, distant look about her… but her eyes had softened with concern.

  “What are you trying to do?” Astra asked, stopping beside Natalia.

  Tiffany pasted on a sweet smile. “Oh, Your Highness. I thought mingling with us un-Gifted peasants was beneath you.”

  “Just you,” Astra deadpanned. “Your antics are as predictable as they are tiresome.”

  Tiffany scowled. “Back off, Astra. This is between me and Natalia.”

  Natalia blinked the confusion away. No, she definitely hadn’t misheard that. “You want a formal duel on your first day as a Gifted student?”

  “What, are you scared? I don’t make the rules. Hand over your pin or fight to keep it. And just so you know, I’m not stopping at C-Class, either.” Her gaze flicked to Astra, but Astra showed complete disinterest.

  Tiffany was right, though. If Natalia lost, she would drop to D-Class, losing her slot in the advanced fire-affinity programme. And Lionel… would he be disappointed?

  More importantly, Tiffany would walk around thinking intimidation worked.

  Natalia clenched her fists. “Fine. We duel. But just so you know, hurt Eydis again and I’ll make sure you regret it.”

  “Big words.” Tiffany laughed, irritatingly loud. For a second, her eyes flashed violet.

  It was on.

  From the stands Theo watched Mr. Grant weave a protective barrier around the platform. “She’s picking a public fight again. Why are we tolerating her?”

  Athena, his fiancée, seated beside him. “The Blackwoods are a major patron of this academy. Dean Saito didn’t have much of a choice, not after what Tiffany… displayed.”

  “Government ties are not enough. Now they want the academy too. I still don’t understand why the academy accepts money from them.”

  Athena turned to him. “To keep the academy impartial against two powerful alliances. I thought you knew.”

  Theo saw the subtle tension in Athena’s shoulders and understood this was a touchy topic for her. He changed the topic. “Do you have a plan, Thena?”

  “Not yet. But watching Tiffany closely might reveal what she’s really after.”

  “You’re planning to use your Gift?” Theo asked.

  Athena didn’t deny it.

  “I thought you hated doing that,” he said.

  “I crossed a line with Eydis,” she admitted. “Her aura… it tempted my curiosity. When I touched her surface thoughts, I found something else.”

  “A wall?” Theo asked. He knew it was possible to block mental powers from Athena, though the person had to be Gifted and possess a special kind of power. Eydis was not Gifted.

  “A vast void that tried to pull me in. Another step, and I might not have come back.”

  “How? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

  “Neither have I,” Athena replied in a reflective tone as she pulled out her phone and began typing.

  Theo absorbed that. “And what about Tiffany? What did you see?”

  Athena thumbed ‘sent’ and whispered, “Something my brother must know.”

  “Can we stop this? What if—”

  “Natalia accepted the challenge. Intervening now is against the rules.” Athena glanced at Astra, who stood still near the duel platform. “Besides… I think she sensed it too.”

  Astra’s face remained neutral, but her wooden training sword creaked in her grip. It was the first time Athena had ever seen Astra even slightly nervous.