Page 76 of The Bound Blood
“Three students are currently unaccounted for,” Headmaster Veyne continues. “Their dorms were searched. Their belongingsremain. They have not attended classes, and they have not left campus.”
A cold ache slides down my spine.
“They’ve been missing for two days,” he says. “We believe the disappearances are linked.”
Linked.
Linked towhat? The ripple we felt yesterday? The fractures? The Veil and me?
My throat tightens.
“The academy’s protocols from previous decades are being reinstated,” Headmaster Veyne announces. “Effective immediately, no student will walk alone after dusk near the wards. Night Rounds will resume. Professors and advanced-level students will patrol the perimeter with designated pairs until we can hold the Solstice Ritual.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “What’s that?” I whisper.
Nolan leans closer, pitching his voice low. “They’re a last resort to strengthen the Veil. They haven’t been needed in a very long time. They’re old, powerful, and usually harmless—unless the Veil is unstable.” His throat works as he swallows. “Then they become a necessity to keep creatures from slipping through weak spots.”
I swallow hard.
Tamsin, sitting on my other side with the expression of someone watching a soap opera implode, sighs loudly enough for at least three students to turn and look.
“Oh good,” she mutters. “Nothing says ‘fun school year’ like a mandatory ritual that historically only happens when things are about to go catastrophically wrong.”
Raiden shoots her a look. Nolan winces.
Tamsin shrugs. “What? I’m half-fae. My people invented ominous tradition. I’m allowed to complain.”
“And finally,” Headmaster Veyne says, gaze moving deliberately from student to student, “certain individuals will be assigned to specialized patrols based on magical aptitude and previous experience handling Veil disturbances.”
My stomach twists.
I know before he even says my name.
“Lindsay Blake, Nolan Porter, and Raiden Tsukino,” he says, tone gentler than before. “Report to my office following dismissal.”
“Stars…” Tamsin whispers.
Every head in the hall seems to snap toward us at once.
Raiden’s hand clamps on my thigh under the table. Nolan’s grip on my fingers tightens until I’m pretty sure he’s trying to merge our hands.
Kael doesn’t look at me. But I feel him standing next to the headmaster. A silent warning not to overreact to the summons.
Around us, students begin arguing—about safety, corridors, curfews, missing friends. The noise swells until it’s a physical pressure behind my eyes.
Then the hall doors fly open.
A gust of wind sweeps through, whipping hair and scattering parchment across the floor. Light spills in behind a tall figure standing in the doorway, framed like he stepped off a movie poster meant to ruin someone’s GPA.
Silver hair. Actual silver. Not dyed. It’s too natural and luminous, catching on every flicker of light to be fake. Eyes the deep, electric blue of the Veil when it cracks with magic—that intense, unsettling color I’ve only ever seen during a fracture. And a smirk. The kind that knows the effect it has. The kind that should probably be illegal on school grounds. He radiates power the same way Kael controls shadows.
The stranger strolls in like the room belongs to him—and like he expects everyone inside it to agree that it does.
“Well,” he drawls, voice smooth and warm like honey poured over trouble, “looks like I arrived just in time.”
Several students gasp. Someone in the front row drops their quill. Another whispers, “Oh wow—” a little too loudly.
Across the hall, a fae student scrambles off their bench, dropping to their knees with their head bowed. And they’re not the only one. It’s like a ripple moves through the room—every fae in the hall shifting, turning, bowing in perfect sync.
