Isa stood front and center with her entourage of faculty lined up like they were decorative bracers, Nivara Hall and the Academy rearing behind her in all its cold, carved glory. Black hair sleek, face sharp, eyes green enough to warn you off trying anything stupid. She had that look. Untouchable, immovable, like she’d been hammered into shape by fate itself. Which was exactly why I didn’t trust her.

Maybe I never would. But that didn’t matter.

I stood with Ardorion, Aster, Shara, Rielle, Halven, Lo, and Elio at the mouth of the Dragon’s Walkway. Orivian held close at my right. The bridge’s gargoyle kept station by the span, claws braced on the plinth.

The Grand Magister lifted her hand, and her voice cut clean through the noise on the steps, polished like steel and impossible to ignore. “Docilis of the Academy of Magic & Harmony, you studied hard and prevailed. Your exams stand as proof. I am proud of what you have accomplished, supporting the mission of this academy to find harmony in our combined magics.”

The gargoyle angled its head toward us as if to say something, but Orivian’s fingers closed over my hand, drawing my attention. His grip was a steady clasp that fit like forged work. When his thumb swept over my wrist, my veins jumped, remembering what his fingers felt like on my body.

Just then a black cat padded in and sat by Isa’s boots, giving me something else to think about. I’d wondered what happened to that cat after it took us to the Firebird. We’d never seen it again.

Ardorion rocked forward on his toes while elbowing Aster. “Look, it’s Queenie! The one I told you about.”

I rolled my eyes at how alike Ardorion and I were in our thinking. Actions, that was a different story. His excited statement echoed in the gathering and Isa frowned. Of course, Ardorion ignored that to share his smile with Aster.

Isa continued. “Rest now. You will return after your winter break and the start of the new year. Enjoy your family, cherish your friends, and have a happy celebration for Chaos’s Festival. We will see you next year.”

I tightened the strap on my bag and set my stance beside Orivian.

He leaned in close to me, his shoulder turned so his lips brushed my ear with his whisper. “Here we go.”

I shivered as the arch bell tolled. Wards dropped along the Dragon’s Walkway. Cheers rose, and the student body poured onto the span.

On the other side I would see my mother. Orivian would meet with his family. I had no idea how this would go. Although I couldn’t see my mother not loving Orivian as long as he stayed dedicated to me.

Nerves jumped in my skin as the crowd of students swallowed us. The gargoyle slouched closer, granite elbows scraping, horns dusted white. Its mouth tugged into a smirk, like it was watching the chaos and actually enjoying itself.

Figures. Even the statues found something to laugh at in this place.

His claw tapped the plinth. “Walk well. Bring back good stories. I hope to talk with you again.”

Ardorion gave the creature a jaunty, two-finger salute and strode ahead of us. We fell in around him beneath the sentinel’s gaze.

Cold rushed across the bridge, each breath misting into air that carried the sharp tang of Wintermere below. Our boots struck the stone in rhythm while lanterns along the rails stretched light into thin gold bars. The lake’s frozen expanse glimmered at either side, white and silent as eternity.

Aster brushed her hand along the rail, scooping up a mound of snow. “Home, then back here in a few weeks. Same doors, same rooms next term.”

Ardorion’s grin cut through the cold as he laced their fingers. “Same room.”

Heat trailed from his other palm, spinning steam into a curl that created a laughing face before vanishing. Aster chuckled, her reserve softened only for him.

Shara’s voice carried low to Rielle. “Make the most of your weeks with him.”

I winced. Rielle was the only one of us to carry on in the next term with her newfound love. Neir’s duties as a guardian of magic would take him away by the end of the break, and once graduation came, Rielle would follow him on his travels outside of Nythral. The thought of her leaving pressed at me more than I wanted to admit. I’d grown used to her quiet steadiness, and losing that presence would carve something out of my new family.

But she met Shara’s words with grace, calm as ever, while I could only measure the future without her like a blade against my ribs, sharp, inevitable, but not here yet.

Walking on Ardorion’s other side, Elio gave him a mischievous grin that brightened his face. Ardorion fished out a parchment from his robes to flash his marks like a badge.

Elio tapped his pocket, smug as ever. “We all made it through the gauntlet.”

Rielle held her page up. I raised mine in turn. Shara only nodded. The knot between my ribs eased. Our quad would stay intact, same rooms, same walls, same bonds tested but not broken.

No need to run ever again.

Our gazes turned toward Halven as one.

He slipped a folded schedule into his robes. “I’ll be spending a few hours after classes next semester to catch up, but Lady Isa is giving me the chance to continue so I can graduate on time with the rest of you.”

Lo’s hand threaded with his, her step falling in line with his pace. “I’ll help you.”

Halven kissed her temple, voice low and meant for her alone. Rielle’s expression softened, a faint smile toward Lo, then she moved close enough that her sleeve brushed Aster’s. The shadow that had haunted her was gone, replaced with warmth that steadied more than her own heart. Neir had probably done that more than anything else. The werewolf was good for Rielle.

Elio’s grin stretched wider at his quadmates’ affection. “Next semester’s classes are going to crush us. I hope our love lives can survive the workload.”

Rielle raised a brow. “Did you get a final verdict, Shara?”

Veyn was already mouthing off about walking out of the Academy, like storming off solved anything. It didn’t, and I should know. But with Shara tangling up in him again, we all wondered if Isa would even let the two of them continue. Academy rules and all about faculty and students dating.

Shara’s satchel shifted under her hand as she drew out the sealed notice. Isa’s sigil pressed bright against the wax. Her voice stayed even. “Isa is allowing our relationship, given our history before the Academy. I’m just not allowed to enroll in any of his courses again.”

Rielle frowned. “I know you looked forward to taking Advanced Theory of Elemental Fusion with Veyn next semester.”

Ardorion’s laugh came quick. “It’s not like she can’t get private lessons.”

Red swept across Shara’s cheeks no matter how she tried to smother her smile. Her eyes drifted toward where Veyn lingered with the faculty behind us.

Elio pushed ahead when a cluster of first-years hurried past, their laughter carrying bright into the air.

“What’s got you so interested in the first years?” Ardorion asked him. “I mean, I’m sure a few of them could turn some heads, but you seem intent, my friend.”

Quick to recognize the trap in his own words, Ardorion flashed Aster a grin like fire fed by her attention. “None could ever compare to you.”

She met it with a low smile. “Keep up the sweet talk, flameboy.”

Elio fell back beside Ardorion, a wide smile tugging his mouth. “I’m looking for someone. I saw her in the library a few days ago, a first-year student, and she had the most beautiful smile. I plan to find her again. Figure out her name.”

Something inside me settled. For all his easy charm, Elio had carried a quiet tension this term, circling around me with unspoken interest. He never pressed it, but it lingered. Now, at least, his gaze turned elsewhere. I did not doubt his loyalty, but a clean line made for clearer footing.

I really didn’t want to be the cause of trouble between Elio and Orivian. I would never choose another, and it relieved me to know I wouldn’t have to say anything more to Elio.

Goodwill abounding, I slid in at Elio’s other side and bumped his shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll charm her with dragon facts. But please warn her ahead of time before you start.”

He flashed teeth. “I’m pretty sure she’s a dragon, too. An Iron Dragon.”

Ardorion nearly bounced with excitement. “Go into dragon mode! Maybe she’ll join you in the sky.”

Elio shook his head with a rueful grin. “No can do. There’s not enough room here on the bridge to shift, and I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

The bridge stretched broad beneath us, thirty or forty feet at least. How vast was Elio’s dragon body?

Shara’s voice rose calm and certain behind us. “Stone Dragons are the biggest among the dragon species.”

Interesting. I really had very little knowledge about dragons.

Orivian gave Elio a sidelong glance. “Then may this new dragon of yours enjoy hearing every last detail of it.”

My lips curved, and I leaned into Orivian as his arm settled at my waist. “Stories of dragons can fly all they want. I’ll stay with the man who keeps his vows.”

Let Elio chase his fantasies. I spoke truth. Orivian had my bond, but bonds could be broken if vows cracked beneath them. He knew that.

Elio drifted back to join Shara and Rielle, leaving me up ahead with Ardorion. Those two women carried the look of people torn from someone they actually wanted beside them, but with the comfort of knowing it wouldn’t last. Veyn and Neir waited behind them back with Isa, but their separation was a bruise, not a break. I didn’t envy them. At least bruises heal. They had certainty in return. Not everyone could claim that.

Ardorion’s voice rang out, bright with mischief. “Orivian, we need you in our bro squad. Membership is open, and we could make it the bro square squad.”

Surprise flickered across Orivian’s face. He weighed it. He always weighed things, metal in his blood even in thought.

Ardorion spun a flame across his knuckles, snuffed it with relish. “Unless you think I was really serious about melting your metal?”

A challenge Orivian would never walk away from.

“Perhaps we should test that first?” he answered, eyes glinting.

Of course Ardorion leapt to competition. “We could set it all up where we go head-to-head, like different levels. Maybe even bring in help to boost our stats.”

He lifted Aster’s hand and pressed his mouth to her knuckles.

“Uh, that sounds like fun, but maybe I can think about it over the break?” Orivian’s words stayed light, but his glance slid back to me.

I shrugged, telling him to do whatever he wanted. I don’t think he’d be able to hold out against Ardorion’s competitive nature anyway.

Whatever passed between Ardorion and Aster wasn’t for the rest of us. One second he was blazing, the next he blinked and dropped their arms like the fight had leaked out of him. I rolled my eyes. Leave it to those two to make even silence look dramatic.

Ardorion wiped a hand down his robes as he glanced back at Orivian. “Right. We can discuss it when we return, but you’re in the bro squad regardless, metal head. You can’t be dating Garnexis and not be part of all of us.”

He wasn’t wrong. No one claimed me without claiming what came with me, my family here. I knew that now, and it warmed my heart in a way I have never felt in my life.

The bridge’s midway point drew closer, flanked by plinths where gargoyles crouched. Their eyes glowed each time a student brushed clawed stone, whispering a promise or a hope for the term ahead. First-years gathered near, drinking in the ritual that belonged to us, not the faculty.

A boy rushed past clutching the latest newssheet. His gaze snagged on Halven, as if words on the page had suddenly walked to life. Orivian’s writing had set the story straight. Everything about Halven’s disappearance, his return, the strange thaw at Wintermere. Orivian could forge cloudy truth very well. It lay in what wasn’t said.

Lo tightened her hold on Halven, and Elio drifted back toward them. Rielle and Shara closed in at my side, our line drawing tighter.

“Do you think we’ll ever know what the entities are?” Rielle’s question threaded soft between us.

Ardorion shook his head, but Halven’s expression betrayed his thoughts. His silence was louder than words. No use pretending otherwise. He’d dealt with those things firsthand. The way he shut down, the way he dodged. He knew more than we’d been told. And the fact he wasn’t saying it out loud? That told me I was right.

But we were allowed our secrets. Halven more than anyone. I would hate everyone here if they tried to force what I wouldn’t share. I wouldn’t do that to him. And neither would anyone else.

Isa should be the one to tell us, yet she wouldn’t. She was the one to distrust.

“Whatever they are, Lady Isa has warned us against looking into it further,” Shara said, ever the rule-bound one.

My body spoke before my mouth could. My stance shifted, my chin lifted. Rules were meant to be broken. They kept chains on discovery, and chains were meant to break.

“Let them sleep,” Halven said, voice cutting through the thought.

We slowed to hear him.

“They are responsible for our peace here. That should be enough. Knowing anything more will only cause anxiety for our future because we can’t stop what will happen one day.”

The air edged colder, as though his words carried something ancient with them. He spoke of war. Not theory, not lesson, but something lived. That kind of knowledge never left. Maybe silence held wisdom. Or maybe it only hid truths waiting to be forced open. My gut still bristled. Secrets always begged for light, but in this case, maybe he was right.

Silence beyond the Seal.

The midpoint lay in front of us, gargoyles crouched in their vigil. The nine of us gathered around one of them.

Elio pressed his hand to the stone first, voice earnest. “May I find kindness first and meet my unknown angel.”

The gargoyle’s gray eyes glowed white, then dimmed. Acceptance, as always. Although, I’ve never heard of a gargoyle not accepting a hope or promise.

“I hope you find her, Elio,” I said as my fingers brushed the gargoyle’s claws next. Although the voice in my head telling me to run had disappeared, I didn’t think it was a permanent state. I’m sure the days, weeks, and months ahead would test me, so I spoke my promise. “I will forge both skill and home in the same fire, so that I’ll never feel the need to run again.”

The gray eyes glowed before dimming. Orivian leaned close, fingers catching a strand of my hair, his whisper meant for me alone. “If you ever need to run again, know that I will follow wherever you lead. You’ll never run alone again.”

The promise in his words not only made my heart feel stronger, but heat rushed to my core, and I couldn’t wait until the end of this day, when we’d promised it would only be us, no matter what our families said.

His warmth lingered as Lo took her turn. “Help me build quiet strength for others and for myself.”

The gargoyle accepted, its eyes flaring bright.

She returned to Halven, his smile softening his face. “You already have those things, Lo. It’s what drew me to you.”

“Can’t hurt to keep practicing.”

“True.”

Shara stepped up next, hand brushing stone. “I will continue to protect what matters, the hearts of my friends, my love and family, and myself.”

“I love that, Shara,” Orivian said as he moved past her, bowing his head as he rested his hand against the gargoyle’s claw. “No matter what happens during our break, even if it means I must forsake my family, I will return as my own man, making my own choices, and always choosing what and who is best for me.”

His words ended on me, heat sparking in his gaze, continuing the ache already building inside me. For once, I could not stop the flush rising in my cheeks. I never blushed. Yet Orivian had a way of forging through even my armor.

Ardorion clapped his shoulder. “Well played, Orivian. Nice way to ruin all of our attempts at courtship when you keep spouting sentiments we could never achieve.”

His laughter carried as he turned to the gargoyle. “I know you can’t help just sitting here looking mean at us, but you sure are intimidating.”

“Make your promise already,” I cut in, my voice edged. Better to shift attention away from me and Orivian.

He gave me a grin as if he knew the game. “You got it all wrong. No promises here.”

He touched the claw. “Help me lead with steadier balance. Greatness is achieved in well-executed fusion.”

For once, Ardorion’s words carried more than fire and bravado. Balance and fusion. Not the language I expected from him. He hid depth behind his noise, but it was there, waiting for moments like this to break through. Maybe Aster had tempered him, or maybe hardship had. Either way, I respected him more for it. Not every vow had to blaze bright. Some needed to anchor, steady, endure.

Aster followed, her hope ringing with quiet resolve. “Help me grow mastery and joy together with others and not alone.”

Her words carried more weight than she likely knew. Fire and frost, strength and patience, two halves tempered in one another when it came to her and Ardorion.

Ardorion’s arms wrapped around her, his attention swallowed whole. Their moment nearly drowned out Rielle’s vow.

“I promise to anchor love and duty in the same breath but I will always guard love and call on courage when duty parts paths.”

Her conviction struck true. She had carried much this term and still spoke of love without bitterness. She’d blamed herself for Halven coming to Nivara Hall early when she’d broken up with him, which of course led to him hearing the voices that nearly killed him. Yet, she’d done everything to find a way to save him, even knowing that his heart had already moved on to Lo. That strength demanded respect.

She still stood next to the statue, looking up at the gargoyle when Halven stepped forward. He was the last of us to face the plinth, and he gazed down at her. Rielle wore a soft smile, steady as moonlight. You didn’t need to be a dreamer to see the history between them. They’d moved on. Even Rielle. Everyone knew that, but there was still a thread, faint but uncut.

They had yet to speak to each other since Halven came back to us. The situation not ideal since Halven had Lo to think about, their relationship still so new. But now he seemed to make a decision about that.

He said her name, and she turned toward him. Then he hugged her. A simple thing, but heavy as steel. “Thank you for not giving up on me.”

Her answer was muffled against his chest, just one word—“Never.”

Whatever lay between them still wasn’t romantic. It was something else, something harder to name. And it mattered more than any promise we’d spoken.

Then she stepped back, giving him space at the plinth.

Halven placed his hand on the gargoyle. “We stand because our friends held us up. We endure because loyalty bound us together. May next year bring us the same strength, and the courage to keep using it.”

The words rang like metal struck clean. A vow not to himself, but to all of us.

We left the plinth for the next students, the bridge stretching toward lantern light and the waiting shore. Pines marked the horizon, silent witnesses to our return.

I once thought power was only conquest, blade against blade, proving myself to anyone who doubted. But strength is more than victories. It is what you forge and what you keep. Skill, home, and bonds that hold when tested.

Orivian walked at my side, the weight of his vow still pressing through me. He was mine because he chose to be, and I would hold him to that.

The term had nearly broken us, all of us, under ice and shadow, yet we came through standing. That was what mattered. We were no longer just Docilis. We had become something forged, tempered, unbreakable. Together.

And next term, I would keep forging myself into something no one could shape but me, but a shape that fit with others.

The Dragon’s Walkway carried us forward. Behind us, the academy stood, stone against time. Ahead, the future waited, and I intended to claim it on my own terms.

THE END