Thornhill Academy (By Sheridan Hartin) novel Chapter 192

Chapter 192

Allison

EXCA

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The moment Tessa crashes into me, my brain forgets how to function. There is a split-second-just one-where I think I’m hallucinating again. Maybe the old memories in this place have finally snapped something in my head. Maybe I’ve conjured her out of desperation. But then she squeals into my ear, wraps every limb she owns around me like an angry octopus of affection, and shouts my full government name again just for good measure.

“Tessa?” I breathe, stunned.

She pulls back just enough to grab my face between both hands. “YES, IT’S ME, YOU MENACE. Gods ABOVE, do you know how rude it is to disappear

without so much as a text?”

1 blink. “1… didn’t have a phone.”

“That is not the point!”

I laugh and something inside my ribs cracks open. “Tessa-what are you doing here?” I whisper, hands on her shoulders, grounding myself in the warm, ridiculous, utterly human reality of her.

Her grin turns feral. “BABE. Did you really think I was gonna sit in Thornhill knitting sweaters while the entire magical world went full apocalypse on you? Absolutely not. I would rather die. Actually-no, sorry, I would rather kill. And you KNOW that.”

Gods, I missed her.

Evander snorts softly behind me. Kael whispers, “Good to see you, Tessa.

Tessa clicks her tongue and leans back with her hands on her hips. “Also, Allison Rivers! I cannot believe you didn’t KIDNAP me.”

“I was… dying,” I say weakly.

“Oh. Yeah, okay, that’s a fair excuse.” She shrugs. “Proceed.”

I laugh again, and she beams like she’s been waiting days to hear it.

“So how-Rynor? What-?”

“Oh my gods, GIRL.” She points behind her dramatically. “I forced tall, dark, and infuriated over there to go to the shadow realm until His Royal Grumpiness”-she jerks a thumb at Rhaziel-“showed up.”

Rynor sighs like he’s aged one thousand years in the last few days.

*And,” Tessa continues proudly, “I threatened every demon in the vicinity with bodily harm if they didn’t let me speak to the king directly.”

“That is… extremely on brand for you,” I whisper.

“Thank you.”

“So you came with him? You came for me?”

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Chapter 192

She softens, all bravado melting just a little. “Allison… you’re my best friend. Ride or die doesn’t stop because you accidentally fell through a magical conspiracy. It activates. Of course I would ride out with the army.”

My throat tightens. Suddenly, the room feels too small to hold the amount of emotion spinning in my chest. Rhaziel steps forward, tail already curling around my waist with slow, possessive certainty. He lifts me out of Tessa’s arms without effort, tucking me against him like the world is still trying to take

me back and he won’t allow it.

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“Someone else missed you too,” he murmurs into my hair.

I swear my heart actually flips.

“Army?” I ask, replaying Tessa’s teasing words from before. “What army?”

Rhaziel doesn’t answer with words. Instead, he turns toward the doorway and pushes it open with one hand. The forest outside erupts with colour-shifting shadows, glowing eyes, armour forged from obsidian and infernal flame. Hundreds…Hundreds of demons kneel in the clearing, heads bowed, fists pressed to the ground in submission. A collective roar ripples through them, low and reverent, every shadow bending toward us like wind pulled by gravity. I stop

breathing.

Rhaziel’s voice vibrates against my back, low and absolute: “Did I not make it clear,” he murmurs, “that my Queen’s safety comes above everything else?”

Kael whistles. “Well, hot damn. I definitely don’t have enough deer for everyone.”

Evander mutters, “You didn’t even have enough for us.”

Cassian steps up beside me, eyes sharp, expression unreadable-but approving. Very approving.

“You want to bring down the Council,” he says quietly, not as a question but a calculated truth.

Rhaziel’s tail tightens around my waist. He nods once. Slow. Deadly. Certain.

“Yes,” he says, voice like a blade being drawn. “And I believe I know exactly how to do so.”

The air crackles. The shadows lean closer. And deep in my bones-I feel the shift. The beginning of something that is going to change everything…

Cassian is the one who breaks the silence first.

“We need to plan,” he says, voice snapping us back to reality. “They can’t stand out here. A demon army in the open clearing will draw attention within

minutes.”

Rhaziel inclines his head. “Agreed.”

He steps into the doorway again, raises one hand, and shadows ripple outward like a tide.

“Fall into the dark,” he commands.

The demons vanish-one by one, line by line-slipping into the shadows, into the veil between realms until the clearing is empty, silent and harmless- looking. Rhaziel closes the door and turns back to us, expression shifting from the softness he holds for me to the cold, ancient sharpness of a king.

“Very well,” he says. “Cassian Hill. Tell me how much you know of the war. And of siphons.”

Cassian’s brows furrow. “I fought on the Wall. I know everything there is to know. They sometimes brought in siphons-forced them onto the front lines.

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Chapter 192

Used them until they burnt out.” His jaw clenches. “Then the Council would… capture another.”

My stomach twists.

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