Thornhill Academy (By Sheridan Hartin) novel Chapter 215

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09:37 Thu, Jan 8 G

Thornhill Academy.

Apparently, I Missed Something

Kael

100

Dawn always smells different after you find out how close death was to your feet. It smells cleaner, somehow, sharper, like the world scrubbed itself raw

while you weren’t looking, just to remind you it’s still here. The forest is quiet in that way, it gets right before something important happens. I stand at the

edge of the fallout clearing, boots planted, arms crossed, watching the shadows thin as the sky lightens. Behind me, the camp is settling into its new shape.

It’s smaller, much tighter, but only temporary. The kind of place you pass through, not the kind you get comfortable in.

We’ll be somewhere better once we return the threat and murder all those council issued bastards. For now, this is good; this will keep everyone alert.

Comfort in times like these gets people killed.

I feel them before I see them. Heat flickers at the edge of my senses, familiar and fast, moving through the trees with purpose. I hear their footsteps, their

heartbeats, and I feel the subtle, shared awareness of a pack that knows exactly where it’s going. Then I see my people. Cloaks thrown back, boots hitting

dirt hard, breath steaming in the cool morning air. None have shifted yet, that comes later, when it’s needed. Right now, they move like soldiers, like family,

like they’ve been walking toward this moment for longer than any of us want to admit. The first few spot me and slow. Then someone shouts my name and

suddenly I’m surrounded. Arms slam into me from every direction. Someone nearly takes me off my feet. Another ruffles my hair like I’m still sixteen and

not carrying enough responsibility to crush a lesser man.

“You look like shit,” someone says cheerfully.

“I missed you too,” I grunt, laughing despite myself as I shove him back.

I

More pour into the clearing behind them, already spreading out, eyes sharp, scanning the perimeter without being told. They can feel it too. The leftover tension. The ghost of what almost happened to the rebellion. Then the crowd parts and my mum walks through. For a second, I forget how to breathe. I have missed her so much. She looks the same and different all at once. Taller than most, shoulders squared like the world has never once managed to bend her. Her hair is pulled back tight, streaked with silver that definitely wasn’t there the last time I saw her. Her eyes glow molten gold, catching the early light

like fire behind glass.

“Kael,” she says.

And just like that, I’m not a soldier or a fighter or anything important. I’m her

son,

her baby boy.

I cross the space between us without thinking, and she pulls me into her chest, arms locking around me with bruising strength, I bury my face against her

shoulder and breathe her in. Smoke. Steel. Home.

“You scared the hell out of me,” she murmurs.

“Yeah,” I say quietly. “Same.”

She pulls back and grips my shoulders, eyes scanning my face like she’s cataloguing injuries I might have missed. Satisfied enough, she finally looks past me…at Allison, Allison stands a few paces behind me, wrapped in a cloak that does nothing against the morning chill. Shadows curl lazily around her ankles, like they’ve decided this is their spot now. She looks tired, steady, and powerful in that quiet way that makes my chest ache. My mum freezes. Allison

stiffens, then squints.

“You,” Allison says.

“Oh my gosh,” Mum breathes.

And then they’re both moving. They collide in the middle of the clearing, arms wrapping tight, bodies clinging like neither of them quite believes the other

is real. Mum buries her face in Allison’s hair. Allison laughs, a little breathless, a little shocked, hugging her back just as fiercely.

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09:37 Thu, Jan 8 G

Apparently, I Missed Something

1 blink.

Once.

Twice.

(100)

“Okay,” I say to no one in particular. “I’m definitely missing something here.”

Mum pulls back just long enough to cup Allison’s face in both hands, squishing her cheeks together like she’s about to interrogate her with affection alone.

“Is this your mate?” she demands, turning to me without releasing Allison’s face.

“Yeah,” I say easily, then wince. “But she won’t be for long if you keep cutting off her airway like that.”

Allison snorts, and Mum gasps and immediately pulls her into another crushing hug. “Oh! The Fates are a wondrous thing, aren’t they?”

I stare at the sky.

“Okay,” I say. “Someone fill me in on how my mum knows my mate before my brain short–circuits.”

Allison laughs and finally steps back, cheeks flushed, eyes bright.

“That shack,” she says. “The one we were hiding out in earlier? Years ago. After the vampires.” She looks at my mum. “You saved me there.”

Mum nods, her expression softening into something old and fierce. “I was passing through toward our territory. I saw a poor girl, bloodied and weak, trying very hard not to die.” She smiles sadly. “I asked if you wanted to come home with me.”

Allison chuckles. “I said I was better off alone.”

Mum arches a brow. “Stubborn thing.”

“Oh, I was very wrong,” Allison admits lightly. “But still… I wouldn’t have survived if it weren’t for you.”

Mum’s eyes shine. “And you wouldn’t have met my boy if you hadn’t survived.”

Something warm and tight blooms in my chest.

Rhaziel approaches from the edge of the clearing, shadows retreating respectfully as he nears. Mum studies him for half a second, then inclines her head.

“Demon King,” she says.

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