Thornhill Academy (By Sheridan Hartin) novel Chapter 243

the air thickens or the pressure shifts. She reacts before the rest of us feel it, dark magic tugging at her awareness like a hooked line.

“Trap ahead,” I mutter, slowing just enough to throw my arm out and stop Kael from charging straight through the next intersection.

He shoots me a look. “You sure?”

Allison’s claws scrape once,

hard.

“Yeah,” I say. “They’re bleeding power into the floor. You cross it wrong, it locks the corridor behind us and vents the room.”

Rhaziel’s shadows tighten immediately, spreading low and wide, smothering the fune seams before they can activate. The pressure eases a fraction as the spell chokes out under his control. We move again. The building is awake now. I feel it in the way the corridors seem to narrow, in the subtle shifts of air and sound as doors seal and open ahead of us, guiding, funnelling, trying to push us where it wants us to go. They’re herding us. Allison feels it too. Her head lifts, eyes burning as she stares straight down the hall ahead. Her lips pulling back from her teeth in something hungry, shadows coiling tighter around

her frame.

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Measured Steps

“They’re using her frequency,” I say flatly. “Dark magic resonance. Trying to steer us.”

Cassian swears under his breath.

“Can you counter it?” Evander asks.

“Not fully,” I answer. “But I can read it.”

I take the next turn without hesitation, cutting across the building’s intent, choosing corridors that feel wrong, routes that pull against the pressure instead of with it. The walls here are thicker. The runes are older. The Council didn’t redesign this section because they trusted it to hold. That was a mistake. We pass another sealed door, then another, the sigils growing more complex, the magic denser, and Allison’s breathing changes again, steadier now, less frantic, like the hunger is focusing instead of flaring. My vision swims as we take the stairs two at a time, pain spiking bright enough to make my teeth ring. I lock it down and keep going. I won’t miss again. We hit the landing hard, boots skidding on polished stone, and the corridor opens wider here, ceiling lifting, air colder, heavier with layered wards stacked thick enough to feel like walking through deep water. The vault ring. Allison goes still inside the cage, shadows pulled tight against her skin, eyes locked forward, bright and intent and far too calm. I swallow once and keep my voice even.

“Eyes on her,” I say. “They’re going to try something clever.”

Kael grins, sharp and feral. “Let them.”

Rhaziel’s shadows flex, ready. Cassian steps in closer to the cage, jaw set, control wrapped tight around his posture. I take point again, mapping the last stretch from memory. We’re close now. Close enough that the building isn’t just hunting. It’s preparing. Whatever waits ahead knows exactly who I am, exactly what I used to be, and exactly how badly I want to burn this place to the ground for what it did to her. Good. Let it come. I’m done missing.

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14:26

Mon, Jan 19

Thornhill Academy

One Down – Six to Go

Cassian

It’s been years since I last stepped foot in the ring, but it’s a place that never leaves you once you’ve seen it from the inside. The vault ring curves around us

in a continuous arc of stone and steel, a hollow cylinder carved through the heart of the Council building. The floor bends gently beneath my boots, guiding

the eye left and right along a corridor that never truly ends. Above us, the structure climbs through multiple levels, stacked one atop another, each tier lined

with identical reinforced doors set at precise intervals. Below, the ring descends into deeper levels where the air grows colder and the stone darker. Layered

locks seal every door, and embedded sigils are etched directly into the stone. They sit dormant and patient, designed to hold under pressure. This is where

the Council stores the things that don’t stay inert simply because you ask them to. Rhaziel’s shadows carry the cage into the curve of the ring with

controlled precision, keeping it centred as if the structure itself requires respect for its balance. The metal hums faintly as it adjusts to the surrounding

wards. Allison straightens inside it immediately, shoulders rolling back, head lifting as her attention snaps outward. Her gaze tracks vertically first, then

laterally, mapping the stacked corridors with unsettling speed. I catalogue the space without conscious effort. Sightlines. Choke corridors. Emergency seals.

I’ve walked this ring before under escort, artifacts chained to my wrist, guards flanking me with hands never far from their weapons. Even then, the place

felt aware. Built to respond the moment something deviated from expectation. Now, the air presses subtly against my chest as the wards shift to account for

1. The pressure isn’t aggressive yet. It’s evaluative. Cage exhales beside me, short and controlled. His remaining eye sweeps the curve of the ring with

practised familiarity.

“They’ve changed it,” he mutters. “The intent.”

I follow his gaze and see it immediately. Fresh sigils cut into the stone above a lower corridor, their edges too clean, too recent. Containment routing.

Purpose-built. For her. Allison’s fingers tighten around the bars, and the hum of the cage deepens in response. We’re already where they expected us to be.

“Vault core is two levels up,” I say quietly. “Inner artifacts branch off the north quadrant. The relic would be stored there.”

Cage nods once. “Sounds right.”

We start forward along the curve, boots echoing softly against the stone. The ring amplifies sound in a way that makes distance deceptive. Every footstep

feels like it carries farther than it should. Allison moves inside the cage, shifting her weight from foot to foot, head turning in small, sharp increments. Her

shadows press against the bars like muscle under skin. She feels it before any of us do. The bond tightens without warning, a sharp pull behind my eyes that

makes my vision blur for half a second.

Stop.

She pushes the word through gritted teeth into my mind.

I raise my hand immediately. “Hold.”

Rhaziel stills the cage. Kael halts mid-step, fire dimming under his skin. Evander’s posture goes rigid.

“What is it?” Kael murmurs.

“Someone’s ahead,” I say.

The air changes as we round the next curve. It thickens, weighted with layered magic pressed flat and controlled. A silence field blooms across the corridor ahead, not wide enough to trap us yet, but positioned to sever communication. A figure steps out from one of the side corridors as if he’s been waiting. He’s dressed in dark green and black, Council insignia stitched into the collar. His posture is relaxed in the way of someone who doesn’t expect resistance. The magic around him hums with fine control, threaded tightly through his nervous system. The way the magic sits around him tells me what he is. An Archivist. One of the Council’s planners. His gaze flicks to the cage and stays there.

“Well,” he says, voice smooth. “You made it farther than projected.”

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14:26 Mon, Jan 19

One Down – Six to Go

Kael’s lips curl. “Lucky day for you.”

The man’s eyes don’t leave Allison. “Not for you.”

He lifts one hand, and the corridor seals behind us with a hard shimmer of force. Stone plates slide into place along the ceiling and floor, narrowing the

space by half. Containment corridor. Shit.

Allison reacts instantly. Her shadows slam outward, claws scraping metal as she surges toward the bars. The cage holds, but the pressure rattles my teeth.

The Council member smiles faintly. “There you are,” he says. “Asset response confirmed.”

I don’t let him finish whatever protocol speech he’s rehearsed. I step forward and drive my power straight into his mind. He’s prepared for intrusion, though; his mental defences rise clean and fast, polished by years of training. I don’t try to break them outright. I compress. Fear, memory and instinct are all folded inward and driven into a single point. His breath catches. His concentration slips. Kael lunges at the same moment, fire flashing down his arm, but the man twists, throwing up a ward that redirects the heat into the stone wall. Rhaziel’s shadows strike before he can finish the thought. They wrap, coil, and pull. The Council member’s legs vanish from under him as the shadows slam him into the floor hard enough to knock the breath from his lungs. I don’t hesitate. I step into the space he’s left unguarded in his mind. Allison screams a sound of pure hunger, tage, and delight that rattles the cage and floods the bond. The Council member scrambles, trying to reassemble his mental defences, panic bleeding into his movements now that control is gone. I sever the neural pathways cleanly, and his body goes slack, eyes glazing as his mind collapses inward. The containment spell lifts as his life ends, and the corridor opens

wide for us once more.

Kael exhales. “Efficient.”

“We don’t have time for anything else,” I reply.

Cage is already moving, scanning the branching corridors, jaw set tight. “They’ll escalate now. That was a tripwire, and I doubt they’ll like having one of

their own killed.”

Allison is still shaking the bars, breath coming fast, eyes locked on the dead man with unmistakable intent. She wanted him.

I step closer to the cage, lowering my voice. “Later,” I tell her quietly. “We’re almost there.”

Her gaze flicks to me, sharp and furious, then away again.

Rhaziel lifts the cage higher, shadows tightening their hold. “We move,” he says,

We don’t stop. We don’t look back. The vault ring stretches ahead of us, doors lining the curve like teeth in a waiting mouth. Somewhere within these walls,

the council is waiting for us, and we have no choice but to keep moving forward.

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14:26 Mon, Jan 19