Mina and Amy watched Cato in tense silence. His eyes had gone blurry, unfocused, as though he peered through dense fog.
"I can't do it," he whispered.
Amy's voice cracked. "Can't do what?"
"I can't hold on." His eyes drifted shut, head lolling forward.
"Cato!" Mina lunged toward him, hands shaking. Amy followed, breath hitching.
Before Mina could check his pulse, Cato rose to his feet. Eyes still closed. Body jerking upward in unnatural, puppet-like motions.
Amy reached out to guide him back to bed, but he shoved her with impossible strength. She stumbled backward, would have fallen if Mina hadn't caught her.
"Should we wake Maddie?" Amy whispered, glancing at their sleeping roommate.
Mina's jaw tightened. "No. We can handle this."
Cato stood motionless—eyes sealed shut, chest barely rising. A marionette awaiting its master's command.
Then he exploded into motion, charging Amy with predatory speed.
She drew her sword and swung. Cato ducked beneath the blade and seized her leg, nails piercing flesh. Pain lanced through her as blood welled around his fingers. He released her abruptly, the momentum sending her sprawling.
Mina dropped beside her. "Are you—"
"Behind you!"
Mina spun. Cato loomed over her, close enough that his breath ghosted across her face. His snarl sounded inhuman as he lunged.
She dodged most strikes, but his fist clipped her shoulder, his knee her ribs. She swung her sword in desperation. He caught the blade barehanded, blood streaming from his palm without a flinch.
Mina channeled lightning into her palms and unleashed it. Cato moved before the magic fully formed, dodging with unnatural prescience. The bolts scorched the wall behind him.
He dropped to all fours, muscles coiling, then launched himself skyward. Mina rolled aside as he crashed where she'd stood.
He recovered instantly, already positioning for another strike. How can I stop him without hurting him? But what choice remained?
---
Across the academy, two professors debated in hushed tones.
"Are you certain we should admit him? He barely uses magic."
"He possesses magic. He simply favors weapons. The majority voted in his favor."
The first professor sighed. "Very well. He's in."
"Excellent. I'll escort him to the assessment crystal, then to his dormitory. Classes remain suspended due to the Blackend incident."
The memory surfaced—Orion threatening a professor's family, then brutalizing their students. The professor stood, straightening his robes. "I should collect our new arrival."
---
"I can't believe I'm attending this pathetic academy," the student muttered, dual swords gripped in each hand.
The gates swung open, revealing a man in his thirties with jet-black hair and green eyes, dressed too casually for a professor.
The man smiled. "You must be our new student. Follow me to the assessment room."
The student's glare could have cut glass. "Since when does an insignificant academy judge my magic's worth?"
The professor recognized the type immediately. Another arrogant one.
He led the student through ornate double doors into a grand entrance hall. The student barely acknowledged the vaulted ceilings and marble floors.
"I didn't catch your name," the professor ventured.
"Cade. Now stop speaking to me. I don't converse with weak humans."
The professor's laugh held no warmth. Humans, as if you're something else entirely.
Whoever forced me here will pay, Cade thought darkly.
They entered an empty stadium. At its center pulsed an enormous crystal.
"Place your hand on the crystal," the professor explained. "It reveals your magic type and rank. Below D-rank means expulsion."
Cade sneered. "How fortunate if I barely qualify." He dropped his swords with a clang.
He turned, eyes like steel. "Touch my blades and die."
The casual delivery made the threat more chilling.
Cade pressed his palm to the crystal. It blazed blood red.
"Blood magic. C-rank."
"C-rank? One rank from expulsion from this wretched place." Cade verified his swords remained untouched, then stalked toward the door.
The professor, shaken by the death threat, hurried after him. He recited academy rules as they walked, doubting Cade heard a word.
They stopped at a wooden door. "Dormitory fifteen. Classes are suspended for several days due to an incident I won't detail. You'll hear about it from other students."
Cade heard sounds of combat beyond the door—bodies colliding, desperate struggles. He threw it open.
A girl prepared to cast a spell while something that resembled a feral human charged her.
Cade leaped forward, slammed the creature to the ground, and crossed his swords at its throat. "Move and die."
The girl gaped at him. She hadn't expected a new roommate, especially one who'd attack her friend—though that friend had been attacking her.
Cade surveyed the room. One girl unconscious against the wall, leg bleeding. Another sleeping peacefully despite the chaos.
"Who is this?" He gestured with a sword toward his captive.
"My friend," Mina stammered. "He was sick for days, then suddenly got up and attacked us."
Cade's mind raced. Sick, yet moving with perfect fluidity? Something doesn't add up.
He grabbed Cato's hair and knocked him unconscious with one precise blow. "Problem solved—"
Amy's eyes snapped open. She looked around, disoriented.
Then she coughed—a wet, rattling sound that froze everyone in place.
Blood sprayed across the floor.
Mina's breath caught. "Amy?"
Amy raised a trembling hand to her mouth. When she pulled it away, crimson coated her palm. Her eyes widened in horror.
"No," Mina whispered. "No, no—"
Another violent cough wracked Amy's body. More blood. She clutched her chest as though something inside was tearing free.
Cade's grip tightened on his swords. "What's happening to her?"
Before anyone could respond, Amy's eyes began to change. The whites darkened, spreading like spilled ink. Her pupils expanded until they devoured her irises completely.
Then she smiled—a terrible, wrong expression that didn't belong on her face.
"Mina," Amy said, but the voice layered with others, distorted and multiplied. "Run."
Her body jerked upright with inhuman speed, bones cracking audibly as she rose. Blood still dripped from her mouth, but she seemed oblivious.
Mina stumbled backward, heart hammering.
Cade positioned himself between them, swords raised. "Stay back."
Amy—or whatever controlled her—tilted her head at an impossible angle, studying them with bottomless black eyes. Her laugh made Mina's blood freeze.
"You think you can stop what's coming?" the voices spoke through Amy's mouth. "You have no idea what you're dealing with."
Behind them, Cato's unconscious body began to twitch.
And in her bed, Madison's eyes opened.
They were black.
Just like Amy's.
The temperature in the room plummeted. Frost crept across the windows as both possessed figures rose simultaneously, moving in perfect synchronization.
Mina's scream died in her throat as Madison's mouth opened impossibly wide, and a sound that belonged to no human creature echoed through the dormitory.