Eyes locked.

  Neither of us breathing properly.

  I cradled my poorly bound arm against my chest. The pain still pulsed with every heartbeat. I almost retched.

  I had expected retaliation after using Thermal Shock on her. But this broken arm had put me in a critical position.

  I couldn’t use it again.

  I needed both hands, one to heat, one to freeze. I wasn’t skilled enough to perform two opposing reactions with a single hand. Not yet.

  Sweat and tears blurred my vision.

  But I refused to fall back.

  Then she was on me.

  She forced her body back into its transformed state despite the damage I had inflicted. Muscles swollen. Claws out.

  Yet something was wrong.

  Her strikes came wild.

  Unfocused.

  Heavy but imprecise.

  I evaded them. I drove a kick into her jaw.

  That shouldn’t have been possible.

  She wasn’t fighting like a predator anymore.

  She was hurling herself forward.

  Mindless.

  Almost vacant.

  Like a body moving without instruction.

  It was the first time I had seen her like this, and the first time she had ever been hurt this badly.

  I moved on instinct.

  I lunged forward despite the pain and tore one of the rubber bags from my belt, five hundred grams of liquid sugar-nitrate.

  Too close.

  Close enough to smell the iron in her blood.

  I squeezed the stream upward, almost against her face, and forced a surge of energy out of myself, compressing it into a spark inside the liquid.

  The reaction caught instantly.

  A sharp flash erupted against her face.

  Bright. Blinding.

  A muted pop followed.

  White smoke burst outward, thick with the suffocating stench of burned sugar.

  She staggered.

  But...

  She didn’t clutch her eyes.

  She didn’t cough.

  Didn’t sneeze.

  Didn’t recoil.

  She just kept moving.

  Blind.

  Smoking.

  Burned.

  And still coming.

  Not shivering.

  Not gasping.

  As if she couldn’t feel anything.

  My stomach dropped.

  No…

  Don’t tell me...

  She didn’t—

  No, no, this bad!

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “FOOL! What did you do?!” I shouted at her, then turned toward Professor Rakshas.

  “Stop her! She sabotaged her nervous system!”

  He only stared at me, uncomprehending.

  I looked back at Adina.

  The torn skin across her abdomen had split further. Pale, blood-slick tissue pressed outward, straining against the rupture.

  “Damn it—”

  I tore off my jacket despite the scream from my broken arm and lunged at her, slamming the fabric against her stomach to force everything back in.

  She clawed and struck blindly, twisting her body, but it was uncoordinated, almost like a reflex without guidance.

  I hooked my leg behind hers and drove her down onto her back.

  I dropped over her, trapping the jacket against her abdomen between my knees and lowering my weight carefully to keep the rupture sealed. My broken arm stayed tight against my chest; I used my balance and hips to maintain pressure.

  That was when I saw the blood streaming from her nose and mouth.

  She wasn’t breathing.

  The sugar-nitrate eruption, she inhaled the smoke. She’s not breathing.

  With my good hand, I tore another rubber bag from my belt.

  Potassium superoxide.

  Emergency reserve.

  I bit it open and took the compound into my mouth. The taste was metallic. Violent.

  I grabbed her jaw and pulled her head toward me.

  I sealed my mouth over hers, trapping the compound between my tongue and teeth, allowing only the air I exhaled to pass through.

  The superoxide absorbed the carbon dioxide (CO?) from my breath and released oxygen (O?) in its place.

  Direct feed.

  Crude. Dangerous. Necessary.

  I forced the last surge of energy out of myself to accelerate the reaction.

  Black crept in at the edges of my sight.

  Seconds stretched into something unbearable.

  Then...

  Hands grabbed me.

  Voices overlapped.

  Professor Rakshas. Security.

  They pulled me off her.

  The moment their grip tightened around my shoulders, I let go.

  The exhaustion swallowed me whole.

  The last thing I remembered was the chaos in the stands.

  And the sharp, metallic-electric taste burning the back of my throat.

  Darkness.

  A rasping breath was the first thing I heard.

  Then the light.

  It tore through the dark until the ceiling of the school's dispensary came into focus.

  I knew that ceiling.

  Adina had sent me here often enough.

  …Adina.

  The realization hit like a shock. I tried to sit up,

  It came out as a weak convulsion.

  A firm hand pressed against my bare chest.

  “Calm down, little moron.”

  Dr. Itchka.

  She forced me back onto the bed. The pressure drove the air out of my lungs, then forced me to breathe properly.

  “Breathe. You’re not supposed to wake this early. Though I’m not surprised. None of your siblings were ever normal.”

  My rhythm steadied, and sensation returned in layers, metallic burn at the back of my throat, the pulsing agony in my right arm, stinging lines carved across my skin.

  I forced a word out. My voice came rough, shredded.

  “Adina…”

  “Oh yes. The reckless little thalassian.” Her tone dripped with familiar venom. “She’d be critical by now if not for your dramatic rescue. Congratulations. You’re both the talk of the academy.”

  A pause.

  “She’s been transferred to the hospital.”

  Relief didn’t come.

  “As for you,” she added dryly, “I assume you can feel what you’ve done to yourself.”

  I pushed myself upright on my left arm, slowly this time. My right encased in plaster and useless against my chest.

  The first thing I saw was her sharp, infuriatingly composed face.

  Then I turned my head.

  Mother was on the bench nearby. Smoking.

  She never smoked in public.

  She was biting the end of the cigarette.

  Bad sign.

  Father sat beside her. Leaning forward. Elbows on his knees. Fingers interlocked. Eyes closed.

  Lord Yuhana stood behind them.

  Hands clasped behind his back.

  Eyes fixed on me.

  His face was stone.

  My mind cleared.

  The last fragments of memory aligned.

  I remembered everything.

  And I waited for the consequences.

  Mother moved first.

  She crushed her cigarette under her heel and sat on the edge of the bed. Her fingers brushed the scratches across my face with a tenderness I wasn’t prepared for.

  “What did you do, child?”

  I was ready to argue. I was already assembling defenses in my head.

  But that softness...

  It disarmed me.

  I lowered my head instead.

  Father rose next. He looked at me for a long moment, something unreadable in his eyes, then sighed and walked out.

  Mother followed him.

  And then it was just me and Lord Yuhana.

  He stepped forward.

  His hand settled heavily on my shoulder.

  “Spectacular performance, little Ghadhanvar.”

  His tone revealed nothing as he withdrew, leaving me alone, once the door clicked shut I realize I had been holding my breath.

  I glanced at Dr. Itchka.

  “If you’re wondering about Lady Atheret Yuhana,” she said casually, jotting something down, “she accompanied her daughter to the hospital.”

  A pause.

  “As for you, the administration will be taking certain measures. You caused quite the spectacle. Congratulations.”

  “My… spectacle?” I frowned.

  “Your victim,” she corrected lightly.

  “My victim?” My voice sharpened. “You know I would never hurt her. She—”

  “I know,” she cut in. “I know what that reckless little fish-girl did to her own nervous system. I examined her.”

  She finally looked up at me.

  “But the audience didn’t.”

  Silence stretched.

  “What they saw,” she continued evenly, “was you unleashing excessive force on your opponent…”

  “…then pinning her down and pressing your mouth against hers while security dragged you off.”

  The words hit harder than any strike.

  Cold spread under my skin.

  “That’s— no. Wait. That’s not—”

  “What did you expect?” she asked with a faint shrug. “Even I thought you’d lost your mind before I took a closer look.”

  Her pen resumed scratching across paper.

  “You saved her, yes. But from the outside? Your behavior was… questionable.”

  My stomach dropped.

  “Several lords have already demanded disciplinary action,” she added flatly. “Some suggested expulsion. A few even proposed juvenile rehabilitation.”

  The room felt smaller.

  Air thinner.

  “And that,” she said, closing the file, “is before the formal inquiry begins.”

  She walked toward the door, then paused without turning back.

  “You should go back to sleep,” she added calmly. “You weren’t supposed to be awake yet.”

  Her hand rested briefly on the handle.

  “When you wake up again, the procedures will begin.”

  The door clicked shut.

  I remained there alone.

  Cold sweat slid down my spine.

  Now that I see the whole scene, I realize how fragile everything is, how easily it could be misread… and how little control I actually have.

  The silence and the cold fear crawling in my guts consumed whatever little strength I had left to stay awake. Before I knew it, I had collapsed onto the bed, my eyes closing. Fallen asleep again.