The Academy loomed against the gray morning sky like a monument to everything I'd once hated about my life.
New Vein Academy. The place where Hunters were made. Where rich kids with powerful Aspects came to flex their genetic lottery winnings and poor kids like the original Satori came to be reminded of their inadequacy.
Except I wasn't the original Satori anymore.
And I definitely wasn't inadequate.
Natalia walked beside me through the front gates, her presence burning steady through our bond. She'd dressed for battle today. Not literally. Just a fitted blazer over a white blouse that hugged her curves, paired with a skirt that was technically within dress code but only by the most generous interpretation. Her purple hair was pulled back in a high ponytail that exposed the hickeys I'd left on her neck.
She hadn't tried to hide them.
"People are staring," she said.
"Let them."
"That's what I planned."
