Isla's POV
I was trapped inside my own mind, and Victoria was tearing through my memories like a hurricane.
"There you are," her voice purred in the darkness. "My pathetic little stepdaughter. Did you really think you could escape me?"
I tried to push her out, but I didn't know how. She ripped through my thoughts—every fear, every pain, every moment of weakness she'd caused.
"You're mine, Isla. You've always been mine. The Shadowsworn placed me in your life for a reason. And now I'm going to use you to destroy the Veil."
"No!" I screamed, but my voice had no sound. This was my mind, but she controlled it.
Through the fog, I felt Kael fighting beside me—his consciousness trying to shield mine, but Victoria's power was too strong. She'd had years to study dark magic while I'd had hours.
"Your mother thought she could hide you. She died screaming your name. And soon, you'll tear open the Veil for us, just like she feared you would."
The darkness started to pull me under. I was losing. She was going to win. She was going to control me and use my power to—
White light exploded through my mind.
Elder Seraphine's voice rang out like a bell: "GET OUT OF HER HEAD!"
Victoria's presence recoiled. "This isn't over. I'll be back. And next time, the Guardian won't be able to save you."
She vanished.
I gasped awake, sitting up so fast I nearly fell out of bed. Kael caught me, his face pale and strained. Elder Seraphine stood over us both, her staff still glowing.
"What happened?" Seraphine demanded. "I felt dark magic attacking through the soul-bond—"
"Victoria," I choked out. "My stepmother. She was in my head. She said—" My voice broke. "She said she's going to force me to destroy the Veil."
Kael's arms tightened around me. "She won't get that chance."
"She almost did just now!" I pulled away, angry and terrified. "She walked right into my mind like I left the door wide open! How am I supposed to fight that?"
"By learning," Seraphine said firmly. "Mental shields. Defensive magic. How to close your mind to invasion. That's why training must begin immediately." She looked at Kael. "The Shadowsworn know about the soul-bond now. They'll use it to attack her. You need to teach her combat. I'll handle her magic. Starting right now."
"It's barely dawn—" I started.
"Dawn is late," Seraphine interrupted. "Every moment you're untrained is a moment they can strike. Up. Both of you. We have work to do."
She swept out of the room, expecting us to follow.
Kael stood, pulling me to my feet. "She's right. Victoria proved you're vulnerable. We need to fix that."
My legs felt like jelly, but I followed him out of the palace and across the grounds to a training courtyard. Warriors were already there—Guardians practicing with weapons, moving so fast they blurred.
They all stopped when they saw me.
"The human," someone whispered.
"She's the one who almost destroyed the district."
"Why is the Commander bringing her here?"
Kael ignored them all. He pointed to the center of the courtyard. "Stand there."
I obeyed, feeling dozens of eyes judging me. I was still in my sleep clothes—a simple shirt and pants—with my hair a mess and the glowing symbols on my skin visible for everyone to see.
"Defensive stance," Kael said. "Feet apart, knees bent, hands up."
I tried to copy what I'd seen in movies. It felt awkward and wrong.
A Guardian laughed. "That's pathetic. What are you teaching her, Commander? How to fall down?"
Others snickered. Heat flooded my face.
Kael's voice cracked like a whip: "She's been starved for six years, isolated, and beaten down by people who wanted her weak. She's had no training and no preparation. But she survived shadow creature attacks, escaped dark witches, and has power that terrifies the Shadowsworn. Show some respect, or leave my training ground."
Silence fell. The mocking Guardian looked away, chastened.
Kael turned back to me, his voice softer. "Again. Feet apart. Balance your weight. You're not trying to look strong—you're trying to be ready for anything."
I adjusted my stance. It still felt strange, but better.
"Good. Now you're going to run twenty laps around this courtyard."
"Twenty?" I stared at him. "I can't—"
"You can." His silver eyes held mine. "Or Victoria wins. Your choice."
The memory of her voice in my head made my decision. I started running.
By lap five, my lungs burned. By lap ten, my legs screamed. By lap fifteen, I wanted to die. The Guardians had gone back to their training, but I felt them watching, judging.
Weak human. Can't even run. Why is she here?
I stumbled on lap eighteen, catching myself before I fell. Kael appeared beside me. "Keep going. Don't stop now."
"I can't breathe," I gasped.
"Yes, you can. You're breathing right now." He ran backward in front of me, making it look effortless. "Pain is temporary. Weakness is a choice. Choose to be strong."
Something about his words—or maybe the bond between us, lending me his strength—pushed me forward. I finished lap twenty and collapsed.
Kael crouched beside me. "Rest for two minutes. Then we do defensive drills."
"Two minutes?" I could barely speak. "I need—"
"Two minutes. Then we continue." He looked at me seriously. "The Shadowsworn won't wait for you to feel ready, Isla. They'll attack when you're tired, hurt, unprepared. You need to learn to fight through exhaustion."
He was right. I hated that he was right, but he was.
Two minutes later, he pulled me up and showed me how to block, how to dodge, how to move without thinking. I was terrible at it. My body didn't respond the way my brain wanted it to. I fell. Got up. Fell again.
Some Guardians started to laugh again until Kael's cold stare silenced them.
Hours passed. The three suns climbed higher in the purple sky. My muscles screamed. My hands bled from falling on rough stone. But I kept going because stopping meant Victoria won.
"Again," Kael said after I botched a defensive move for the tenth time.
"I can't do this!" I shouted, frustration breaking through. "I'm not a warrior! I'm just some girl who read books! I don't know how to fight!"
"Then learn." No sympathy in his voice. "Because those shadow creatures won't care that you prefer books. The witches won't stop attacking because you're tired. And Victoria certainly won't give up because you don't feel like a warrior." He stepped closer. "You have two choices: become strong enough to survive, or die. It's that simple."
Tears burned my eyes. "You don't understand—"
"I understand perfectly." His voice softened slightly. "I understand being forced into a role you never wanted. I understand pain and loss and feeling like you're not enough. But I also understand that you're stronger than you believe. You've already survived impossible things. This?" He gestured at the training ground. "This is easy compared to what you've endured."
I looked at him—this ancient warrior who'd lost everything and kept going. Who'd been empty for a thousand years but chose to feel again because of me.
If he could survive his pain, maybe I could survive mine.
I wiped my eyes and got back into defensive stance. "Show me again."
Something flickered in his expression. Pride, maybe. "Again," he said.
We trained until my body moved without thinking, until the defensive moves became automatic. I was still terrible compared to the Guardians, but I was better than I'd been at dawn.
Finally, when I could barely stand, Kael called a halt. "Enough for today. Elder Seraphine will want to work with your magic this afternoon."
"There's more?" I groaned.
"There's always more." He handed me water, and I drank gratefully. "But you did well. Better than I expected for your first day."
"I fell down like fifty times."
"You got up fifty-one times." He almost smiled. "That's what matters."
Captain Theron approached—the massive warrior I'd met the day before. "Commander, a word?"
Kael nodded and stepped aside with him, speaking too quietly for me to hear. I sat on a bench, every muscle screaming, feeling like I'd been hit by a truck.
A shadow fell over me. I looked up to see three Guardians—the ones who'd been laughing earlier. The lead one, a woman with scars across her face, looked down at me with disgust.
"You don't belong here, human," she said coldly. "You're weak, untrained, and dangerous. Yesterday you nearly killed dozens of our people with your wild power. Why should we trust you?"
"I didn't ask you to trust me," I said tiredly. "I'm just trying to survive."
"You're trying to survive? What about the rest of us?" She leaned closer. "Everyone knows the Shadowsworn are after you. By being here, you put the entire Lunar Court at risk. Maybe you should just leave. Go back to the human realm and take your danger with you."
The other two nodded agreement. "We don't need a liability. Especially one bonded to our best Guardian. If you die, he dies. You're making him weak."
Anger sparked through my exhaustion. "Kael isn't weak."
"He is now. He's attached to you. That attachment will get him killed. The Commander hasn't cared about anything for a thousand years, and that's what made him survive. You've ruined that."
The words hit hard because part of me feared they were true. Was I making Kael vulnerable? Would my weakness get him killed?
"That's enough, Lieutenant Sera," Kael's voice cut through the confrontation. He appeared beside me, his expression cold. "You have a problem with my training decisions?"
The scarred woman straightened. "No, Commander. Just expressing concerns—"
"Express them to me, not to her." His tone could cut glass. "And for your information, the soul-bond doesn't make me weak. It makes me more determined to stay alive. Now get back to training before I assign you to border patrol for a month."
The three Guardians left quickly.
I looked up at Kael. "Are they right? Am I making you vulnerable?"
"No." He sat beside me. "You're making me remember why I became a Guardian in the first place—to protect people. That's not weakness. That's purpose."
Before I could respond, Elder Seraphine appeared. "Good, you're both here. Isla, we need to begin your magical training immediately. Victoria's attack this morning showed serious gaps in your mental defenses."
"Can I at least eat something first?" I asked.
"No time. The Shadowsworn—"
A bell rang across the Court—loud and urgent. Everyone froze.
"That's the emergency bell," Theron said, his face grave. "Something's breached the outer defenses."
Kael was on his feet instantly, his sword drawn. "What direction?"
A Guardian ran up, breathing hard. "East gate, sir. A messenger arrived with a body. Human woman, recently killed. There's a message carved into her skin."
My stomach dropped. "What does it say?"
The Guardian looked at me with pity. "It says: 'Send the Veilweaver to the human realm by sunset, or we'll kill one human every hour until you do. Starting with those she knows.' And Commander—" He swallowed hard. "The body is marked with Institute identification. It's one of Isla's former coworkers."
"Lyra," I breathed, horror washing over me. "Is it Lyra?"
"We don't know yet, ma'am. But the Shadowsworn are demanding your surrender. They say if you don't return to the human realm by sunset today, everyone you've ever known will die. One by one."