POV: Caspian
This is a waste of my time.
I check my watch for the third time in five minutes. The Sovereign Council meeting starts in an hour, and I'm stuck watching first-years stumble through the Sorting Ceremony like they've never seen magic before.
"You could at least pretend to care," murmurs Lady Thornwood, one of the academy governors sitting to my right.
I don't bother answering. I'm twenty-one years old and run the most powerful magical family in existence. I don't need to pretend anything.
Another student approaches the Sorting Sphere—a floating crystal ball that glows when touched, revealing which House bloodline runs strongest in their veins. This one turns blue. Celestial House. The girl squeals with joy and runs to join the healers' table.
Boring.
My gaze drifts across the Great Hall. At the Shadow table, Dante Ashford lounges in his chair like he owns the place, flirting with two girls at once. Typical. The rogue has more charm than sense.
In the corner, almost invisible in the shadows, Kieran Wolfe stands perfectly still. Most students don't even notice him. I do. The beast-cursed warrior radiates danger like heat from a fire.
At the Celestial table, Lucian Sterling scribbles in a notebook, probably documenting the ceremony for some research project. The genius never stops analyzing everything.
We're the four most powerful students at Elysian Academy. And we all want to be anywhere but here.
"Next student," Headmistress Voss calls.
I'm about to check my phone when something makes me look up.
A girl walks toward the Sorting Sphere, and the entire hall goes quiet.
She's... nobody. Plain clothes that have seen better days. A worn bag slung over her shoulder. Hair that needs brushing. She looks like she wandered in from the human world by accident.
But that's not why everyone's staring.
It's the way she moves—like she's ready to bolt at any second. Like she doesn't belong here and knows it. Her hands shake as she approaches the sphere.
"State your name," Voss says, her voice gentler than usual.
"Aria Blackwell." The girl's voice is barely audible.
Blackwell. I search my mental database of magical families. Nothing. She's a nobody from a nobody bloodline.
So why is Voss watching her like she's the most important person in the room?
"Place your hand on the sphere," Voss instructs.
Aria reaches out slowly. Her fingers are an inch from the crystal when—
The sphere screams.
I'm on my feet before I realize I've moved.
Light explodes from the sphere—not one color, but five. Gold for Sovereign. Black for Shadow. Blue for Celestial. Red for Infernal. And silver for—
No. Impossible.
The colors swirl together, brighter and brighter, until the entire hall is bathed in blinding rainbow light. The sphere isn't just glowing anymore. It's levitating, spinning faster and faster, pulling in magic from everything around it.
Students scramble back. Teachers throw up protective shields.
Aria stands frozen at the center, her hand still touching the sphere, her eyes wide with terror.
"GET BACK!" Voss shouts.
The sphere explodes.
Not violently—it unmakes itself, dissolving into pure energy that rushes through the hall like a tidal wave. Every torch flares white-hot. Every magical artifact in the room sparks to life. The ancient stones beneath our feet hum with power they haven't held in centuries.
Then silence.
The light fades. The sphere is gone—completely destroyed. And Aria collapses to her knees, gasping for air.
Nobody moves. Nobody breathes.
Because we all know what we just saw.
Five colors. All five Houses in one person.
That hasn't happened in three hundred years. Not since—
"The Eclipse bloodline," Lucian says from across the hall, his voice cutting through the shocked silence. He's standing now too, his notebook forgotten, staring at Aria like she's a puzzle he can't solve.
"Impossible," Dante calls out, but his usual playful tone is gone. "The Eclipse line is extinct. Everyone knows that."
"Apparently not everyone," I hear myself say.
Kieran hasn't said anything, but I see him step forward from the shadows, his beast eyes locked on the girl like she's prey. Or something more dangerous than prey.
Voss moves to Aria's side, helping her stand. "House Forgotten," she announces firmly, though her hands are shaking. "Aria Blackwell is assigned to House Forgotten."
Whispers explode through the hall. House Forgotten is where they put students who don't fit anywhere else. It's an insult, not an honor.
But it's also the smartest move Voss could make. You can't assign someone to a specific House when they belong to all of them.
Aria looks around the hall, confused and terrified. Her gaze sweeps past me, and for one second, our eyes meet.
Something jolts through my chest. Recognition. Awareness. Like my magic is reaching for hers without permission.
I force myself to sit down, to appear calm even though my heart is racing.
The ceremony continues, but I don't see any of it. I'm too busy calculating.
If Aria Blackwell truly carries the Eclipse bloodline, everything changes. The political balance I've spent five years carefully maintaining shatters. Every House will want her dead or controlled. Wars have started over less.
And there's the prophecy. The one my family has guarded for generations.
When the Eclipse rises, the Sovereign falls—unless the bloodlines unite.
I've been searching for the Eclipse heir since I was sixteen. Since my parents were murdered and I inherited a throne I wasn't ready for. Since a curse started eating away at my magic, slowly killing me.
The cure requires Eclipse blood. A bond with the lost bloodline.
I found her. After all these years, I actually found her.
Except she's not what I expected. She's not trained, not powerful, not ready. She's a scared girl who just destroyed a three-hundred-year-old magical artifact by accident.
She's also in terrible danger, and she doesn't even know it yet.
The ceremony ends. Students file out toward their House dormitories. I watch Aria leave with a purple-haired girl chattering at her side, completely oblivious to the target now painted on her back.
"You felt it too." Dante appears at my shoulder, all traces of charm gone from his face. "That pull."
I don't answer, but I don't need to. Across the hall, Kieran is still staring after Aria. And Lucian is already typing furiously on his tablet, probably pulling up every piece of research on Eclipse bloodlines ever written.
Four of the most powerful students at this academy, and we all just felt the same impossible connection to a girl who shouldn't exist.
"This is going to get complicated," Dante says.
"It already is," I reply.
Because my phone just buzzed with a message from the Sovereign Council:
Eliminate the Eclipse threat. Immediately.
And I have exactly two choices: follow orders and kill the girl who might be my only chance at survival.
Or commit treason against my own House to protect her.
I look toward the door where Aria disappeared.
Treason it is.