Chapter 14

• Zara’s POV
• The training field today was nothing like I expected. No rows of neat benches or polished mats. Just jagged ground, and a ring of stone that pulsed faintly with ancient magic. Students gathered around its edge like vultures, breathless and hungry for drama. I was one of them, standing with Talia, still chewing the last of my apple, trying to make sense of the tension thickening in the air.
• “Combat class today,” she muttered beside me, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. “Something’s off.”