Chapter 48

• Atlas
• The grand marble halls of Blackwood Academy had never felt colder. My footsteps echoed across the vast corridor as I walked, each step steady, measured, and forced. The polished floors gleamed under the golden sconces lining the walls, reflecting fragments of my expressionless face back at me. My reflection looked tired.
• Outside the arching windows, the sky was darkened with gathering storm clouds, the gardens cast in a murky twilight. Thunder rumbled somewhere far beyond the forest, a low growl that vibrated through the stones under my feet. It felt like a warning.