Adrien.

I came to with blood in my mouth.

Not metaphorical. Not poetic.

Actual, coppery, choked-in-my-throat blood.

My ears were ringing—no, screaming. Like the inside of my skull had been cracked open and someone was dragging nails down a chalkboard made of bone.

I tried to move.

Couldn't.

Every part of me felt like I'd been folded the wrong direction and then set on fire. My shoulder was dislocated, my ribs weren't behaving like ribs should, and my palms—shit, my palms were bleeding again. The bandages were scorched through. The runes were glowing red-hot beneath them, pulsing in slow waves like they were waiting for something.

Like they knew something I didn't.

"Katie..." I rasped, trying to lift my head.

No answer. No reply. No screaming. No spellfire.

Nothing.

Just silence and smoke and the hiss of rain somewhere overhead.

I was alone.

I pushed myself upright with a groan that sounded like a dying cat. My vision swam. My fingers dug into the broken stone beneath me, scrabbling for balance, for breath, for anything—and then I felt it.

Magic.

Not mine.

His.

Before I could stand fully, before I could breathe, before I could warn myself—the air ripped open in front of me.

A spell hit the wall where my head had been a second before. It exploded like shrapnel.

I ducked, rolled, and came up cursing.

He didn't say hello. Didn't monologue. Didn't smirk.

Anselme came in swinging.

The bastard launched spell after spell—whipping through the space with surgical, vicious efficiency. No flair. Just intent. The kind of spellwork that says I've practiced this. I've killed with this.

I blocked one. Dodged another. My wand shook in my hand.

But I wasn't that easy to kill anymore.

"You," I spat.

His eyes gleamed. Cold. Familiar. Like a memory I'd never fully escaped.

"Still fighting it, I see," he said, calm as hell, flicking a hex that tore through the floor to my right. "You're not broken yet? That's disappointing."

I growled. "You're gonna be disappointed a lot, asshole."

His spells picked up. Faster. Harsher.

And I moved with them—until my wand was wrenched out of my hand.

Disarmed. But not done.

The runes on my skin surged, flaring gold then red then white. And then?

I cast.

Not with words. Not with movement.

With rage. With raw intent.

Spell after spell exploded from me—fire, force, wind, pain. I hit him hard enough to slam him back into the archway. And again. And again. He raised his wand—tried to shield—and I shattered it.

I did not stop.

My body moved like it wasn't mine. My magic dragged itself out of me like a starving animal. It wrapped around his legs, twisted through the cracks in the floor, burst in light and sound and heat.

"YOU CURSED US!" I screamed. "YOU MARKED US LIKE ANIMALS AND CALLED IT PROPHECY!"

Anselme stumbled, coughing blood.

"You were always going to be tools, Adrien," he said, voice low and raw. "I'm just the one who recognized it early."

My hands were glowing like embers.

"I'm not a puppet," I whispered.

Magic flared from my fingers—and he finally stumbled.

But then—he murmured something. Latin. Old. Dangerous.

And the runes turned on me.

I collapsed.

A blood curling Scream tore from my neck, my throat cracked and my vocal cords strained in a way that shot chills down my spine. .

Not like a girl in pain. Like something dying from the inside out.

I felt my skin blister. My blood boil. My vision go white-hot and then red—runic fire spilling down my spine like a brand made of hell.

"You should've died in that labyrinth," Anselme said calmly, stepping toward me. "You should've let your sister read the letter."

My scream went silent.

Not because I ran out of breath.

Because my rage cut through it.

"You wanted her," I choked out, crawling toward my wand with the force of my last breath. "You tried to curse her."

"You weren't the plan," he said. "But I adapted."

He reached down to grab me.

And that's when it happened.

His hand touched mine.

And Fred's ring exploded.

A pulse of gold erupted from my finger, throwing Anselme across the corridor like he'd been launched from a cannon. He hit the stone wall with a sickening crack.

I gasped. The pain vanished. My runes stopped burning.

He'd lost focus. And that was enough.

I grabbed my wand—shoved it back into my boot—stood on legs that barely worked, and stormed toward him.

Murder in every inch of my body.

He tried to get up.

I slammed my palm into his gut and leaned in.

"You marked the wrong girl," I whispered, voice like a curse. "You thought you'd get a weapon?" I bared my teeth.

"You got me instead."

And then I twisted.

I didn't know the spell.

Didn't have to. It was the same magic that saved Harry. That saved Draco.

Only now? I was turning it inward. In reverse.

His body jolted—his mouth dropped open like he couldn't scream anymore. I could feel his bones bend, his organs twist.

He was going to die.

I wanted him to.

I could feel it.

I wanted him to die.

Not as justice. Not as retribution.

Just... gone. Erased. Like every scar he gave us could be undone if I just made him stop breathing.

And then—

"HEY!"

"ADRIEN—STOP!"

"SOMEONE GRAB HER—NOW!"

Hands.

All at once. Cassian's on my arms. Sage at my back. Rowan's voice cutting through the haze like a blade. Maddie's hands on my wrist. Katie's—Katie's voice, breaking in my ear.

"Adrien, look at me—breathe—please, think of Fred—"

And I let him go.

Not to save him.

Just to save what little was left of myself.

He collapsed. Wheezing. Crumpled. Blood dripping from his mouth like he was proud of it.

And still—still—he had the gall to smirk.

"You can run from your names, girls..." he rasped, barely more than a breath, "...but eventually... they'll carve themselves into your legacy."

Then—

Smoke.

Gone.

Like a ghost who thought he was immortal.

I dropped to my knees. Chest heaving. Hands shaking so hard I nearly slammed them into the ground just to stop the tremor. My body was wrecked. My mind was worse. My runes—

My runes.

I looked down.

And choked.

Not because they were glowing.

Because they were peeling.

Like burned parchment. Like flakes of sun-scorched skin. They cracked down the lengths of my arms, little curls of red-black rune peeling upward—falling off me like ash.

"What the fuck—" I breathed, but my voice cracked.

The runes were falling off.

And I was crying. I hadn't even realized it. Silent, shaking, ugly crying like something inside me had just... uncoiled. Collapsed.

And then—

Of course.

Of course he showed up now.

"Well," Blaise drawled, stepping out of the shadows with that smug tilt to his jaw, "that was fucking unhinged."

Cassian went still in front of me.

"Real controlled performance," Blaise continued, ignoring everyone else. "You know, for someone who's supposed to be fighting for the good guys."

Adrien, don't. But I was already rising.

Slow. Unsteady.

I felt blood roll down my back where my skin had split.

"You wanna run that by me again?" I growled, eyes still wet.

Cassian stepped in front of me, one hand on my chest, voice low in my ear.

"He's not worth the mark on your soul."

He wasn't.

But I almost didn't care.

Katie did, though.

"Oh my fucking god," she snarled, and the next sound was the wet crunch of her fist slamming into Blaise's nose.

He stumbled back with a yell, hit the wall, and bounced off it like the absolute idiot he was.

"Shut the fuck up," Katie snapped, shaking out her hand like she was the one who got hurt.

Blaise groaned and doubled over.

"You wanna talk about control?" she hissed. "Try shutting your mouth before you remind us why we left you behind in the first place."

And that's when it shifted.

Sage, breathless, pointed upward. "Um. Guys."

We all turned.

Above the courtyard, high in the storm-split sky—

The Astronomy Tower was glowing.

No, burning.

And not with fire. With light. Spells. Screams. Something shattering.

Blaise wiped blood off his mouth and muttered, "Draco."

Katie's whole body snapped toward him.

And I knew.

Shit.

"Katie—"

But she was already gone. Bolting through the haze like gravity stopped applying to her.

"Katie—wait—" I tried to follow. My legs screamed. My ribs cracked. But I pushed off anyway, Rowan catching up to me in two strides.

"I swear to Merlin's saggy left sock," Rowan gritted out, blasting a Deatheater across the courtyard with a snap of his wand, "your sister's gonna get herself murdered."

I stumbled over a chunk of shattered stone and nearly face-planted into a puddle. "She's got a real gift for bad decisions," I panted.

Before gravity could finish me off, Rowan caught me one-handed and yanked me upright like I was a broomstick he was tired of tripping over.

"Seriously," he huffed, shielding us both from a wild curse. "What is it with the Blackwood girls and catastrophic timing?"

"She's chasing her ex," I snapped. "You're dating her."

He blinked. "Touché."

"You good?" he asked as we ducked beneath a crumbling archway. His tone was light, but his hand didn't leave my arm.

I spit blood onto the stone. "Define good."

"You're vertical. That's enough for me."

We charged forward again, side by side. The sky was on fire. The wind was howling. I was definitely bleeding from somewhere important.

"I'm gonna murder her," I muttered.

"Get in line."

Another spell tore past us—Rowan deflected it mid-run like a human shield with a grudge.

"I cannot believe this is what we're doing tonight," he said. "I was gonna play Exploding Snap. Maybe snog your sister a little. Instead I'm dodging murder spells and chasing her into a death tower."

"She bolted after Draco," I coughed. "What part of this surprises you?"

"Literally none of it," he muttered. "She's gonna end me before a Deatheater does."

A curse blew a crater in the wall beside us, spraying rock and flame.

I shoved him forward. "Less whining, more saving her."

"You're such a bossy little gremlin," he snapped, hauling me up the stairs with a grunt. "I should've left you in the courtyard."

"You'd miss me."

He laughed, breathless. "Unfortunately."

The Astronomy Tower loomed above us now—dark, cracked, swaying in the storm like the whole damn world was tilting.

But Katie was up there. And we weren't stopping.

Not until we got her back.

Behind us, the courtyard cracked with the sound of spells. Sage and Maddie fell back to defend the bottleneck, shoulder to shoulder as Cassian whipped a spell across the sky so fast it made the stones ring.