But I couldn’t.
“I know why I’m here.”
We fell into silence for a moment, my heart getting heavier and heavier with each kilometre.
Finally, the institute came into view.
It rose stark against the horizon — a white scar on the land, perched high on a plateau. Around it, the earth lay stripped and barren, as if the place had torn whole pieces of forest from its roots just to exist. Like a fungus that had devoured what once lived there.
The building itself was massive, half hospital, half prison. It had once been the Darkmoor family estate — rulers of Velithra, back when magic still meant power. Years of neglect had left it rotting, until someone decided to turn decay into purpose.
Now it housed the most dangerous young people in the country.
And it was my new home.
“Remember the rules, Seph,” Beth murmured beside me. “Keep your head down. Work hard. Listen to the teachers and the doctors. And by all means—”
“Don’t let anyone see what I can do,” I finished for her. “Yes, Beth. I know the rules.”
When we pulled up to the heavy wrought-iron gates, a guard was already waiting. He couldn’t have been more than twenty-something, but there was a practiced coldness in his expression that I didn’t like. He looked me over — slow,assessing — and I saw the moment he decided I was just another problem.
“We have Persephone Harrin at the gate,” he said into the radio clipped to his vest.
A woman’s voice crackled through the speaker, sharp and thin.
“Harrin? Brilliant. Send her up.”
There was a note of satisfaction in her tone — the kind that made my stomach turn.
I sank lower in my seat.
Harrin wasn’t my name. It was a safe name. A forgotten name.
At least that was some kindness.
Being a Quinn carried weight — the wrong kind. My parents were the shining faces of the Council of Light.
I still remembered my father’s face from that night.
The way he looked at me.
Like he was scared of me.
Like this was my fault.
Gideon and Georgina Quinn had built their reputation on order, purity, and punishment. And now the problem they’d kept hidden for the last 5 years was being dropped at the country’s most infamous magical institution.
I wished I could peel the name off my skin.
Here, being a Quinn didn’t mean respect.
It meant every kid behind those walls already hated me — because most of them were here thanks to my father and his Pure Light initiative.
“Harrin, huh?” I said to Beth.
“It’s just a precaution.” Beth assured, “Warden Miranda Wild has made an arrangement with your father to ensure you are… protected.”
When we reached the front entrance, a guard and a tall, willowy girl were waiting for us.
