Page 228 of House Ignis

I flipped him off and left him behind with his hounds.

The walk to the archives was quieter, the silence finally feeling peaceful instead of haunting.

The moment I stepped inside, the smell of old parchment and dust wrapped around me like a familiar blanket. I made it to our usual table,

breathless with a strange hope, only to find her chair empty.

No Jules. The stacks stretched empty and cold around me. My pulse spiked.

“Hey—have you seen Jules?” I asked a human scribe hunched over a pile of ancient scrolls.

They glanced up, looking confused. “She hasn’t been in all day. Actually… not since yesterday.”

Yesterday.

My stomach dropped through the floor. Yesterday, when I’d woken up in the infirmary.

She hadn’t been there.

Gods, she hadn’t been anywhere.

Panic clawed up my chest. My breath came sharp and jagged.

“Easy, Flame One,” Aether’s voice brushed through the bond, heavy with a growing suspicion.

“No,” I whispered under my breath. “No, no, no.”

I turned on my heel and bolted. One name was pounding through my head.

Darcy.

If anyone knew where Jules was, it would be her. But of course, she’d be at practice. With the guys. With Ezra.

Fuck.

I crossed the training fields at a near run, dragging the thin air into my lungs.

With each stride, the weight in my chest grew heavier.

This was the last place I’d seen Asher.

My heart wavered, thudding hard enough to hurt, but I forced my chin up. I schooled my face into something neutral. Controlled.

Ezra and Mavrik were stretching when I arrived. Darcy lounged in the grass beside them, tattoos flashing under the afternoon sun. Ezra looked up immediately, his grin spreading slow and cocky, those dimples cutting deep.

“Back already, Hotshot?” he mocked, his voice carrying across the grass with that effortless Umbra edge.

“I knew you couldn't handle two hours without my face to look at.”

I rolled my eyes, pretending my heart wasn’t cracking straight down the middle. “Darcy—can we chat real quick?”

“Yeah, of course,” she said, hopping up and jogging over.

Ezra’s gaze stayed glued to me the entire time. Shadows flickered faintly at his shoulders.

Fucker. Somehow, he'd noticed the spike in my adrenaline.

Darcy lit her vape, exhaling a cloud of sweet-smelling smoke as she leaned against the fence. “What’s up?”