Page 521 of Axis of Fire

The Selection had left me with so much pain and disappointment that I wanted to erase every last second of it from my memory.

I wanted to forget Seris's final words.

Forget that he'd traded his life...

...for mine.

Even now, I couldn't come to terms with it.

"Hey, Fireling. Pay attention."

Aars darted toward me so quickly that I instinctively stiffened.

With a heavy sigh, I folded my arms across my chest, making a point of showing him he finally had my full attention.

"I'm listening."

"So," he continued, "Istmond's search team discovered that the demons' shackles had been destroyed by a different kind of magic—not by the demons themselves."

That my mind had conjured something impossible.

Kai stood in the middle of the room.

Kai.

Kai.

Goddamn Kai.

The boy who had, for one brief moment, given me wings...

...only to tear them away without mercy.

The one who had made me believe I was completely accepted.

The one I could be vulnerable with.

The one I'd been ready to trust with the truth about my abilities.

And now he was standing in the middle of a magical academy...

Talking to some guy as if he belonged there.

"Hey." Aars frowned. "Did you break or something?"

Under different circumstances, I might have argued with him.

But this time...

He wasn't wrong.

No.

This was the moment I truly broke.

Airis Kairos's POV

"I've never believed in this nonsense."