Page 7 of Darkness and Deceit
“This place is starting to feel like a fucking tomb,” he mutters, flicking ash. “Shield’s sealed the academy tight since Bennett called the Keepers. No messages. No answers. Just this suffocating silence.”
“It’s more than a tomb,” I mutter. “It’s a cage.”
He doesn’t respond, but he doesn’t have to.
From the moment the Keepers arrived, everything fractured.
They didn’t even give Lilith a chance. Just swept in and took her like she was a threat instead of a girl training to becomea Protector. No greeting. No explanation. No humanity. One of them brushed past me earlier like I was nothing more than furniture, like I didn’t matter—me, the guy who’s followed every rule, every order since before my Shadowing.
I used to think the Keepers were legends. Unshakable. Noble. They were supposed to be the ones who stood between chaos and collapse. The arbiters of Balance. The ones I trained to serve.
But that illusion cracked the second they looked at Lilith like she was already guilty. Like being a Dual was a crime carved into her skin.
And maybe I would’ve missed it—maybe I would’ve justified it—if I hadn’t seen the way she looked at me right before they pulled her away. Not scared of them. Scared I might let them. That I’d just stand there like some dutiful idiot while they dragged her off.
She didn’t ask for me to choose her.
But I think I did anyway.
I ball my fists behind my back and squeeze until my knuckles ache. Lilith once told me I was the only constant in her shifting world, that being near me made her feel safe. And gods help me, I want to be that anchor for her. But right now she’s locked behind cold stone and colder stares, and I’m out here pacing like some caged animal.
Vaughn drops his spent cigarette, crushes it under his boot, then lights another with a single flick. He inhales, the smoke curling around his words: “She’s been in there too long. They’re not evaluating her. They’re deciding what to do with her.”
I swallow the lump forming in my throat. “They think she’s like the Dual in the prophecy.”
“The one who will tip the scales of Balance to chaos,” he mutters. “The one to tear the realm apart.”
I shake my head. “Well, we both know they’re dead wrong. Lilith is a good person.”
His laugh is bitter. “You think that matters? They see Predator and Prey living in the same skin and see her as an unraveling thread in the Balance. And with one pull everything comes apart.”
“She’s not,” I snap, sharper than I mean to. “Lilith hasn’t done anything wrong.”
“Doesn’t matter. Sheexists.That’s enough.”
His words settle like lead. I know the history. Everyone does. One Dual became something twisted, something dangerous, and turned on the system. Tried to unravel the Balance.
And now Lilith carries the same ability, the same potential.
But she’snotthe same.
She’s still fighting to understand herself. Still terrified of the power she wields and what she might become. That alone should be proof enough.
“She scares them,” Vaughn says after a beat. “Not only because she has the potential to be dangerous. But because she’s powerful and not easy to control.”
My lips press into a hard line. “And if they decide she’s too powerful to be left alone?”
Vaughn doesn’t answer right away. He looks away, jaw tight, and for the first time since I’ve known him, he doesn’t have a snarky retort or a deflection.
When he finally speaks, his voice is quiet. “Then they’ll do what they always do. Quietly. Permanently.”
A sharp breath catches in my chest. I step forward without thinking, until my hand presses against the sealed door. The wards bite at my skin—not enough to hurt, just enough to remind me I don’t belong on the other side. Thatshe’sin there. Alone. And I’m not allowed to be.
The pulse of the magic is steady. Cold. Impenetrable.
I ball my fist and rest it against the stone, bowing my head. “She’s not just powerful,” I murmur. “She’s... she’s trying. Every day. She’s afraid of what she could become, and still, she never lets it own her.”
Vaughn exhales hard. “You think the Keepers give a shit about that? They don’t care that she stayed up all night helping that Prey kid through a panic attack. Or that she stitched up a bleeding first-year like it was nothing.”
