At the lake, Zoey pulled her lips away from Leo, her breath catching slightly. She’d been feeling him for about a year now, ever since that fateful detention where she and Savannah had first met him and Trevor. It had been a chaotic day—Zoey and Savannah were there for fighting against a group of girls who’d been harassing Savannah, while Leo and Trevor had landed themselves in trouble for a prank gone spectacularly wrong on an opposing football team.

  What started as a punishment quickly turned into an unexpected friendship. Leo and Trevor had made it their mission to make detention bearable, cracking jokes and pulling Zoey and Savannah into their antics. Over time, the four of them had grown close, their bond laced with occasional moments of tension that everyone pretended not to notice—especially Savannah, who stubbornly refused to admit it.

  Now, as Zoey’s fingers trailed over Leo’s chest, tracing the lines of his toned body, she couldn’t help but smile. His grin was lazy and confident, and he didn’t even try to hide how much he enjoyed her touch.

  “You’re not bad, gooner,” Zoey teased, smirking as her hands lingered on his shoulders.

  “Not bad?” Leo said with mock offense, pulling her closer. “I’m damn good, and you know it.”

  Zoey laughed, her hand playfully shoving his chest. “Careful, your ego’s showing.”

  “It’s always showing,” he shot back, leaning in again.

  She rolled her eyes but let herself melt into the moment, her lips finding his once more as the sound of laughter and splashing filled the air around them. Whatever this was, she decided, she wasn’t going to overthink it tonight.

  “Ew, get a room,” Trevor said jokingly, leaning back in the water with a grin.

  “Don’t be a gooner, bro,” Leo shot back, smirking.

  “Yeah, don’t be a gooner,” Zoey added, still wrapped around Leo.

  Trevor laughed. “It’s just as bad when someone else says it. And weren’t you against it earlier?”

  Zoey shrugged, grinning mischievously. “Only when Savvy’s around, so she doesn’t use it against me.”

  “See? It’s just Savvy that’s a hater,” Leo said, smirking wider.

  Trevor laughed again, but his expression softened. “I hope she’s okay, though. She just ran off without a flashlight and didn’t even change out of her shirt and underwear.”

  Zoey chuckled, shaking her head. “Damn, she didn’t even take her shoes! That girl, I swear.”

  Leo’s grin was harder to see now that the sun had set, the only illumination coming from the flashlights on shore. But his teasing tone cut through the dim light. “I guess she really did have to take a shit.”

  “Leo, shut up, man,” Trevor said with a groan, though he was laughing.

  “You gonna be clappin’ shitty butt!” Leo added, cracking up.

  That was the final straw. Trevor launched himself at Leo, tackling him and pulling him under the water in one swift motion.

  “Boys!” Zoey shouted, laughing as the two thrashed in the water. She shook her head but couldn’t stop smiling as she swam back to the shore, leaving them to their antics.

  As Zoey swam toward the shore, she heard a chorus of voices calling out from the girls already on land.

  “Don’t let those boys drag you back in, Zoey!” one shouted playfully.

  “It’s time to go!” another added, waving her flashlight toward the water.

  Reluctantly, people were making their way back to the shore, laughing and chatting as the night wound down. Zoey, still in the water, glanced around at the thinning group and sighed. “I guess I’ll have Trevor and Leo help me find Savvy,” she muttered to herself. It had been over 20 minutes, and Savannah still hadn’t come back. Maybe she went back to the cabin, Zoey thought. Being so emotionally available probably drained her. But deep down, she knew Savannah wasn’t the type to just bail.

  Using the faint lights on shore as her guide, Zoey swam toward the edge of the lake. But something caught her eye—a soft, golden glow beneath the surface. It shimmered faintly, almost like the reflection of a star, but it was moving, pulsing gently like it had its own heartbeat.

  That wasn’t there before, she thought, curiosity immediately pulling her attention. She dove underwater, kicking toward the strange light. Maybe someone dropped a waterproof flashlight?

  As she swam closer, the glow grew brighter, illuminating the water around it. But it wasn’t a flashlight. The light was coming from something else entirely. It was an irregular, pulsating tear in the fabric of reality itself—a golden fissure that seemed to ripple and bend, as though the very water around it couldn’t decide what it was. The edges of the light were jagged and uneven, like shards of fractured glass, yet the glow was soft, inviting, almost hypnotic.

  Zoey’s breathing quickened as an inexplicable urge washed over her. She felt… drawn to it. Compelled to touch it. The glow seemed to whisper silently, promising something she couldn’t quite grasp but desperately wanted to.

  She reached out, her fingers cutting through the water, stretching toward the golden light. As her hand got closer, the water around it seemed to warm, like a gentle current wrapping around her arm. Her fingertips finally brushed against the glowing surface. It wasn’t solid or liquid—it was somewhere in between, like dipping her hand into molten sunlight. The sensation was electrifying, tingling through her arm and sending an unfamiliar energy racing through her body.

  And then everything went white.

  The lake, the voices, the laughter—all of it vanished. Zoey was suspended in a vast, endless void of light, weightless and completely overwhelmed.

  About five minutes earlier, Savannah was still locked in a frustrating game of cat and mouse with the Demurge. It put all its energy into dodging and evading her attacks rather than engaging in a fight, which was surprisingly more challenging than she’d anticipated. Its movements were erratic and desperate, and every time she closed in, it twisted away or used the terrain to block her strikes.

  It snarled as it bolted further into the forest, its jagged limbs digging into the earth. Savannah’s eyes narrowed, her frustration mounting. What the hell are you up to? she thought, teleporting ahead to block its path, only for it to skid to a halt and dart to the side.

  Her instincts screamed that this was wrong. Demurges didn’t run like this unless they were setting up something. She paused mid-pursuit, scanning the area with her aura, searching for signs of an ambush. A trap? But there was nothing—no other Demurges, no signs of allies lying in wait.

  Her brow furrowed as a new thought struck her. Maybe an Apostle? It was rare but not impossible. Demurges served Apostles, and the way this one was fleeing made her wonder if it was leading her somewhere. But Apostles never operated alone—they always had at least a small swarm of Demurges accompanying them.

  She couldn’t sense anything else. Just this single, frantic Demurge. Her fists clenched as she teleported again, landing directly in its path and slamming her hand into the ground, sending a shockwave of wind to trip it up. The creature stumbled but managed to recover quickly, snarling before making another sharp turn and disappearing into the shadows.

  “Oi! Stop running!” she muttered under her breath, her voice low and angry. “I don’t got all night!”

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  But then she felt it—an unmistakable surge of energy that sent chills through her spine. Her breath caught as the thought barely formed in her mind. Is that a rif—

  Before she could finish, a massive explosion lit up the night, followed by a deafening shockwave that tore through the forest like a tidal wave of sound and force. It rattled the trees, shook the ground beneath her feet, and left her ears ringing. The explosion wasn’t just loud—it was catastrophic, like a bomb detonating with impossible power.

  Savannah froze, her heart hammering as she turned toward the direction it had come from. The forest glowed faintly in the distance, and her horror grew as realization dawned on her. That’s where the group was.

  Her body acted before her mind could catch up. She stretched out her senses, scanning for the familiar auras of her friends and classmates. But there was almost nothing. The air where the group had been was disturbingly still, the once-lively auras now flickering weakly, as if they were slipping away.

  The few she did feel were faint and fleeting, like candle flames about to be snuffed out.

  “What the hell?!” she whispered, her voice shaking with shock and fury.

  Savannah snapped her attention back to the Demurge, which showed no reaction to the explosion behind them. It continued to sprint through the forest, its jagged limbs clawing at the ground as it desperately fled.

  She growled, raising her hand, with a sharp twist of her wrist, the air around her erupted into motion. A spiraling vortex of wind formed instantly, roaring to life as it engulfed the fleeing Demurge. The violent whirlwind dragged the creature into its center, spinning it violently as the crushing force of the wind tore at its grotesque body. The Demurge screeched, its cries drowned out by the deafening roar of the vortex. The spiraling winds tightened, compressing the creature further until it was completely obliterated, vanishing into a burst of black mist.

  The attack left Savannah breathing heavily, the strain of using so much mani at once weighing on her. She’d used far more energy than necessary, but her mind wasn’t on conservation—it was on her friends. On the explosion. On the horror she’d just felt.

  Without wasting another second, she combined her teleportation with a burst of wind energy, propelling herself forward like a blur. Each teleport closed a massive distance, while her wind-enhanced speed carried her through the gaps, trees and branches whipping past as she tore through the forest at a blinding pace.

  She raced forward with everything she had, dread and urgency fueling her every move. Hold on, she thought, her heart pounding. Please, just hold on.

  The closer Savannah got, the more the forest looked like a war zone. Trees were uprooted and shattered, their trunks splintered like toothpicks. The ground was torn apart, massive fissures snaking through the dirt as if the earth itself had been violently wrenched open. Her breath came in sharp gasps as her thoughts raced. Please be okay. Please be okay.

  She pushed forward, her wind-enhanced speed carrying her toward the trail, but even that was almost unrecognizable. What had been a clear, well-worn path just minutes ago was now a chaotic mess of debris, dirt, and fallen branches.

  When she finally reached the lake—or what used to be the lake—her heart plummeted. The serene water was gone, replaced by a crater that stretched wide and deep, steam rising faintly from its edges. Her stomach twisted violently as she noticed body parts strewn around the area. They weren’t just injured—they’d been blown apart, flung like debris from the force of the explosion.

  “No! No! No!” The words tore through her mind, growing louder and more desperate with each step. Her knees almost buckled as she stumbled forward, the devastation overwhelming her. She didn’t even realize she was yelling until her voice broke through the eerie silence.

  “Zoey!” she screamed, her voice raw and panicked. “Zoey! Trevor! Leo?!”

  The silence that answered her was deafening, broken only by the faint creak of shattered trees swaying in the wind. She turned, her sharp green eyes darting around the scene, refusing to accept what she was seeing.

  “What the hell happened?!” she yelled into the void, her voice cracking as her fear turned into fury. She scanned the area desperately, her chest tightening as the horrifying reality sank in. This wasn’t just an explosion. This was something else.

  She clenched her fists, her wind swirling faintly around her as her emotions threatened to boil over. She quickly composed herself and thought about what could have happened.

  Savannah’s mind raced as she tried to make sense of the devastation. She had felt the presence of a rift briefly before the explosion. That wasn’t a coincidence. Either something had come through, or someone had tampered with it. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to push past the rising panic and focus. Snapping into work mode, she detached herself from the horror around her, her gaze sharpening as she scanned the area for clues.

  Why haven’t the teachers or other students made a move? she wondered. But then again, she had gotten here far faster than anyone else could have, especially with the forest in its current state.

  Steeling herself, she began moving through the wreckage, her bare feet crunching over splintered wood and scorched earth. She forced herself to ignore the bodies, her attention only drawn to them to check if they belonged to someone she cared about. It sounded heartless, but in this situation, it was all that mattered.

  As a Veythari, her mission wasn’t about saving people for the sake of heroism or love—it was about eradicating Demurges. She hated them with every fiber of her being. Saving people wasn’t the end goal—it was just a way to piss off the creatures she despised. And working under the E.R.O. gave her the tools, resources, and cover she needed to do what she did best.

  Her eyes narrowed as she reached the center of the destruction. This was a rift rebound, she concluded. Rift rebounds occurred when a rift wasn’t fully stabilized or was tampered with, causing volatile energy to erupt outward. But why here? Why would a rift appear in such a remote, mundane location?

  She crouched, brushing her hand over the ground where the energy still pulsed. The air still felt charged, faint traces of the rift’s energy humming against her skin. Her jaw tightened as she stood, her fists clenching.

  Savannah forced herself to stay calm. She couldn’t afford to let her emotions overtake her—not yet. First, she needed answers. And if whatever came through the rift was still out there, it wouldn’t get far before she found it.

  Savannah froze mid-step as a sensation rippled through her, drawing her attention to the center of the crater. Her sharp gaze locked onto the faint glow emanating from the spot. Something’s still alive down there. Her chest tightened, her hatred flaring instinctively. Her hands crackled with the pulsing energy of malevolent winds as she teleported to the edge of the crater, her teeth clenched.

  She raised her hand, the swirling power intensifying as she prepared to obliterate whatever was radiating the energy. Her vision blurred with pure hatred, her mind fixated on erasing the source of the destruction. But just as she was about to release her fury, a flash of purple caught her eye.

  Purple hair.

  Her heart dropped like a stone. “Oi, Zo—Zoey?” she whispered, the name catching in her throat as if saying it would make the sight real.

  She teleported again, this time to the center of the crater. The dust and debris cleared as she landed, her pulse racing.

  There, lying naked and motionless amidst the destruction, was Zoey. Her signature black and purple hair, now streaked with dirt and soot, framed her face, and her body seemed unnaturally still. Savannah’s heart pounded as she dropped to her knees beside her, the residual winds around her dying down.

  Savannah’s sharp senses caught it immediately—Zoey’s aura was different. It pulsed erratically, flickering like golden lightning, crackling faintly around her still body. Savannah’s stomach dropped, and the words escaped her lips before she could stop them. “What the hell?!”

  It clicked in an instant. The rift rebound. Zoey must have touched the rift and set it off. That explosion wasn’t some random catastrophe—it was her. Savannah felt her heart sink, the weight of realization hitting her like a punch to the gut.

  If Zoey had interacted with the rift, it meant only one thing: Zoey was no longer entirely human. She was now a damn Veythari.

  “Damnit, Zoey,” Savannah muttered, her voice laced with frustration and fear. She crouched beside her friend and checked her pulse. It was faint but there. Relief swept through her, but it was short-lived, quickly replaced by the pressing weight of their new reality.

  “Damnit, damnit, damnit!” she growled, her hands trembling slightly as she tried to steady herself. She couldn’t leave Zoey here—not like this. Gritting her teeth, Savannah summoned her wind, creating a gentle but powerful current around her. With a precise motion, she scooped Zoey’s limp body up, carefully cradling her within the swirling air.

  The wind lifted them both as Savannah floated out of the crater, her heart pounding in her chest. The forest looked even more desolate now from above, and the lingering silence was deafening. Zoey’s aura continued to pulse faintly, and Savannah’s mind raced as she tried to figure out what to do next. How am I supposed to fix this?

  As Savannah floated out of the crater, Zoey’s limp body in her grasp, her thoughts raced. What now? What do I even do? But before she could form a plan, a flickering light caught her attention from the direction of the campground.

  A fire.

  Then came the screams.

  Her chest tightened, her breath catching as a flood of urgency surged through her. Her hands shook as the chaos of the scene overwhelmed her senses. The air felt heavier, oppressive, like the very forest was closing in around her. Her vision narrowed as her heart pounded against her ribs. What the hell is happening?

  She gritted her teeth, forcing herself to focus. Did something else come through the rift? It didn’t make sense. Rifts that created Veythari didn’t usually allow other things to pass through. But then why the fire? Why the screaming?

  The knot in her stomach twisted painfully as the fear clawed at her thoughts. Clinging tightly to Zoey, she swallowed hard, her resolve hardening. Whatever it was, she had to handle it. She couldn’t leave the class—or what was left of it—to face this alone.

  But as she stared toward the campground, the weight of Zoey in her arms and the growing dread in her gut made her hesitate for just a moment. “Oi, what if this is beyond me?” She grimly said out loud, before shaking her head and summoning the wind to carry her forward. There was no time or room for doubt now.