Alex’s POV
Saturday should’ve been the best day of the week. A break from training, no professors breathing down my neck, no classmates whispering about who beat who in duels. Just a day to disappear, to breathe.
But there was no air left for me these days—not when Zara was locked away from classes, not when every hallway echoed with her name like a curse.
I’d tried to shake it off all week, bury myself in routine, but her eyes wouldn’t leave me alone. The way she’d looked that day in the training ground—terrified, fire dripping from her like she was choking on her own body—played in endless loops in my head. And I… I’d been one of the voices pushing her, pressing her, hating her.
I told myself she deserved it, that she’d stolen too much, ruined too much. But standing there, watching h
