Lucien's hand was cold, but not lifeless. It thrummed with something old, something coiled — like touching the surface of still water and sensing the monster beneath.
"You don't look like a demon," I muttered.
He gave a low laugh. "And you don't look like a murder trial waiting to happen, but here we are."
My feet moved reluctantly as he led me across the floating courtyard. Black glass shimmered beneath us, reflecting the blood-stained sky. In the distance, I saw more students — if you could call them that — walking with wings torn, horns barely concealed, and eyes that shimmered silver or red.
"What... is this place?" I asked. "What do they teach here?"
"Survival," Lucien replied. "Redemption, if you're foolish. Submission, if you're weak. And power... if you're smart."
We passed through massive gates etched with holy script that pulsed under my skin. It burned. Not physically — something deeper. Like my soul had just been scanned and wasn't supposed to be here.
Lucien watched me flinch. "That's how the Reformatory marks the broken ones."
"I'm not broken," I snapped.
He paused, eyes narrowing like a predator who'd just been dared to bite. "Then why did your wings rip through the sky?"
I stopped. "What wings?"
He stepped into me, close enough that I smelled fire and ice and something that didn't belong to Earth.
"Those streaks of light weren't from a meteor, angel," he whispered. "You fell. From somewhere. From someone. And we all saw it."
I opened my mouth. Closed it.
I didn't remember wings. I didn't remember falling. I remembered... the heat. The light. Screaming.
But none of it made sense.
"I'm human," I said. "Or—I was."
Lucien's jaw clenched. "You're not anymore."
Before I could protest, a bell tolled in the sky — low, violent, and echoing like war drums. The other students stopped moving. Some knelt. Some growled.
Lucien grabbed my arm.
"Headmistress is coming," he said. "If she sees you unclaimed, she'll do more than test your wings."
"Unclaimed?"
"You're a wildcard in a world that thrives on order. Someone has to bind you before she does."
He pulled me closer.
And then whispered:
"Let me mark you, Seraphina. Just until I figure out what you are."