CASPIAN POV
"Step away from her, Wraith. That girl is a Siphon. And I'm bringing her to the Council."
The words taste like poison in my mouth, but I force them out cold and hard. Aria's face goes white. Ezra moves in front of her protectively, shadow magic gathering in his hands.
"You're making a mistake, Everhart," Ezra growls.
"The only mistake I made was not realizing sooner." I let my Celestial magic flare brighter, filling the library with blinding light. "Professor Thorne put out an alert ten minutes ago. Aria Nightshade is a Siphon who attacked Council members. There's a manhunt happening right now."
"That's not what happened!" the silver-haired girl—Luna—protests. "They attacked us first!"
"Doesn't matter what the truth is. Only matters what the Council believes." I take a step forward, and Ezra's shadows surge in response. "Don't make this harder than it needs to be."
Aria finally speaks, her voice shaking with rage and betrayal. "I should have known. You're just like your father—cruel and heartless. You probably get off on turning in people like me."
Her words hit harder than I expect. She has no idea I spent the last hour breaking into my father's study, stealing medical files, uncovering secrets that make me want to scream.
"You don't know anything about my father," I say quietly.
"I know he's dying from a curse caused by forbidden ritual magic," Aria shoots back. "I know he's killed three students in the past six months trying to save himself. And I know you're too blind to see it because you're desperate to believe he's a good person."
My Celestial magic flickers. "How do you know that?"
"Because I'm not stupid, unlike you apparently." Her violet eyes burn with fury. "Your father is performing a resurrection ritual that requires six sacrifices—five students with different magical abilities, and one Siphon as the final key. He's going to kill me to save himself, and you're going to hand me right to him."
"That's insane. My father wouldn't—"
"Really? Then explain this." Luna holds up her phone, showing me a photo of a ritual circle. "We found this in the Old Chapel catacombs. Six positions. Five already filled with victims' blood. One waiting. Recognize the magical signature on the wards protecting it?"
I lean closer and my heart stops. The signature is unmistakable—Celestial magic, exactly like mine. Exactly like my father's.
"That doesn't prove anything," I say, but my voice cracks.
"It proves your father has access to that ritual site. It proves he's involved." Aria steps forward, and Ezra tries to stop her, but she shakes him off. "Listen to me, Caspian. I don't like you. You're arrogant and cruel and you made my life hell today. But I think somewhere under all that ice, you know something's wrong. You know your father is hiding things."
She's right. God help me, she's right.
The medical file I stole burns in my bag like a guilty secret. I pull it out with shaking hands and throw it on the table between us.
"Six months," I say roughly. "That's how long he has left according to these reports. Some kind of magical backlash from a failed ritual. The curse is eating him from the inside out."
Luna picks up the file and reads quickly. Her face goes pale. "This isn't just any curse. This is what happens when a resurrection ritual goes wrong. The magic rebounds and starts consuming the caster instead."
"Which means he tried this before," Ezra says grimly. "And when it failed, he got desperate. Started killing students to try again."
"No." I shake my head violently. "He's my father. He's harsh and impossible to please, but he's not a murderer. He wouldn't—"
"Wouldn't what? Kill to survive?" Aria's voice turns almost gentle, which somehow makes it worse. "My parents died protecting me from people who wanted to dissect me for being a Siphon. Your father is dying and desperate. Desperate people do terrible things."
I want to argue. Want to defend him. But the evidence is right there in front of me.
Three dead students. My father's illness. The ritual circle with his magical signature. The timeline that matches perfectly.
"If you really believe he's innocent," Luna says quietly, "then help us prove it. Help us break into the Forbidden Archive and find the truth about this ritual. If he's not involved, we'll find evidence clearing him. But if he is..."
"If he is, then you get to choose," Aria finishes. "Save your father and let more innocent people die. Or stop him and save everyone else."
The choice sits on my chest like a boulder.
I think about my father at breakfast this morning, looking gray and sick. The way he said everything he's done was for me. The way he's been acting strange for months—secret meetings, locked doors, unexplained absences.
I think about Sarah Chen, Marcus Thornhill, and David Reeves. Three teenagers who died alone and afraid.
I think about the note Aria left me: Your father is the killer.
"I need proof," I hear myself say. "Real proof. Not suspicions and timelines. If I'm going to betray my own father, I need to know for certain."
"Then help us get into the Archive," Ezra says. "The Codex Animarum supposedly contains records of every major ritual performed in the last thousand years. If your father is involved, there will be evidence."
"Breaking into the Archive is suicide. The wards are Council-level. We'd need at least five people with different magical signatures working together."
"We have five." Luna counts on her fingers. "Me with oracle magic, Aria with Siphon abilities, Ezra with shadow magic, you with Celestial magic, and Felix Zhao with transmutation. That's five different types."
"Felix Zhao?" I frown. "The scholarship kid who competes with Aria? Why would he help?"
"Because his family is being destroyed by debt to the Crimson Syndicate," Aria says. "And we're going to offer him something the Council won't—the truth about how corrupt they really are. That's leverage he can use to save his family."
I should say no. Should walk away from this insanity and report them all to Professor Thorne.
But then I remember my father's hands shaking at breakfast. The fear in his eyes when he thought I wasn't looking. The way he's been slipping away from me for months.
I need to know the truth. Even if it destroys me.
"Fine," I say. "I'll help. But we do this my way. Carefully. And if we find evidence that proves my father is innocent—"
"Then we find the real killer together," Aria agrees.
"And if we find evidence that he's guilty?"
Aria meets my eyes, and for the first time, I see something other than hatred there. Understanding. Pity.
"Then we stop him before anyone else dies."
I nod once, sealing the deal that might cost me everything.
"When do we break in?" I ask.
"Tomorrow night," Luna says. "During the new moon when the wards are weakest. But first we need to recruit Felix and—"
The library door slams open again.
My father stands there, flanked by four Council guards, his face twisted with rage and something that looks like panic.
"Caspian," he says in a voice that makes my blood freeze. "Step away from the Siphon. Now."
And I realize with horrible certainty that he's not here to arrest Aria.
He's here to kill her.