CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR: OF UNMARKED PATHS, SCARRED PRESIDENTS, AND THE DAY THE COURT KNOCKED BACK
KD's POV
The wind was quieter in Kasile Hills.
No announcements, no clamor, no forced whispers behind lockers that thought they were subtle.
Just leaves.
Leaves scraping against the old cracked railing of the rest house I hadn't left in days. It sat between city borders, hidden just well enough that even the most stubborn eyes in Supreme Allievo wouldn't have known where to start looking. Or maybe they just stopped trying.
Good.
I didn't want to be found.
At least not by them.
I tugged the hoodie lower over my face, knuckles still bruised, ribs still aching. The silence had done something to me—something not even Arcanum could.
It didn't heal me. But it stripped me clean.
No more uniforms. No more mandates. No more pretending I could fix a school that didn't want to be held together.
And yet—when the black vehicle rolled in, kicking up dust and certainty—I wasn't surprised.
Two boys stepped out. One taller, one sharper. Both dressed in Celestine Ardent Academy's uniform, the gold threads of the Ardent Court's crest stitched boldly over their left shoulders like a dare.
Saichel Andreau Levesque.
Lyle Raizen Soriano.
I stood slowly, not flinching.
I knew them.
Everyone knew them.
Saichel—the too-casual heir of Supreme Allievo's Headmaster. Born with a grin and a school-wide backdoor pass. And Lyle—cold-eyed, calculating, always watching. Riyee's cousin. And unlike most who shared her bloodline,
Lyle didn't just protect from the sidelines. He dismantled threats. And right now, the threat was me. They weren't here to ask. They were here because they already knew.
And that crest? That was a warning.
You've been watched. You're not invisible.
"We've been tracking you, Khaizer Dylan."
Lyle's voice cut through the space like data transmission—low, clean, direct.
"Following you. Covering your steps. Erasing every trace before anyone else could find you."
His eyes didn't flicker. Not even once.
"Even Bianchi's cleanest spies hit firewalls."
I didn't answer. Didn't need to.
Because inside, the realization had already sunk its teeth in:
No one in Supreme Allievo ever did that for me.
Not the High Chamber.
Not the ones who called me President.
Not the ones who let them vote me out like I was an expired file.
The Ardent Court hadn't just watched me. They'd protected the memory of me. Before I even knew I'd need saving. They didn't play defense. They erased your offense before you even thought to launch it.
"Your school's falling apart, by the way," Saichel said lazily, swinging his arms before propping them against the broken railing like it wasn't carved from rot.
YOU ARE READING
STRINGS BETWEEN US
Teen Fiction"A slow-burn teen romance threaded with secrets, rivalries, and a dangerous past neither of them remembers-until it comes for them." ✧ STRINGS BETWEEN US ✧ She left her crown behind. He ruled with silence. But some strings pull-no matter how far you...
