The Price of Truth(GL)

Prologue: The Girl Beneath the Lake

It was the kind of night that swallowed light whole. No moon, no stars just the heavy breath of clouds blanketing the academy grounds in a suffocating blackness. The only sound was the whisper of wind against the dormitory windows and the distant ripple of water.

Lake Aradia was still. Too still.

A flashlight beam trembled as it cut through the darkness, casting a shaky circle of light along the edge of the dock. Footsteps, hesitant and sharp, creaked against the old wood. Someone was out there someone not supposed to be.

A shoe floated at the edge of the water. Small. Elegant. Out of place.

The girl holding the flashlight leaned over, trying to make out what was beneath the surface. Her breath caught. The light shimmered against something pale. Skin.

There was a girl in the lake.

She screamed.

---

By morning, the academy was locked down. No one in. No one out. No classes. No explanations. Only silence, gossip, and one fact shared in hushed tones:

One of their own was dead.

And she didn’t drown.

---

Elira Voss stood at the edge of the library balcony, eyes fixed on the commotion below. The whispers were already starting, coiling through the marble halls like smoke.

She wasn’t afraid. She didn’t flinch. But she watched. Studied.

She knew how this school worked. She knew how the girls here devoured each other when no one was watching.

And somewhere in that sea of faces, she felt it that slow crawl of someone watching her.

Someone new.

Sera Alden had arrived only a week ago. But she didn’t move like a new girl. Didn’t speak unless spoken to. And when she looked at Elira, it wasn’t with awe or envy like the others. It was... measured. Curious.

Like she already knew something.

Elira’s fingers curled against the railing.

This school would eat Sera alive. Or worse.

Unless Sera was the one doing the hunting.

---