Chapter 2 The Night They Came For Me

Ivy’s POV

“Aunt Elara!”

The door slammed against the wall so hard it rattled the entire cottage. I burst inside, my chest rising and falling like I’d just run a thousand miles to here. In my trembling hand, the black envelope felt heavier than iron.

“Why are you yelling my name like a mad girl?” Aunt Elara snapped, turning away from the steaming pot on the stove to face me. Her face twisted with irritation—the same expression she wore every single day of my life. “Say something and stop staring at me like a damn fool!”

“I-I found this,” I replied quickly, my voice cracking with every word as I stepped closer l, holding out the letter to her with shaking fingers. “It…it was lying on the ground beside the well.”

Aunt Elara wiped her hands on her stained apron and snatched the letter from me, her eyes scanning the elegant script. 

For a second, her face remained blank.

Then something shifted.

I had never seen Aunt Elara this afraid—not even once in my entire life. But right now, fear flickered across her face like a dying candle.

“Aunt Elara?” I whispered. “What does it mean? Why…why would they summon me to Nightgrave Academy when I have no magical powers?”

She didn’t answer.

If anything her fingers tightened on the paper until it crumpled. The silence stretched, thick and suffocating between us, broken only by the crackling fire in the room and the distant howl of wind through the mountain passes.

I opened my mouth to press her again when—

BANG!

The front door exploded inward with terrifying force, slamming against the wall so hard that a clay pot shattered on the floor. I flinched violently, a scream tearing from my throat before I could stop it.

Four men stepped into our tiny cottage, their presence swallowing the entire space. They moved with lethal precision, dressed in dark, embroidered uniforms threaded with silver.

“Who the hell are you people?” Aunt Elara demanded, but her voice shook. The fear I’d seen on her face now bled fully into her tone.

One of them stepped forward—a tall man with a scarred jaw and piercing blue eyes. His gaze landed on me at first, then shifted to Aunt Elara.

“We are here for Ivy Rowan.”

Hearing my name roll off his tongue sent a chill running down my spine. I staggered back until the edge of the wooden table dug into my lower back.

“You will come with us to Nightgrave Academy,” he continued, his voice cold and final. “Now.”

“I’m not coming with you!” I shot back, shaking my head so hard my hair whipped across my face. “I don’t know who any of you are. This is a mistake—”

“You’ve been summoned,” the man interrupted calmly. “Refusal is not permitted.”

What the hell—?

He just repeated the same words from the letter.

My green eyes darted to Aunt Elara, desperation bleeding with every word I said. “Aunt Elara…please! Tell them! Tell them they’re wrong. I belong here. This is my home!”

For one fragile second, our eyes met. In that moment, a tiny bit of hope sparked inside me—maybe—after all these years of cruelty—she would finally treat me like family.

Then she exhaled sharply and stepped back.

“Take her.”

The words hit me harder than any slap she had ever given me.

“No…” my throat tightened. “Aunt…what are you saying?”

“She’s your problem now,” she said coldly, refusing to even look at me. “I’ve done more than enough for you all these years…feeding a magic-less orphan like you.”

For a second, I thought I’d misheard her correctly. I stepped closer, my knees nearly giving out beneath me, but I forced them steady. 

“No…no, please…” tears began to stream down my cheeks, blurring my vision. “Aunt Elara, you can’t do this to me! You’re all I have left. Please don’t let them take me!”

My pleas did nothing to soften her heart. If anything, she turned her back on me completely, stirring the stew as if I had already ceased to exist.

Before I could utter another word, strong hands clamped around my upper arm like a vice, yanking me back so hard I nearly stumbled.

“Let me go!” 

I twisted, fighting with every ounce of strength I possess. My free hand shot out, nails scraping against armor.

Another arm wrapped around my waist—

And suddenly I was lifted clean off the ground as if I weighed nothing. The world flipped upside down as I was thrown over a broad shoulder. 

“No! Put me down!” I shrieked, pounding my fists hard against his back. “I don’t want to go with any of you! Let me go!”

The cottage door loomed ahead as they carried me out, everything inside me reeling—as though if I just held on for one more second, she would call me back.

“Aunt Elara!” My voice cracked into a sob. “Please! Don’t do this…I will gladly do all the chores, and I’ll never complain again…please don’t let them take me away!”

Her back was still turned to the stove, then she turned to face me. The cold night air hit my tear-streaked face as the door began to swing shut behind us, her final words drifting out like poison.

“I never wanted you.”

Something deep inside my chest shattered. 

Whatever strength I had left drained from my body in an instant as I hung limp over the guard’s shoulder, silent tears streaming down my face as the cottage began to grow smaller behind us. 

As they dragged me away, a cold, terrifying realization crept inside me, wrapping around my chest until I could barely breathe. 

Whatever waited for me at Nightgrave Academy would either break me completely…

…or awaken something inside me I never knew existed.