Chapter 6 For All of Us

Skylar

I realised Irlan had kissed me exactly half a second too late.

Not the soft, accidental kind that could be blamed on bad timing or clumsy footing. Not the sort you could laugh off later and pretend never happened. This was deliberate, controlled, precise, and very much intentional.

His lips were cool, unnervingly so, carrying a faint metallic taste mixed with something bitter I couldn’t quite place. The kiss didn’t linger. It wasn’t dramatic or hungry like the romances humans obsessed over. It was brief, restrained, and somehow that made it worse.

Because my brain short-circuited completely.

I should have shoved him away. I should have snapped something sharp and defensive, or at least looked offended. That was my specialty. Instead, I froze like a badly written background character.

My hands hovered uselessly at my sides, my heart slammed painfully against my ribs, and heat crept up my neck in a way I deeply resented. Of all reactions, embarrassment was not supposed to be one of them.

Irlan pulled back first.

Our eyes met, and for once his usual calm detachment cracked. He looked just as startled as I felt, as if the reality of what he’d done had only just caught up with him.

“Oh,” he muttered.

That was it. No explanation even apology. Anything such smooth vampire deflection. Just one awkward syllable hanging between us like a dropped glass no one wanted to clean up.

I opened my mouth, intending to say something—anything—but my brain had apparently decided to clock out for the night.

Brilliant, Skylar. Truly inspiring composure.

Irlan cleared his throat, straightened far too quickly, and took a step back. Then another.

“What are you doing? What are we even doing?” I couldn’t hide my flustered reaction.

“We’re kissing. I shouldn’t have…” his lips pressing into a thin line.

For once, the eternally composed vampire had no idea where to put his hands, his gaze, or his dignity.

“I’ll go,” he said quietly.

Then he did. He left so quickly he nearly walked straight into the doorframe. The door shut behind him with a soft click that somehow felt louder than it should have.

Silence flooded the room.

I stared at the empty space for a full ten seconds before groaning and collapsing face-first onto my bed.

“Idiot,” I muttered into the pillow. “Absolute, irredeemable idiot.”

Because instead of reacting like a sane person, I’d just stood there and let a vampire kiss me like it was a perfectly normal thing that happened on an average school night.

My mind replayed the moment on a merciless loop—the angle of his head, the hesitation in his breath, the way he’d looked almost… uncertain.

I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling, willing sleep to come. It didn’t.

My hand drifted to my lips on its own, and I smiled. Thankfully, he was already gone—spared from witnessing me look like a completely unhinged, smitten wolf girl.

By the time dawn crept through the curtains, I was exhausted, irritable, and already regretting being alive.

Which meant, of course, that my schedule included Combat and Shifting.

The arena buzzed with noise and movement; growls, cracking joints, claws scraping against stone. Wolves paced confidently, many already half-shifted, their physical dominance unmistakable.

I stayed near the edge, arms folded tightly, keeping my breathing slow and controlled.

Shifting was not an option.

If I lost control while shifting, my magic wouldn’t simply leak, it would detonate. Equilibrium tended to frown upon students accidentally freezing time mid-class.

“Duel order,” the instructor barked. “Skylar McKirby. Second.”

A few heads turned. My opponent stepped forward.

She was taller, broader, already partially shifted with thick muscle rolling beneath tawny fur. She looked at my still-human form and smiled like this was already over.

The bell rang. She attacked immediately.

I dodged, barely avoiding claws that would have taken my head off. I fought smart, human technique, speed over strength; but every block rattled my arms and forced me further back.

The difference in power was brutal. I stumbled, my heel catching the edge of the ring, and suddenly her claws were at my throat.

Before I could react, a violent Alpha aura slammed between us. Michael shoved her back with a snarl, fury radiating off him like heat.

“That’s enough.”

The instructor shouted, but Michael ignored him, dragging me out of the ring like I was an injured pup.

The moment we reached the locker room, I yanked my arm free.

“What the hell was that?” I snapped.

“You were about to lose,” he shot back. “You could’ve been seriously hurt.”

“And that gave you permission to interfere?” I laughed sharply. “Or is it just your daily reminder that you think I’m weak?”

His jaw tightened. “You shouldn’t even be in that class.”

There it was.

Ah yes. Michael’s favourite genre: concern disguised as condescension.

“So let me guess,” I said sweetly. “I should sit quietly somewhere safe while the big, strong wolves handle everything?”

“I’m trying to protect you.”

“By insulting me?”

“You’re fragile, Skylar.”

“I can handle my own business.”

Something snapped.

Magic surged violently through me, and the locker door slammed shut behind me, frost spiderwebbing across the metal. I turned and walked away before he could say another word.

Later, as I passed the vampire dorms on my way to the library, I saw Irlan at the entrance. Our eyes met, then I fled.

The library offered no answers. No books on controlling magic like mine. I just buried in silence and frustration.

At dinner, I sat with Gils, painfully aware of the watching eyes—Michael’s, Irlan’s, Elroth’s.

As I stood to leave, the mark on my hand burned. A she-wolf blocked my path, provoking me until anger cracked.

Time froze, and this time the four problematic boys were the only ones who moved, while everyone else remained locked in place

Elroth stopped in front of me, lifting my chin.

“This academy won’t survive,” he whispered, “unless you choose one of us… or all of us.”