Chapter 1 The Silver Pocket Watch

Iris Bellweather (POV).

The ground rules of Bellweather Magical Repairs were strictly non-negotiable: cash upfront, no questions asked, and absolutely no high-tier Fae artifacts brought through the cellar trapdoor.

Naturally, my very first customer of the term broke every single one of them.

"If you ruin this," a voice like spun ice drawled from the shadows of the disused greenhouse beneath Moonvale Academy, "I will ensure your scholarship is revoked before breakfast."

I didn't look up from my workbench. I was currently using a pair of brass tweezers to reattach the delicate, wing-shaped gear of an enchanted alarm clock that had spent three days squawking in ancient High Elvish.

"Fascinating sales pitch, mate," I said, squinting through my magnifying loupe. "Though usually, customers start with a polite hello, or perhaps a brief inquiry into whether I’m currently accepting unlicensed contraband."

"I am not a customer, Bellweather," the voice replied, stepping into the dim, amber light of my floating fairy-lamps. "I am the head of the Student Council discipline committee. And you are operating an illegal commercial enterprise inside an abandoned academy conservatory."

I set the tweezers down and pushed my loupe up onto my forehead. Standing on the other side of my desk—surrounded by stacks of dusty grimoires, drying bundle-herbs, and three singing brass tea-kettles—was Rowan Nightshade.

He looked, as he always did, offensively immaculate. His silver-trimmed velvet coat didn't have a single speck of dust on it, despite the cobwebs hanging from the rafters. His dark hair fell in sharp, elegant angles around a face that looked like it had been carved out of winter frost by a sculptor who hated smiles.

"Ah, Nightshade!" I beamed, throwing my hands out in a sweeping, theatrical welcome. "What a lovely surprise! Did you come to confiscate my contraband, or did you just miss the homey aroma of my lavender-and-cabbage heating tea?"

Rowan’s dark eyes narrowed, sweeping across the cluttered shelves. "You have three illegal containment wards active, four unclassified ingredients, and a goose currently sleeping on a stack of restricted potion ledgers."

Beneath the workbench, Sir Fluffington let out a low, ominous rumble, opening one stay-away-from-my-ledgers eye.

"He’s my business accountant, actually," I corrected smoothly, resting my elbows on the desk and leaning forward. "And unless you came down three flights of decaying stone stairs just to read me the student handbook, you want something repaired."

Rowan’s jaw twitched. For a fraction of a second, the icy composure slipped, revealing a flicker of genuine, desperate frustration. He reached into the inner pocket of his coat, withdrew a velvet-wrapped bundle, and set it on the mahogany desk between us.

He unrolled the fabric. Inside lay a heavy, silver pocket watch. It was covered in intricate, intertwining runic engravings that pulsed with a faint, dying violet light. The casing was cracked down the center, and its minute hand was frozen motionless.

"It stopped ticking three days ago," Rowan said, his voice dropping an octave. "Two grand artificers in the High City claimed it was irreparable that the internal magic had burned out completely."

"And yet here you are," I said, poking the silver casing with the dull end of my tweezers. "Asking the girl who blew up the West Tower cauldron last term."

"I am asking the girl whose family line historically specialized in Mending Magic," Rowan countered, his gaze locking onto mine with uncomfortable intensity. "Do not play modest, Iris. I know what your magic can do when you aren't accidentally exploding cauldrons."

My heart did a quick, heavy thud against my ribs at the mention of my family name, but I kept my face perfectly blank. I leaned in, examining the runes on the casing.

"It’s Fae craftsmanship," I noted softly. "Pre-Concord era. Very rare. Very forbidden in a human academy." I looked up, catching his eye with a sharp grin. "If I fix this, it’ll cost you. Double rate. Plus your word that you won't report my shop."

Rowan's lips thinned into a flat, dangerous line. "You are bargaining with the Student Council, Bellweather."

"I'm bargaining with a customer who has nowhere else to go," I corrected. "Do we have a deal, Nightshade, or should I go back to fixing alarm clocks?"

Rowan held my gaze for three long, agonizing seconds before letting out a slow, irritated breath through his nose. "Fix it. But touch nothing beyond the broken casing. If you tamper with the internal core"

"I know, I know, shadow realm for three weeks," I sighed, picking up my silver soldering tool. "You really need a new line of threats, mate."

I hovered my hands over the shattered face of the pocket watch. I closed my eyes, letting the frantic, chaotic buzz of my normal casting fade away, tapping down into the deep, quiet well of my Mending Magic. Golden, thread-like light began to weave out from my fingertips, dancing over the cracked silver.

Unlike conventional spells that required loud incantations and violent energy, Mending was quiet. It didn't force the metal; it reminded the metal of what it used to be.

The silver casing let out a soft ping. The hairline crack down the center began to fuse together, the metal flowing like liquid silver under my glowing fingers. The internal gears groaned, shifting back into alignment.

Tick.

The sound echoed through the quiet greenhouse like a gunshot.

"It worked," Rowan murmured, taking a sudden step closer, his eyes fixed on the device.

Tick. Tick. BZZZT.

The silver watch suddenly bucked against the desk surface. The violet light pulsing from its runes didn't fade it exploded into a harsh, blinding beam of pale ethereal light that shot straight up through the greenhouse glass toward the ceiling.

"Iris, stop!" Rowan barked, lunging across the table to grab the watch.

"I'm not doing it! It’s doing it on its own!" I yelled, trying to pull my hands away, but the magic bound my fingers to the casing like invisible iron bands.

The air in the greenhouse grew freezing cold. The beam of light expanded, casting a shimmering, projection-like vision onto the stone wall above us.

We weren't looking at Moonvale anymore. The projection showed a sprawling, majestic city made of white spires under a double moon and then, in a terrifying flash, the spires crumbled. Black, oily shadows swept across the streets, swallowing fleeing figures wearing silver crowns. And standing at the center of the destruction, commanding the shadows, was a looming, faceless silhouette holding a broken, glowing staff.

The shadow turned its head in the vision, looking directly down at us.

A jolt of searing heat shot up my right arm. I gasped, dropping the watch as the spell violently severed itself.

The silver watch hit the desk, ticking smoothly now, its light returning to a quiet, innocent glow. The projection vanished, leaving the dark greenhouse smelling faintly of ozone and ancient snow.

I collapsed back into my stool, cradling my right arm, panting heavily. Beside me, Rowan was dead silent. His face was entirely devoid of color, his knuckles white where he gripped the edge of my desk.

"What... what was that?" I wheezed, rubbing my right forearm where the skin was still stinging like fire. "That wasn't a memory, Rowan. That shadow... it looked right at us."

Rowan didn't answer immediately. He picked up the pocket watch with a trembling hand, snapping the silver lid shut. When he looked at me, the arrogant mask was completely gone, replaced by a dark, guarded panic.

"You weren't supposed to be able to activate the core," he said, his voice dangerously quiet. "Only royal blood can trigger a dormant memory vault."

"Well, sorry for being thorough!" I snapped back, pulling up my leather sleeve to inspect the burn. "I just fixed the—"

I froze.

Etched into the skin of my right wrist, glowing with a soft, pulsing pitch-black light, was a perfectly defined crescent moon symbol. It burned with a cold, thrumming energy that vibrated directly against my pulse.

Rowan stared at my wrist, his breath catching in his throat. Before he could speak, a deep, reverberating horn echoed from high above us, shaking dust from the greenhouse rafters.

The academy's defense wards had just been triggered.

"The wards," Rowan whispered, stepping back toward the stairs, his eyes darting between my glowing wrist and the ceiling. "The watch's activation just alerted the entire faculty."

"Rowan, what did you bring into my shop?!" I demanded, scrambling out of my chair, my wrist throbbing with cold magic. "What is this mark?!"

"Cover it," Rowan commanded sharply, taking another step away as footsteps began to thunder along the stone corridors far above us. "Cover it and speak to no one about what you saw on that wall. If the High Council sees that mark on a Bellweather..." He stopped, swallowing hard, his eyes locking onto mine with a terrifying gravity. "...they won't just revoke your scholarship, Iris. They'll lock you in the vaults."

He turned and bolted up the stone stairs, disappearing into the shadows just as the heavy alarm bells of Moonvale Academy began to chime.