ShadowBound: The Need For Power

"Last semester, we drilled the act of killing into your minds—over and over—with holographic targets that bled like people and screamed like them too," Kaine began, his tone razor-sharp. "Yet I'd wager more than half of you still couldn't take a real life."

He paced slowly, his boots echoing in the silence.

"But no matter. This semester will be different. Everything we promised to teach before—psychological warfare, infiltration, tracking, and precision takedowns—will now be enforced. We held back because most of you were too slow, too soft. That ends now."

He stopped, locking eyes with Liam.

"This semester… we're not training you to be just killers. We're training you to be ghosts."

A beat passed. Then his voice dropped low.

"And if anyone falls behind… I'll finish you myself."

Seraphina licked the last bite of her apple, savoring it before tossing the core into the bin without even glancing. Her smirk curled like a devil's kiss.

"Mm… what a lovely little speech, Kaine. Brutal. Just how I like it."

The students didn't move, didn't even breathe too loudly. Tension wrapped the room like a noose as Kaine slowly turned from Liam and made his way to the front. His mere presence was oppressive—enough to still even the most arrogant voices. The only sound that dared fill the silence was Seraphina's amused, purring hum.

She began her slow, serpentine walk between the rows of desks, her heels clicking with a soft, deliberate rhythm. Her eyes slid lazily over each student, predatory and unbothered.

"Twenty-one of you started this discipline last semester," she said, her voice like silk laced with poison. "Only eleven survived to see the end. And as of this morning… we're down to ten."

She smiled faintly, as if she were announcing the weather.

"Still being here? That earns you a blink of acknowledgment. But don't get too comfortable. This semester…" her eyes narrowed, "we step into the art of assassination. Subtlety. Deception. Manipulation. The heart of true espionage."

Her gaze swept the room again—this time lingering on Charlotte. The tension in her clenched jaw did not escape Seraphina. Her smile deepened, taunting.

"You'll learn to bend people without ever raising a weapon. You'll seduce. Lie. Blackmail. Shatter people from within. If you still cling to the illusion of morality…" her voice lowered, "you're in the wrong room."

She came to a stop behind Liam once more, her fingers hovering just above his shoulder, teasing proximity.

"And for those of you thinking that effort alone will help you catch up… don't fool yourselves." She tapped a single nail lightly on Liam's shoulder. His jaw twitched, but he didn't flinch. "There's someone here setting a pace you can't even see. Keep up—or get buried."

Then, with a graceful turn, she crossed to her side of the room.

"Kaine, darling," she said with a smirk, "shall we assign their little welcome-back test?"

Kaine gave no immediate answer. His steel-gray eyes cut toward her with a brief flicker of disdain before he strode toward the classroom door. He paused just long enough to speak.

"Start moving."

His tone was quiet, but it hit like a commandment.

The students hesitated. Stillness reigned—until Seraphina's voice chimed sweetly.

"You heard the man."

That broke the spell. Chairs slid back, boots hit the ground, and the group followed Kaine in silence. Moments later, they stood in the class' training hall. Kaine and Seraphina stood several paces ahead, like executioners awaiting their victims.

"For your first test," Kaine began, voice sharp as glass, "you'll be dropped into a simulation—an exact replica of the manor belonging to Biant Hue. A serial killer. A very clever one."

He looked over them, expression unreadable.

"Your task is to find him. You have until the end of class. No reinforcements. No backup. Extract information… or eliminate the target, if required."

His eyes narrowed, voice dropping into a quiet threat.

"If you want to survive this… shut off your emotions. Kill your fear. Kill your pain. Or you've already failed."

Kaine reached out and tapped several points on the glowing magical interface beside him. The hall around the students began to hum with energy, the air thick with myst. Before any of them could speak or prepare, the walls rippled—bending and twisting like melting wax—as the sterile training hall dissolved into something entirely different.

Within seconds, the students stood in the center of a dimly lit manor room. Cold stone underfoot with a single cracked chandelier dangled above them, swaying with a creak. Dust choked the air. And there was a single door, leading out.

---

Outside the simulation, Seraphina had gracefully climbed onto a raised platform beside the magical interface. She lounged effortlessly, one leg crossed over the other as she conjured a hovering screen of glowing mist in front of her, revealing the manor's interior from multiple shifting angles.

Kaine stood beside her, arms folded, his gaze steady on the screen.

After a long moment of silence, he finally spoke. "What do you even see in that kid?"

Seraphina tilted her head slightly but didn't look at him. Her fingers swirled lazily through the air, adjusting the screen's view to follow Liam's every move.

"You know he's younger than you. That's your thing, right?" Kaine added, tone sharp. "But that one? He's nothing but a cold, arrogant nuisance."

Seraphina chuckled—soft and wicked, like the stroke of a knife on velvet. She turned her head just enough to glance at Kaine out of the corner of her eye.

"You really are terrible at hiding your jealousy," she teased, her voice laced with amusement. "It's adorable, in a sad little way."

Kaine's jaw flexed, but he said nothing.

Seraphina leaned back slightly, smiling as Liam on the screen took the lead while the others hesitated. "There's something inside him," she murmured. "Something most people spend a lifetime trying to fake. And you… you'll only find out what it is if he chooses to show you. Until then…

"you can keep playing his tormentor. It keeps him sharp."

Kaine's eyes narrowed, but his silence said more than any insult could. His gaze remained locked on the screen—on Liam.

---

'This place gets under your skin,' Liam thought as he lingered in the farthest corner of the dim room. 'Ten students. Find a serial killer. Extract information or eliminate. Sounds simple—until you realize how annoyingly vague it is.' His eyes swept over the others. 'And more frustratingly, I have to tolerate eight ego-inflated wrecks who can barely think straight.'

'Honestly, I'd be better off alone. That way, I'd have the freedom to use my dark magic without holding back.' His eyes narrowed. 'But Seraphina and Kaine are definitely watching us right now. Seraphina knows what I am… but Kaine? Doubt she's told him. So I can't risk tipping my hand. Not yet.'

'With that variable eliminated,' he glanced across the room until his gaze settled on the only person he could reasonably trust in this environment. Charlotte. 'She's annoying, but useful. And predictable.'

He made his way over.

"Hey, Charlotte."

She turned to him with a purring hum. "Mmm? How may I help you, my dear cheating bae?"

Liam blinked. 'Cheating?' He decided not to take the bait. "I think we should work together."

Charlotte raised a brow. "With these people? Did you hit your head when we got in here?"

"Not with them," Liam replied. "Just us. Your jaguar instincts make you a better tracker than anyone else in here. You'd sense threats faster than they blink."

"Oh thank goodness," Charlotte sighed in relief, dramatically clutching her chest. "I thought you meant forming an alliance with these weaklings." She made sure the last word was loud enough to carry. A few annoyed grunts answered from across the room.

"I'm not interested in playing babysitter," Liam said, voice low and flat. "With just an hour and a half, I doubt I have the patience to keep me from snapping someone's neck over all the contempt radiating from them."

Charlotte grinned. "Good. It was just the two of us from the start anyway."

Without another word, the two of them moved toward the only door in the room, leaving the others behind in silence and suspicion.

The tension snapped to life in the room as they left.

"So we're just letting them go off on their own?" one student snapped, a tall boy with a narrow face and a twitch in his jaw. "You all saw that, right? Just ditch the rest of us without a word?"

"Tch. Like we needed them," said a girl leaning against a pillar, arms crossed. "Let the lovebirds enjoy their solo failure. The rest of us can cover more ground if we split into pairs."

"Split into pairs?" another voice chimed in. "Why not stick together as a group of eight? We'll have a better chance if something jumps out at us. This place is designed to screw with us."

"That's exactly why we shouldn't stay together," muttered a quiet, dark-haired boy with a low voice. "Too many people, too much noise. We'll draw attention like idiots."

"Yeah? And you think running around alone makes you smarter?" someone shot back.

The room quickly descended into overlapping arguments—splitting up versus staying together, who could be trusted, who couldn't. Accusations laced with nerves. The simulation's heavy air only amplified the paranoia.

And above it all, unseen, Seraphina and Kaine watched from their screen.

"Ah," Seraphina purred, eyes glinting. "And now the real fun begins."