Smoke snaked through the corridors like vipers, hissing through vents and curling beneath locked doors. Crestwood Academy once untouchable, pristine was now groaning under the weight of its own secrets.
Students ran. Alarm lights flashed red against confused, terrified faces.
Seraphina moved like fire in silk heels, shoving past chaos with Levi at her side and Jaxon trailing just close enough to pretend he hadn't betrayed her.
She didn't look at him. Not yet.
"South wing's clear," Levi said, tossing her a duffel bag packed with files and two burner phones. "This has everything from the council server."
"Good," she said, winded but steady. "Upload it to the cloud. Expose it."
He gave her a look. "You still trust me with that?"
"I trust the truth," she said. "That's bigger than both of us now."
They reached the grand staircase. Below, fire had begun licking at the edges of the entrance hall. The air stank of burning velvet and old money.
Jaxon caught up, out of breath. "Sera, wait"
She turned, eyes hard.
"Don't," she snapped. "Don't call me that like everything hasn't changed."
"I didn't know they'd detain Levi," he said, chest heaving. "I thought I could control it"
"You thought you could protect me," she cut in. "Like my father. Like the council. Like every man who ever said I was too valuable to make my own choices."
Silence.
Levi's eyes flicked between them, jaw tight.
Then came the explosion.
A boom so deep it rattled the stained glass windows and cracked the marble floor.
"They've set charges," Levi said. "They're going to level it."
"No," Seraphina muttered. "They're going to try."
She sprinted toward the east hall — where the tunnels began. The escape routes built for emergencies... or cover-ups.
Behind her, Jaxon hesitated.
"Come or don't," she yelled. "But I'm not slowing down."
Levi didn't hesitate.
Underground, the lights were dim and flickering. The halls were lined with old records Crestwood's first students, dusty portraits, forgotten files.
Seraphina stopped in front of one plaque a name engraved in bronze.
Lila Carter.
Tears stung her eyes.
"She tried to do what I'm doing now," Seraphina whispered. "And they erased her."
"Not this time," Levi said, voice low.
Footsteps behind them.
Jaxon.
He looked wrecked. Ash in his hair. Bleeding knuckles. But his eyes were clear for once.
"I made my choice," he said. "I'm with you."
Seraphina studied him. Then turned away.
"Help us collapse the tunnels behind us," she said. "They'll chase us if we don't."
As they moved, her mind churned. She had files. She had evidence. She had two boys she wasn't sure she could forgive. And she had a crown that meant nothing now.
But she also had a voice.
The intercom crackled again, from the watch Levi had grabbed.
"Miss Vale," came the cold voice of the councilwoman. "You've been pampered. Protected. But you were never built to lead."
Seraphina smiled darkly into the static.
"Maybe not," she said. "But I was built to end you."
The transmission died.
Above them, the school groaned as a final charge detonated the grand hall collapsing into dust and history.
And Seraphina Vale walked away, not a princess anymore.
But something far more dangerous.
A girl with nothing left to lose and a nation of secrets to expose.