CHAPTER 79: EVICTED

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Chapter 79

~Spring’s POV~

"I..." My throat closed. "B-but she didn’t lose—"

"Silence!" Kael’s voice cracked like thunder. My body locked up in terror.

I whimpered, shrinking further as the temperature in the room seemed to drop.

"You’re pathetic," Tyrion said out of nowhere, his tone almost detached, like I wasn’t even worth his full wrath. That made it worse, but the hatred in it sliced deeper than any scream.

Kael walked toward me slowly, his smile twisted. "You really thought you could break her, that you could come between us and Spring. Our mate." His voice dipped with a lethal edge. "I should make you taste hell."

I sank further on the floor, shoulders trembling as the tears poured freely. "I... I’m sorry," I choked out. "Please... I didn’t mean for it to—"

"Shut up," Jace snapped.

Kael took a slow step forward and crouched in front of me, lowering to my eye level.

I tried to avert my gaze, but he caught my chin and forced my head up. His smile was venomous, and his eyes was madness wrapped in calm.

"I should make you scream for every second you thought you could tear her from us. From me." His voice dropped lower. "I will make you beg to be erased. You tried to play queen, but you’re nothing more than a spoiled pawn."

The tears stung so much in my eyes as he added, "You want pain, Lilith? You haven’t even tasted a sliver of it. But I can make sure you do."

My whole body shook.

Tears burned down my cheeks before I even noticed them falling. My hands pressed to the floor, but I couldn’t even bow properly. My pride was gone. My strength—shattered.

"Please... I’m sorry," I choked. "I didn’t mean—please, I was jealous. I wasn’t thinking. I was wrong. Please, I’ll do anything."

I covered my face, sobbing. My heart pounded against my ribs like it was trying to escape.

And then... the air shifted again.

The coldest of them all stepped forward.

Storm Draven.

His presence was like a blizzard—silent, piercing, merciless. I didn’t dare look up until his shadow fell directly over me.

He didn’t crouch. He didn’t pace. He simply stood over me, towering with a cold that felt like death itself.

"You think you deserve forgiveness?" he asked, voice like thunder before the storm. "You think tears and trembling can rewrite what you’ve done?"

I flinched. My mouth trembled. "Storm..."

His eyes blazed. "Don’t."

"Please have mercy as your..."

"Lilith Astor," he cut in sharply. "For the sins you committed—shaming and ridiculing the Council, insulting and harming our mate, abusing your title, and betraying every ounce of the respect this institution gave you..."

My breath hitched.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

"...You are hereby evicted from this school."

The words were like a slap connecting sharply to my cheek. I gasped, my body trembling. "No... please—Storm—don’t—"

He didn’t flinch.

"You will withdraw your enrollment. Immediately. You will also make a public apology—on video—to Spring Kaine. That is the bare minimum for me to even consider not ruining your father’s political career and killing you."

"No! Please!" I cried, reaching for him. "Don’t do this—don’t do this to me!"

Kael kicked my hand away before it touched Storm’s boot.

Storm didn’t even look at me as he delivered the final blow. "Henceforth, you do not exist to us. You do not speak to us. You do not associate yourself with us. We were never friends. We were never allies."

"Erase yourself completely," Jace chipped in.

Tyrion added, "You’ll learn that crossing Spring was the worst mistake of your life."

And then... as though rehearsed, they turned, all four of them.

Just like that, as if I had already ceased to matter.

In that moment, I knew I had. I collapsed fully to the floor, broken and breathless, tears soaking into the classroom’s cold, cracked tiles.

They didn’t look back, none of them did.

They left me in the silence, in the ruin of my own making.

And it was only then, lying there with nothing but the echo of their steps in my ears, that I truly understood the depths of the mistake I had made.

Spring wasn’t just one girl, she was everything to them, and I had tried to destroy her, but in the end... I only destroyed myself.

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~Madelyn’s POV~

The silence after their exit was so thick, I could slice through it with a fingernail.

I waited, waited just long enough to hear her breath stutter—just long enough to see her wipe her tears in that jerky, humiliated way.

Then I stepped out from the corner of the hallway, slow, heels clicking like a metronome against her shame.

Lilith’s head snapped up the moment she sensed me. Her eyes narrowed immediately.

I smiled, keeping my lips not too wide and less mocking but just enough to tell her I’d seen it all.

"Well, well," I began, folding my arms loosely. "Didn’t take long for the crown to roll off your head, did it?"

Lilith staggered to her feet, her lip curling as she swiped under her eyes with the back of her palm.

"Madelyn," she hissed. "If you came here to gloat, save your breath."

"Oh, sweetie." I gave a mock tilt of my head. "You think I need to gloat? You’ve already done all the work for me."

Her jaw tightened, and the fury building behind those watery eyes began to simmer again. I could see it—that desperate need to hold on to a crumbling façade.

"I’m still better than you," she snapped, squaring her shoulders, voice trembling but sharp. "You think just because Spring tossed a few wins together and made out with your alpha friends, she’s suddenly untouchable?"

My smile faded a fraction.

"Oh," I breathed, walking closer now, closing the distance between us. "I don’t need to compare myself to Spring. Because, unlike you, I’ve never built my worth on someone else’s shadow."

She scoffed. "Please. You’re a side character in everyone’s story, Madelyn. Always on the edges. The help."

I arched a brow.

"And yet," I said softly, stepping right into her space, "here I am, still standing in this school and you...?"

My eyes drifted down to her half-open suitcase, the crumpled uniforms, and the resignation leaking from every pore in her body.

"You’re being kicked out."