Filed to story: Mated and Hated by My Brother’s Best Friend Book PDF Free by Anna Campbell
Actually flinched.
His eyes dropped to the ground. His shoulders sagged under the invisible weight of my words.
“I’m sorry,” he said hoarsely. “I know I can’t undo it. I know I broke what we had. I just… I wanted to keep you safe.”
His gaze flickered to my neck then-to the mark Nate had placed there.
A true mark.
A claiming born of choice, not force.
“It looks like Morningstar fixed that issue, though,” he said softly.
I didn’t answer. I didn’t owe him that. I didn’t owe him anything anymore.
When I didn’t speak, he sighed again, frustration bleeding into the air between us.
“Look, Jiselle,” he said, stepping closer. “We need to go. Now. The ceremony only gets worse from here. If they realize what you really are, they’ll kill you. They’ll carve you open and cage your soul. Please. Come with me. I can get you out of here.” For a split second-one terrible heartbeat-I almost wavered.
But then Nate’s voice slammed into my mind.
‘What’s wrong? I’m almost there-almost at the chamber where they were taking you. Just hold on!”
I closed my eyes.
‘You don’t need to anymore,’ I sent back, the words thick with exhaustion.
There was a beat of stunned silence.
Then, ‘What? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Jiselle-‘
‘Max is here, I interrupted, forcing the words through our bond.
A roar, not of sound but of pure rage, rippled through me over the connection. Nate’s anger was a living thing, clawing at my skin. ‘WHAT?!’
But before he could spiral, I shut the bond dow Successfully unlocked! out muted. Enough to tell him: Focus on the plan. I’ll handle this. confused
“And they’ll kill you,” he snapped back. “For being who you are. For being better than them.”
I froze.
His voice cracked, and for the first time, I heard the truth under his anger. The fear. The desperation. The guilt.
“All of this-” he said, waving at the corridor, the academy, the mountain above us. “Everything I’ve done, everything Carrow s done, it’s because we knew what was coming. We knew they’d turn on you the second you manifested. I didn’t want you to die here. I didn’t want you to be another casualty they wrote off and buried under the mountain.”
I stared at him, my heart twisting painfully.
He meant it.
In his own broken, toxic way-he meant it.
But it didn’t make it right.
“I have a plan,” I said, my voice hardening. “We have a plan. Nate, Eva, Ethan, and me. We’re going to stop the Blood Oath. Stop the Council’s purge.”
Shock flickered across Max’s face.
“You’re fighting back?” he breathed.
I nodded once. “Eva manifested. She’s Sentinel.”
Something like pride-genuine, unguarded-lit his expression. “I knew it. I always knew she had it in her.”
I almost smiled.
Almost.
But there wasn’t time for that now.
“You can either fight with us,” I said, “or you can get the hell out of my way.”
He hesitated.
Pain, guilt, and something achingly tender moved across his face.
Then he straightened, shoulders squaring.
“I’m with you,” he said simply. “To the end.”
I didn’t thank him.
I didn’t have time.
Because behind us, the horn sounded again-low and mournful, calling the first years to gather for the Blood Oath ceremony.
The plan was already unraveling. Eva had warned us. Too many threads. Too many variables.
I couldn’t afford any more betrayal.
Without another word, I turned and sprinted back toward the Trial Ring.
My boots slammed against the stone, every step vibrating through my bones. The corridors blurred around me-shadows and torches, blood and dust.
When I burst into the main arena, the Trials had stopped.
Every first-year was standing in a loose line now, flanked by instructors. A wide circle had been cleared at the center of the floor, runes carved deep into the stone, glowing faintly red.
Council members stood around the edge, robed in black and silver, chanting low in the old tongue.
Veran was already looking at me when I returned. So was instructor Hadelyn and they both had murderous looks in tehri eyes, knowing I escaped.
The Blood Oath was beginning.
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Jiselle
My eyes searched frantically-Eva. Ethan. Nate.
There.
Eva’s pale hair gleamed in the torchlight, her hand gripping Ethan’s sleeve tightly. Ethan was watching the council with a look of barely restrained fury, his shoulders taut, his stance ready to fight even before the first blow.
And Nate-
Nate was already moving toward the center, slow and deliberate, his body tense, his eyes scanning every face, every shadow. His fingers flexed at his sides, like he was ready to rip through anyone who dared get too close.
When he spotted me, something in him relaxed.
Only slightly.
He tilted his head in the barest nod.
We were still in this.
We still had a chance.
I shoved through the crowd, pushing against the press of first-years gathering along the inner circle. My heart beat too fast, my pulse roaring in my ears. Every step I took, the energy in the chamber grew heavier. The runes etched into the ground beneath our feet pulsed brighter with each heartbeat, matching the drum of the ceremony’s rhythm.
And then-
Instructor Sira’s voice rose above it all. Smooth. Commanding.
“The first years shall come forward,” she called, her voice echoing against the stone. “And receive the binding mark. Those who are found worthy shall ascend. Those who are not…”
She didn’t finish the sentence.
She didn’t have to.
The implication hung heavy in the air, thicker than the smoke curling from the enchanted torches.
I fell into line beside Eva and Ethan, our shoulders brushing. No words passed between us. None were needed. We all knew what was at stake.
The line of students stretched ahead, tense and jittery. The air felt wrong. Too electric. Too still. Above us, the volcanic crevice revealed the full moon-fat and bright-pouring silver light over the arena like a divine spotlight.
This was it.
The beginning of the end.
And one way or another-
Tonight, the Academy would bleed.
The first student stepped forward.
She was trembling, her dagger clutched in shaking hands. An instructor guided her to the pedestal at the center of the circle. There, a council elder waited-his robes heavy with power, his eyes dead as stone. Without a word, he took her dagger, sliced her palm, and pressed her bleeding hand to a glowing sigil embedded in the floor.
Light flared.
She gasped, but didn’t pull away.
The elder murmured something low, and the mark flared gold on her wrist.
Accepted.
She stumbled back into the crowd, relief etched across her face.
Another student. Then another.
Some collapsed after the cut, their bodies too weak to handle the magic binding itself to their blood. Others barely flinched. A few smiled like they’d won something.
I didn’t move.
I couldn’t.
Because our plan-our desperate, dangerous plan-was supposed to start now.
The Plan.
It was simple. Elegant, even.
Nate had uncovered the weakness weeks ago-small fault lines hidden in the rune work beneath the chamber. If triggered just right-through synchronized bursts of magic and pressure-they could disrupt the binding spell before it completed.
We were supposed to trigger it when we were inside the circle-me, Eva, and Ethan, together.
A surge of elemental magic. A Sentinel warning pulse. A sliver of Ethereal force.
Boom.
Rupture the binding before it anchored.
Free everyone-or at least, free ourselves.
But the plan had two fatal flaws.
First-we hadn’t anticipated that the Council would rush the ritual. Pushing student after student through without pause. No preparation. No time to align.
And second-
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