The Lunar Crest Academy: Marked by The Lycans-Chapter 206: Cracks in the Wall

The fountain pen scratched rhythmically against paper, a quick, sharp sound that echoed through the otherwise silent office. Stacks of documents, handwritten reports, incomplete disciplinary files, damage assessments, and budget requests were spread chaotically across Astrid Voss’s desk, an unusual mess for a woman known for for being organized and precise.

Her eyes moved over each page with cold speed, but her mind was far from calm. Half the academy was still in ruins, the other half running on the fragile thread of fear, and outside the protective walls, the kingdom itself was unraveling.

A knock sounded.

Astrid didn’t look up.

"Enter."

The door opened, and the scent reached her before the footsteps did, oakwood, steel, iron discipline. Magnus Thorn.

"What is it?" she asked flatly, still signing a paper.

Magnus stepped forward, stopping in front of her desk. "Cyrin spoke to me about your encounter with him."

She continued writing.

"And what exactly," she said, "did Cyrin tell you that I did to him?"

Magnus folded his arms. "He said you grabbed him by the throat and threatened him."

"And you are here to question me about it?" Astrid asked, voice low, unimpressed.

"Astrid.... you’re not taking this seriously." Magnus’s tone held both concern and impatience "Cyrin was the King’s royal physician. I’ve worked with him on countless occasions. He is an ally. Why would you doubt him?"

Astrid’s pen froze mid stroke.

Slowly, she placed it down.

Then she lifted her gaze.

Her eyes, sharp as shattered glass, locked onto Magnus.

"I know you’re all about brute force, Magnus. But try, just this once, to think through everything with logic." She tapped a finger against the desk. "The Alpha King is dead, right? That’s what we were told."

He didn’t answer.

"Did you ever see his body?" Astrid asked quietly.

Magnus’s brows drew together. "No, but...."

"Exactly." She pointed sharply toward him. "No body. No proof. Just Cyrin’s word. And we are all expected to accept that?"

"Astrid...."

She slammed both hands onto the desk and shot to her feet.

The sound cracked through the office like lightning.

Magnus didn’t flinch, but his face was filled with concern and surprise

"I don’t think you understand the magnitude of what is happening, Magnus," she snapped, stepping around the desk. Her voice trembled, not with weakness, but with the pressure of a boiling storm she had kept sealed for too long.

"My students escaped the academy and I have no idea where they are."

She paced like a caged animal.

"Kieran, the next Alpha King is missing. Lorraine Anderson, also missing. Alistair, Felix, Varya, missing too. Crimson soldiers are scattered across the kingdom. The Leader is still at large. The Council is fractured almost beyond repair. Without the Alpha king, we are not united enough to gather our soldiers to fight the Crimson cancer spreading through every pack."

Her voice rose, cracked, then steadied again with sheer force of will.

"Do you understand this?"

Magnus watched her silently, jaw tight.

Astrid pressed her fingers against her temple as if the weight of the kingdom itself sat there.

"I promised the Queen I would keep her son safe," she whispered, anguish flickering beneath her icy exterior. "But right now? I don’t even know where Kieran is."

Her breath shook.

It was the first time in years Magnus had seen her falter.

"I consider Lorraine my protege. And I have no idea where she is either. In the past, I always.... I always had confidence she would survive anything. Because of the vision I had of her before I had even met her."

She pressed a trembling hand to her chest.

"But she lived that vision during the Lunar Crest battle. And now?" Astrid’s voice lowered, turning almost small. "Now I have no assurance. No prophecy. No promise. I don’t know if she’s alive or dead."

She finally stopped pacing.

The silence that followed was suffocating.

Astrid was never the type to crash out like this, but she had also never felt this caged before. She has faced a lot of difficulties, but she was always able to plan, to come up with solutions, and to carry out the solutions. But this time around? She was stuck behind a desk because of duty and it was suffocating.

"Everything is going haywire outside these walls," she said finally, voice raw, "and what am I stuck here doing? Sitting here. Filing papers. Rebuilding a school while the kingdom tears itself apart."

Her fists tightened.

"I feel caged, useless."

Her voice cracked.

"And I hate feeling useless."

For a moment, she stood frozen, shoulders rising and falling, breathing rough. Then Magnus moved.

Slowly, deliberately, he stepped around the desk, stopping beside her. He reached out and pulled her into a firm, grounding embrace.

Astrid stiffened, she always did. She wasn’t used to comfort. She wasn’t used to being the one held. She wasn’t used to this closeness. She always thought her cold demeanor would always keep people from getting too close to her, but not Magnus, he never seemed to care about the walls she had set up to keep people away from her.

Magnus held on to her and after a moment, her rigid posture eased. She exhaled shakily into his shoulder, letting herself feel the exhaustion she’d kept buried.

Magnus’s hand rested gently on her back, steady as bedrock.

Then he pulled back, meeting her eyes.

"Go," Magnus said simply.

Astrid blinked, confused. "What?"

"You want to go out there yourself," he said calmly. "To search for Kieran. To find the others. To do more than sit here suffocating under paperwork."

He cupped her shoulders, firm but gentle.

"So go."

Astrid stared at him, shock, disbelief, and something softer flickering in her expression.

"I’ll take care of the students here," Magnus continued. "I’ll handle the academy"

He held her gaze.

"But you.... you need to get your other students. The ones outside these walls."

Her lips parted as if to argue, but no words came.

Magnus stepped closer and brushed a loose strand of silver blonde hair from her cheek.

"Go, Astrid," he repeated. "Before it’s too late."