Chapter 48: Under Review

The courtyard was already crowded by the time Roxanne and the four brothers emerged from the hearing, students clustered thick around the towering scoreboard that dominated the academy’s central plaza. Nobody spoke as they approached, but the silence had a texture to it, the kind that told Roxanne something had changed before she even saw the board for herself.

MOONSTONE TEAM — 1ST PLACE was gone.

In its place, glowing in stark red letters: MOONSTONE TEAM — UNDER REVIEW.

Liam stared at it like the words might rearrange themselves if he looked hard enough. "How does an entire team get punished for one member’s old disciplinary case?"

"Not here," Lucien said quietly, catching his brother’s arm before Liam could raise his voice further, and the crowd around them seemed to lean in anyway, hungry for exactly the reaction he was trying to prevent.

Roshan had already pulled up the standings on his phone, his expression darkening as he scrolled. "This isn’t just affecting Kai’s individual points. It’s freezing the entire team’s accumulated score."

Kai said nothing at all. Roxanne found herself watching him rather than the board, noting the tight set of his jaw, the way his eyes tracked not the red letters but his brothers’ faces instead. He wasn’t embarrassed. He was furious, and the fury was entirely on their behalf.

They retreated to the academy garden once the crowd’s attention finally drifted elsewhere, the four brothers falling into an argument the moment they were out of earshot.

"We go to the administration directly," Liam said. "Demand an explanation."

"That accomplishes nothing without knowing exactly what they’re reviewing," Lucien said.

"Then we challenge the procedure," Roshan offered. "Joanna’s complaint was flimsy at best. We push back on the grounds alone."

"Wait," Lucien said. "Find out what they’re actually looking at before we react to a decision we don’t understand yet."

Kai finally spoke, his voice flat. "Let it go."

Every head turned toward him.

"If the academy thinks my past conduct raises questions about the whole team," he said, "I don’t want the three of you risking your standing defending me."

Roxanne felt something sharpen in her chest.

"You don’t get to decide that for them," she said.

Kai looked at her, surprised by the firmness in her voice.

"They’re not children who need you to throw yourself in front of every consequence that comes near them," she continued. "You accepted your punishment. That’s yours to carry. This isn’t."

Lucien’s mouth curved, just slightly. "She’s right."

Kai didn’t argue further, though the tension in his shoulders didn’t fully ease either.

By the afternoon, the fallout had already begun rearranging Roxanne’s own place in the academy’s small ecosystem. Students who’d congratulated her only days earlier now offered tight, uncertain smiles instead. Someone had quietly removed her name from the festival planning committee list posted outside the main hall, no explanation attached. A teacher pulled her aside between classes and mentioned, almost apologetically, that the administration was reviewing whether students closely associated with the Moonstones should retain leadership positions while the investigation continued.

It wasn’t a villain monologue. Nobody was shouting accusations at her in the hallway. It was quieter than that, a slow bureaucratic tightening that felt somehow worse for its politeness.

Isla found her outside the library, practically vibrating with indignation on Roxanne’s behalf. "This is ridiculous. You didn’t do anything."

"They’re allowed to review the team," Roxanne said. "They’re not allowed to decide what I think about my friends."

Isla studied her for a moment, then nodded, apparently satisfied that Roxanne wasn’t about to fold under the pressure quietly building around her.

Dorian, meanwhile, had already made his own move without telling anyone. He’d gone to one of the senior academy officials that morning, using whatever weight his family’s name still carried, and provided documentation confirming that Kai had already served the full disciplinary sentence attached to the original incident. He didn’t announce it. He didn’t seek anyone’s approval first. He simply handed over what he had and left.

Roxanne learned about it later that day from Roshan, who’d been copied on the administrative correspondence. She found Dorian near the training fields afterward, standing slightly apart from the usual crowd as always.

"You didn’t have to do that," she said.

Dorian looked away, jaw tight. "I know."

That was all either of them said. No grand reconciliation, no lingering moment meant to reignite anything between them. Just an action that spoke louder than any explanation he could have offered, and Roxanne let it sit exactly where it was.

Late that afternoon, an administrator called Roxanne into the academy office and laid out an option she hadn’t expected. Because her own position wasn’t formally under investigation, and because she wasn’t a Moonstone by name, she could withdraw from the team entirely and preserve her individual standing in the Alpha Challenge. It would spare her the gossip, the frozen scores, the tightening scrutiny that had already started following her through the hallways.

It was, if she was honest with herself, a tempting offer.

"If I leave," Roxanne asked, "does the review disappear?"

"No," the official said. "The team’s standing remains under review regardless of your involvement."

Roxanne nodded slowly. "Then there’s nothing to think about."

She wasn’t staying because she loved any of the brothers, though the tangled feelings she had for one of them certainly complicated things. She was staying because they were her team, and teams didn’t get to quietly disappear the moment things became inconvenient.

She walked back to the training field as the sun dropped lower over the academy grounds, her bag slung over one shoulder. The four brothers were already there, scattered across the grass in various states of frustration, none of them aware yet of what she’d decided.

She crossed the field and dropped her training bag beside theirs without a word.

Liam glanced up at her, one eyebrow raised. "You know we’re currently the academy’s most inconvenient team, right?"

Roxanne picked up a stray ball from the grass, turning it once in her hands. "Good."

He grinned, some of the tension finally easing out of his shoulders.

Lucien’s attention had shifted to something else entirely, an official envelope Roxanne had been holding since leaving the administration office. She tossed it toward him without explanation.

He opened it, scanned the contents, and went very still.

"What is it?" Roshan asked, already crossing the field toward him.

Lucien read it again before answering. "The academy’s revised competition schedule."

"And?" Liam pressed.

"The next Alpha Challenge stage has been moved forward." Lucien’s eyes lifted from the page. "Tomorrow."

Kai stepped closer. "Tomorrow?"

"Because our ranking is under review," Lucien said, "we’ve been assigned a preliminary elimination match. To determine whether we’re even allowed to remain in the competition at all."

Silence settled over the field, broken only by the distant sound of other teams still training under the fading light.

Roshan exhaled slowly. "That’s not days to prepare."

"No," Lucien said, folding the paper closed. "It’s one night."

The five of them stood there in the gathering dusk, the weight of it settling over each of them differently. Liam’s jaw tightened with something that looked almost like anticipation. Roshan was already running numbers in his head, calculating what little time they had left. Kai’s eyes moved to Roxanne, checking, silently, whether she understood exactly what she’d walked back into.

She met his gaze steadily and picked up her bag again.

There was no time left for hesitation. Only preparation, and whatever they could manage to pull together before the sun rose again.