Chapter: The weaknessLuciano:She was close.Too close.Close enough for her scent to crawl down my throat—something expensive and sharp, layered over red wine and fear she was trying so hard to choke down. I could feel the heat coming off her skin, the tension in her limbs as her fists curled into the front of my shirt like she didn’t even realize she was touching me.Her breath hitched.Mine didn’t.Not outwardly.Inside, I burned.I didn’t move. I didn’t touch her. Not yet. I let her press against me, let her feel the war she was stepping into. Because that’s what this was now—a war. And she was the most dangerous weapon in it. She just didn’t know whose side she was really fighting on yet.“I can do this,” she said, her voice a whisper on the edge of a confession. “I will do this.”There it was.Conviction.Determination.Madness.I looked into her eyes and saw all three reflected back at me. But underneath them… a flicker of something else. Something she hadn’t given a name to yet.She was unraveling
Huling Na-update: 2025-05-10
Chapter: I wasn’t backing awayAva:The elevator opened directly into his penthouse. No keycard. No security. Just silence and dim lights casting long shadows over marble and glass.He was already there.Leaning against the bar like he’d been waiting all night.Luciano Moretti.Pressed shirt unbuttoned at the collar, sleeves rolled to his elbows, a tumbler of scotch hanging from his hand like a loaded weapon. The bottle sat beside him—half full, glinting amber beneath the low pendant light. His eyes met mine across the open space, glassy and unreadable.Cold. Calm. Controlled.Except… not entirely.There was something simmering beneath the surface. Something sharp and dark and volatile.I stepped inside slowly, the file clutched to my chest like it could protect me. My coat hung loosely from my arms, my heels soft on the floors. His gaze dropped for a fraction of a second. Quick. Unforgiving. Like a blade glinting in the dark.“You’re late,” he said.“I didn’t realize there was a clock ticking,” I replied, voice th
Huling Na-update: 2025-05-09
Chapter: A crackAva: A full bottle of wine deep and surrounded by a sea of papers, I should’ve stopped. Should’ve closed the file, turned off the lamp, and gone to bed like someone with boundaries. But boundaries were for sane people. Rational people. Not me. Not anymore. Because between the transcripts and the redacted surveillance summaries, I found it. A crack. A real, actual crack. Hidden beneath layers of procedural sludge and carefully crafted distractions—but there it was. A misstep. A detail someone thought wouldn’t matter, that no one would look twice at. But I did. And it wasn’t small. This wasn’t some minor filing error or a questionable search warrant. This was big. Like case-dismissing big. A lie, repeated. An inconsistency in the witness statement that contradicted a timestamp so clean, it practically screamed fabricated. My heart slammed against my ribs. My fingertips were numb. I stared at it, reading it over and over again, just to be sure. Just to feel that rush, that sic
Huling Na-update: 2025-05-09
Chapter: Heart and mindAva:The elevator doors slid shut behind me with a low hiss, sealing in the penthouse—the man—and all the oxygen I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.I exhaled, finally. Long and slow, like I’d just surfaced from underwater.What the hell is wrong with me?My heels clicked down the marble lobby, each sound too sharp, too fast, matching the erratic pulse behind my ribs. I kept my head high, expression neutral, the way I was trained. The way I always did when leaving a meeting with someone who could make or break a life. But this—this—wasn’t like any case I’d ever taken.This wasn’t just a man on trial.It was a man I couldn’t stop thinking about. And I hated myself for it.Luciano Moretti was dangerous in all the ways that made good sense run for cover. He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t posture. He simply looked. Watched. Every move felt calculated, every silence like a baited trap. And still, I walked in. Still, I stayed.Still, I wanted more.I reached my car and slid into the seat
Huling Na-update: 2025-05-09
Chapter: all the ways that matteredLuciano:She arrived like a slow-moving threat. Controlled. Composed. Beautiful in a way that begged to be ruined.I didn’t move when the elevator doors opened. I wanted to watch her walk into the lion’s den on her own, heels clicking against the marble, that pristine expression barely concealing the war brewing underneath. She was dressed like she meant business—sleek, clean lines, lipstick just a touch too bold for the courtroom. And yet... beneath all that polish, I saw her.Nervous. Flushed.She’d worked harder on her appearance today. Not for the case. Not for the law.For me.That should’ve satisfied me. Should’ve been enough of a confirmation that she was cracking, slipping into my orbit without realizing how deep she already was.But it wasn’t.I wanted more.She stopped a few feet away, eyes cutting through the air between us. That voice of hers—steady and stubborn—called me Mr. Moretti like it was supposed to keep distance. She still thought names and rules could cage what w
Huling Na-update: 2025-05-09
Chapter: I wanted to winAva: I told myself it was just a meeting. Off the record. Unofficial. Necessary for strategy. I repeated those words like a mantra the entire elevator ride up—each floor taking me further away from reason and deeper into whatever the hell this was turning into. The penthouse elevator was glass, sleek and cold against the city skyline, and the reflection that stared back at me looked far too put-together for someone coming off a twelve-hour research bender. My hair was pinned up, sleek and soft, not an inch of frizz in sight. A little mascara. Lipstick that could pass for “professional” if I squinted. And the blouse? Silky. Low-key luxurious. Not my usual. I’d spent five minutes too long deciding on earrings. And that wasn’t normal. That was insane. You’re mental, I muttered under my breath. Completely mental. Because it wasn’t the case that had me smoothing my skirt and checking my reflection in the mirrored paneling. It was him. Luciano Moretti. God help me. He was everyth
Huling Na-update: 2025-05-09
Chapter: The Five ImmortalsEpilogue: Isadora:The Academy breathes again.It smells of rain and ink, candle smoke and salt. The ruins have been rebuilt, though the ghosts still linger in the stones — I feel them when the wind moves through the arches, when lightning stains the sky violet.Ashwyck has changed. So have we.The halls that once trembled under Maldric’s curse now glow faintly with sigils of protection carved into the walls — not to keep students in, but to keep the world’s cruelty out. The outcasts, the broken, the wild — they come here now. No more locked dungeons, no more punishment for being different.We teach them control, not shame. We teach them to own their shadows and pain.The old headmistress’s portrait has been replaced with a painting Kai made — a sweeping image of the five of us beneath a storm sky, the academy rising like a cathedral behind. I don’t recognize the version of me he painted. She’s fiercer, taller somehow, her hair ink-black and wild, her gaze carved from fire. Maybe it’
Huling Na-update: 2025-10-08
Chapter: The Heart That BindsLucian:The smell of rot and blood clung to the catacombs like a second skin, thick and choking. I moved through it with practiced ease, the shadows parting at my touch. Every step echoed against the stone walls, each echo a drumbeat marking the approach of something ancient, cruel, and foolish.Maldric crouched ahead, dark as the soil beneath us, his claws dripping shadow and ichor, body trembling. Weak. Too weak. I could feel the tremors in the air, the wavering pulse of his magic struggling to hold form. He knew it too, which is why his eyes, those luminescent, demonic orbs, were fixed on me with a mixture of hate and terrified anticipation.“You shouldn’t have come,” he hissed, voice cracked like old leather. “You—this little girl—”I laughed, low and savage, teeth bared in the dim light, my own pulse thrumming with bloodlust and fury. “She’s the reason I’m here, incubus. Weak as you are, I could crush you with a thought. But I want to see you squirm. I want you to know what she c
Huling Na-update: 2025-10-08
Chapter: The Price of Her BloodSilas:The scream wasn’t human.It tore through my sleep like a blade through silk—raw, primal, and endless. I jolted upright, heart slamming into my ribs. For a moment, I didn’t know where I was. The dormitory was cold, soaked in moonlight and shadow. The candles had all burned out, the air still, as though the Academy itself had stopped breathing.Then I heard them.The whispers.The shadows.They curled up the walls, hissing her name, their voices a thousand soft knives against my mind. Isadora. The sound was not gentle. It was terrified. Reverent. Desperate.“What happened?” I rasped, throwing the sheets aside. But I already knew. I could feel it in my bones, in the tether that linked my soul to hers. Pain. Power. And sacrifice. Too much of all three.She’s bleeding, the shadows whispered. She’s done it.I didn’t stop to think. I ran.I shook Kai first. “Get up.”He blinked awake, golden light already flickering at his fingertips. “Silas—what—”“She’s done something,” I snapped. “
Huling Na-update: 2025-10-08
Chapter: Blood and BetrayalMaldric:The walls of the ruined catacombs pressed in on me like the chest of a coffin, claustrophobic and suffocating. The faint echo of Isadora’s power pulsed through the stones—a tremor that made the ground beneath me vibrate. I should have been in control. I was ancient. I was eternal. I was Maldric. And yet… every instinct told me I was walking into a trap.“Maldric.” The voice was soft but commanding, cutting through the chaos of the collapsing catacombs, carrying a weight I could not deny.“Demon.” I responded, every syllable rolling with centuries of arrogance and cruelty. But my heart—well, not my literal heart, but the dark pulse of my being—stirred with unease.She was offering me something unexpected. A truce. The word itself should have tasted like ashes on my tongue, but curiosity pricked through my caution.“A truce?” I hissed, circling the ruined chamber, shadow tendrils lashing at the stone floor, reacting to my unease. “Why would a devourer, the Tamer of the High, of
Huling Na-update: 2025-10-08
Chapter: The Heart of ShadowsIsadora:Every breath I drew was thick with smoke and the residue of Maldric’s magic, a metallic tang that made my teeth ache. Shadows stretched long and crooked, lashing along the walls like living serpents. The chamber ahead pulsed with his power: a low, resonant vibration that made the stones themselves quiver. I felt it in my chest, in my bones. This was his throne room, his sanctum, the heart of every corruption seeping into Ashwyck Academy.I gritted my teeth. Every step I took carried the weight of the Academy’s survival, the lives of the boys I loved, the ghosts of every creature and student who had been lost to the storm he’d orchestrated. I could feel them all in me, a trembling chorus of fear and fury, whispering, Do not fail.I called on the wolf.The blood in my veins roared, primal, feral, twisting and reshaping me from the inside. My senses sharpened: the scent of Maldric’s magic, the scrape of his shadow-formed guardians, the whisper of air currents in the cracks of th
Huling Na-update: 2025-10-08
Chapter: Beneath the AcademyIsadora:I took one last look at the boys, so soft and warm in slumber, then I ventured out into the halls. The corridors of Ashwyck Academy had never felt so… hollow. Each step echoed like a death knell, swallowed by shadows that twisted in corners like living things. My candlelight flickered along the walls, but the light seemed fragile, trembling, as if they feared what walked with it.The storm had passed—or at least, the wind had stilled—but a low hum lingered, almost mechanical in its persistence. I could feel it in my bones, a pulse from deep below, a heartbeat of the academy itself. The wards were competely shattered; I knew it because the magic that usually guarded the halls throbbed weakly, like a dying pulse, and I sensed Maldric’s essence slithering through the cracks in the stones.I pressed my palm to the cold brick of the wall, seeking guidance from the stones. My fingertips tingled with static; the broken spells spoke in whispers too faint for anyone but me. “He waits,
Huling Na-update: 2025-10-08
Mag-log in
