Blackmore Academy

Chapter Three

****

I jammed the rest of the clothes in the case, my hands trembling. St Magdalene's Academy expulsion notice sat on my bedside, "unexplained phenomena" and "concealing a threat to other students" staring up at me. I have no idea what occurred— the last thing I remember is,I was upset at Lila, the next thing,she was crying because her book was burning, and she was screaming like I'd set her ablaze.

But I hadn't done anything to her.

Dad hadn't even looked in my direction since the third expulsion. His wife had only given me cold and triumphant smiles—while her golden-perfect son, Andrain avoided me like I was some kind of dangerous animal.

"Your car is here," the housekeeper called out from the doorway, voice toneless. No goodbye,No good luck, No anything.

I dragged my suitcase down the stairs, my chest locked. When I landed on the floor of the staircase,my father finally spoke

"You're leaving Aria," he said casually, not even looking in my direction. "This school has special ways. They say they can handle cases like yours."

Cases like mine. As if I were something broken that needed to be fixed.

I didn't ask questions. There was no need. My stepmother had always wished that I would be gone from their lives forever, competing with her son for space in my dad's life, and now my dad desired that I be gone as much as she did too. I stood there, gazing at my dad and his wife standing before me like ghosts with no easy face of love or mercy to offer. I am not more than a plaything they cannot wait to get rid of once and for all.

When the car arrived to take me away, I did not turn back.

Goodbye, old life.

The motor was still, aside from the hum of tires on asphalt. Rain lashed the windshield, distorting the black world beyond. The driver, a tall guy in pressed black attire, sat in silence, not even glancing back in the rearview mirror. I watched the city fall behind, giving way to coiled roads that wound deeper into the interior.

The further we drove, the more oppressive the air grew, my heart thudding more quickly than normally, the air heavy with some unseen presence. My knuckles were white against my lap, a strange tension nibbling just below my skin. I leaned forward and put out a hand on the glass, observing the trees nearby through a green blur, their gnarled arms reaching like bony fingers.

Then the sky darkened. Not only clouds moving in, but something darker—a nasty shadow creeping over everything. The headlights struggled to pierce it. The road wound on and on, taking us somewhere we couldn't possibly know. My gut clenched. It was more than a school. It was something else.

And I was heading right for it.

The gates of Blackmoor Academy rose before them, gnarled iron that was twisted into writhing forms as if alive in the pale light. The car came to a halt, and the driver got out, swinging the gate open on a screech of metal that resounded into the night. On the far side, the academy rose into the darkness like a shadow against the tempest-darkened sky. Towers reached towards heaven, and windows burned with otherworldly, golden light.

The instant I stepped out, the wind changed. It was cold and bitter, wrapping itself around me like a ghostly whisper. The scent of damp soil with something older, something ancient, filled my nostrils. My suitcase rolled down the gravel walkway, its noise jarringly loud in the thick quiet.

But I tugged myself ahead, dragging my pack up the gigantic entrance. The gigantic doors creaked wide on their own as I walked toward the staircase, showing a badly lit doorway that was filled with portraits whose eyes trailed every step. 

There was something in me that said—This is where I belong.

The moment I stepped inside, the air shifted. There was a low vibration running through my marrow, as though the building itself was conscious that I had entered. The entrance hall was enormous, its ceiling disappearing into the black above, the walls adorned with portraits that no doubt altered when I wasn't staring at them head-on. There was a sweeping staircase leading upwards, its railings adorned with symbols that I was unable to read.

I didn't have time to take another step before a voice shattered the silence. "She's early."

I faced around. Three boys were standing at the bottom of the stairs, their profiles cast by the whirling chandeliers above. The gaunt boy in the middle had a pointed face and shattering gray eyes that glinted like steel. His dark hair was well-combed back, but something lethal was in his stance.

There was another youth standing unsteadily to his right. His gold eyes emitted a soft glow in the shadows, and a wicked, slow smile wrinkled his mouth. Firelight rippled in his irises, but there was no flame anywhere near him.

The last one stood a little off to the side, his stance formal. His eyes met mine, and a shiver ran down my spine. His eyes weren't merely dark-they were bottomless, empty spaces that viewed too much.

I swallowed hard. Something about them didn't feel right. Wrong. Powerful.

And they had known exactly who I was but I don't know who they were, I just arrived.

I barely had time to process their stares before a cold whisper brushed against my ear—though none of them had spoken.  

“You’re finally here, Starborn.”

My breathe seized. The voice wasn't male or female, but it wrapped around my head like smoke, comforting in a way that disturbed me. I turned round, looking for it, but the passage behind me was vacant. The paintings were still, their eyes were unmoved.

The eyes-hollow boy shook his head, looking at me. "You heard it, didn't you?" His tone was gentle with a hint of something indeterminate.

I opened my mouth, and then closed them back in shock. How did he know that?

The fire-eyed boy chuckled, stepping closer. "First day already hearing voices. Impressive." He smiled further, although there was no laughter behind it.

The third boy—the one with steel-gray eyes—looked at me with narrowed intensity. "Welcome to Blackmoor, Aria," he whispered. "You don't belong anywhere else."

A shiver went through me. And I knew, for some stupid reasons, I believed him