*CHAPTER 3: THE DEVIL HAS AWAKENED**

Aurora Veyl 💜 

I stood in front of the mirror for a long time, waiting for the face to change back into mine. It didn’t. The reflection kept staring at me with those cold silver eyes and that perfect, arrogant mouth that had spent an entire movie making my blood pressure rise.

A soft knock pulled me out of the spiral.

The same maid from earlier stepped inside, carefully avoiding my gaze. “My lady, the carriage is ready. The academy expects your return today. The headmistress was clear—absence will only fuel more talk.”

Academy. Right. The prestigious supernatural school where vampires, werewolves, and every other powerful bloodline sent their children to learn how to rule the world without killing each other in the hallways.

I had no better plan than to play along and gather information, so I nodded like I understood anything that was happening. The maid helped me into a dark uniform that fit too well—black blazer with silver trim, crisp shirt, a crest I didn’t recognize embroidered over the heart. Every piece felt expensive and wrong.

The carriage ride was short and silent. When the gates of Nightshade Academy came into view, my stomach dropped. The buildings rose like something out of a gothic fever dream—tall spires, black stone, stained-glass windows that glowed even in daylight. Students moved across the courtyard in clusters, their uniforms marking different houses and ranks. You could practically smell the hierarchy in the air.

The moment I stepped out of the carriage, the whispering started.

Heads turned. Conversations died mid-sentence. Some students looked frightened. Others looked openly disgusted. A few smiled like they were already imagining my downfall. I kept my chin up and walked forward because stopping would have been worse.

I made it halfway across the courtyard before the words reached me clearly.

“She actually came back.”

“After what she did to Evelina?”

“I heard she pushed her into the Forbidden Well.”

I froze.

The Forbidden Well. Even in the movie it had been mentioned only in warnings—an ancient site on the edge of academy grounds that students were strictly forbidden from approaching. Something about old magic, older blood, and consequences no one fully understood.

More voices layered over each other.

“She found out the prince was spending time with Evelina and lost it.”

“Jealousy, pure and simple.”

“They still haven’t found the body. Or maybe they have and they’re just not saying.”

My pulse slammed against my throat. Evelina Rose. The sweet heroine I had rooted for less than twenty-four hours ago. The girl the original Aurora had spent an entire film tormenting. And now everyone believed I had shoved her into a forbidden well out of jealousy over a vampire prince I had never even met.

I wanted to laugh. Or scream. Or sit down on the courtyard stones and demand a refund on this entire reincarnation.

A tall figure cut through the crowd, and the whispering changed tone immediately. Students stepped aside like the air itself had ordered them to. The vampire prince stopped a few paces in front of me, crimson eyes cold enough to freeze blood.

He was even more striking in person than he had been on screen—sharp features, dark hair, the kind of presence that made people forget how to breathe. Right now that presence was aimed entirely at me, and none of it was friendly.

“You have some nerve showing your face here,” he said, voice low and controlled.

I blinked. “Good morning to you too?”

His jaw tightened. “Evelina is missing because of you. Do not stand there and pretend ignorance. Everyone knows what you did at the well.”

“I don’t know what I did at the well,” I said, because honesty seemed like the only tool I had left. “I don’t even know where the well is. I woke up this morning in a body that isn’t mine and a life that apparently already includes attempted murder. So if you could slow down and use smaller words, that would be great.”

A ripple of shock moved through the students still watching. The prince’s eyes narrowed further.

“You think this is a joke?”

“I think this is a nightmare with excellent production value,” I shot back. “I didn’t push anyone. I don’t remember pushing anyone. And I definitely didn’t wake up this morning thinking, ‘You know what would be fun? Starting the day with a missing-person scandal.’”

He stepped closer. The temperature around us seemed to drop. “Evelina is the kindest person in this academy. She never deserved your obsession or your cruelty. If she is hurt—if she is gone—there will be consequences you cannot charm or threaten your way out of.”

I met his stare and felt the weight of an entire school’s judgment settling on my shoulders. Every face in the courtyard already believed I was guilty. The original Aurora had clearly spent months building this reputation, and I had inherited every scrap of it the second I opened my eyes in her body.

“I don’t know what happened to her,” I said, quieter this time. “But I didn’t do it. Not that anyone here is going to believe that.”

The prince studied me for a long moment, searching for the arrogance and malice he expected to find. Whatever he saw instead only seemed to confuse him more. He turned away without another word, the crowd parting for him like water.

I stood alone in the middle of the courtyard as the whispers rose again, sharper and more certain than before.

My new life had begun with a scandal, a missing heroine, and an entire academy already convinced I was the villain they remembered.

And the worst part?

I had no idea how to prove them wrong.

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