MasukAurora.I should have known it wouldn’t stay normal for long.The Welcome Ceremony was held in the main hall, a wide open space that looked more like a converted ballroom than anything academic. Lights hung from the ceiling in soft gold strands, casting everything in a warm glow that made even the marble floors look less intimidating. Tables lined the edges of the room, already crowded with students laughing too loudly, pretending they were more confident than they probably felt.For a moment, I just stood at the entrance.I told myself I was only here because I had no choice. That was the official reason.The real reason was harder to name, so I didn’t try.“Aurora.”I turned before I could stop myself.Ethan was weaving through the crowd toward me, and the moment he saw me properly, his entire face lit up like he had been looking for me specifically.Which, apparently, he had.“There you are,” he said, stopping in front of me. “It's good to see you.”“Same,” I admitted.He laughed.
Aurora.The next morning should have felt like a victory.For nearly a week, Alec and Maxwell had been everywhere in my classes, outside my classes, walking beside me across campus, appearing out of thin air whenever I least expected them. It had been irritating. Exhausting. Completely unreasonable.Yesterday, I finally took action. I told them to leave me alone.So when I arrived on campus and neither of them appeared, the silence should have been a relief. Instead, it felt... off. Suspiciously disappointing.I noticed it during my first class. Not because I missed them, that would have been ridiculous, but because every time the door opened, my eyes flicked toward it. By the third glance, I was annoyed with myself. By the sixth, I was annoyed with the entire world. The student who finally walked in wasn’t Alec. He wasn’t carrying a book. And somehow that felt personally offensive.When class ended, I packed my bag and stepped into the hallway. No Maxwell. No Alec. No suspiciously
MAXWELLAurora was impossible.I’d come to that conclusion somewhere between arriving home and watching Alec turn a page with enough force to suggest he was imagining it was her neck.We were in the library overlooking the eastern gardens. The only sounds were the crackling fireplace and the occasional rustle of paper. Normally Alec loved the quiet. Tonight he just looked annoyed—which, for him, was the equivalent of anyone else setting something on fire.“She’s impossible,” he muttered.“There it is.” I looked up from my phone, grinning.Alec didn’t bother denying it. “She fired us.”I laughed. “She did.”He closed his book with a decisive snap that echoed through the room. “Who fires their own victims?”“Our mate,” I said.“Apparently.”I leaned back in my chair, replaying the courtyard conversation. Aurora had looked genuinely offended—not because she disliked us, but because she thought we were ruining her future dating prospects. As if she’d already decided we were the problem.“
Aurora.By the sixth day, people had already started moving out of my way.I noticed it while crossing the courtyard toward the main quad. It wasn’t dramatic, no one dove into traffic to avoid me, but the shift was unmistakable. After a lifetime of being invisible or avoided for entirely different reasons, the change stood out sharply.A group of first-years spotted me approaching and quietly stepped aside. Two girls lowered their voices as I passed. Behind me, someone whispered, “That’s her.” A grin tried to fight its way onto my face. I refused to let it win. This whole reputation was built on a ridiculous lie involving two suspiciously cooperative twins and one strategically placed backpack. Yet somehow, it was working. The realization should have bothered me more than it did. Instead, I found myself walking a little taller, which was probably a problem.I was halfway across the courtyard when I spotted her—the girl from the other day, the one who had introduced my face to a wall
Aurora.They were still there.Sitting at my table like they owned the place, as if two boys from school casually staking out my bar was the most normal thing in the world.Alec had his book open again, calm as ever, like he hadn’t just hijacked my entire evening.Maxwell looked far too comfortable for someone who’d followed me to work with zero explanation.I stood there a second longer than necessary, tray pressed against my hip, while my brain stubbornly refused to process the situation.Maxwell looked up first, one eyebrow raised. “You’re just going to stare at us, or are you going to take our order?”“I’m considering my options.”Alec turned a page without looking up. “She’s forgotten how to work.”“I have *not* forgotten how to work,” I shot back. “I’m recalibrating my tolerance for strange behavior.”Maxwell’s mouth twitched. “Fair.”I pulled out my notepad with a sigh. “What do you want?”Before they could answer, a familiar voice cut in beside me.“Well, well.”I closed my ey
Aurora.By lunchtime, I was standing outside the Humanities building, trying to decide whether I had enough energy left to survive Professor Langley's afternoon lecture when three girls appeared in front of me.Not approached. Appeared.One second the path was clear. Next, they were blocking it.I stopped walking because they had very effectively stopped me from continuing.Nobody spoke immediately.The girl in the center folded her arms. She was tall, beautiful, and immaculately dressed—the sort of person who looked like she had never experienced an awkward phase in her entire life."You're Aurora."I glanced behind me before looking back at her."Last time I checked."The girl didn't smile. Her friends looked equally unimpressed.Fantastic. Another delightful social interaction."What exactly is your relationship with Alec and Maxwell?"I blinked.Of all the questions I had expected, that had not been one of them."My what?""Your relationship."I stared at her."They exist."Her ex
Selena. Dinner was announced just after sunset.I had hoped the day would end quietly, that I could retreat to my room and gather myself after seeing Silas earlier, but that hope dissolved the moment a servant informed me that the family would be dining together in the private chamber.Family.The
Selena.Later that evening, I sat at the edge of my bed, fingers tracing the edge of the silk sheet, thinking about the day. The conversation.with Denver mother, Tiana cold words lingered, but none was enough to take my mind from thinking about him.About Denver. About the way his eyes lingered o
SelenaI saw them before they saw me.They were hidden in a dark corner off the west corridor, where the torchlight barely reached and the stone walls swallowed every sound. My stomach clenched before I even realized I’d stopped walking.Christopher has Joyce pressed against the wall, his mouth on
Denver.Christopher’s hand closes around her wrist before I can stop myself from noticing.It is not gentle. It is not ceremonial. It is the grip of ownership."What is happening here, Selena?" I wondered as I watched them close the distance between us.“Uncle,” Christopher says, drawing her forwar







