“Doing what?” I asked, maintaining an even tone.Becca cocked her head. “Whatever this is. I figured something was coming. You’ve been staring holes through me since the first period.”“I have questions,” I said simply.Becca hummed before cracking into a dry laugh. “Of course you do,” she muttered to herself, running her hand through her hair.I studied her. She didn't come off scared in the way I thought a traitor would. Her stance was loose, too at ease. There was tension in her shoulders but it was not from discomfort. It felt like she was holding something back, or waiting for me to make the first move.She was underestimating me. I held the realization in my palm and curved my fingers harshly into it.“I overheard you,” I started, “about a month ago. At your place.”Something gleamed across her eyes, too quick to name. “Overheard me?”“You were speaking to someone. Or something. It sounded like you were reporting on some lupomancer,” I breathed out slowly with a taunting smile k
I looked down at my fingers.The leather at the base of my palm had grown underway to glaze again, a delicate coating of frost threading its way outward like delicate veins of snow.I curled them into fists, forcing the heat to rise from someplace deeper, someplace lower. With a breath in, I made a mental order. Spark.A thin trail of warmness bloomed through my wrist and spread like honey under my skin. The cold receded, sluggish and unwilling but sure. My gloves hissed faintly, ice evaporating as mist.My wolf incited restlessly in the back of my mind. “You’re doing it again.”“I’m fine.” I quickly differed.“It doesn’t feel fine,” she insists once more.But I tell her, “You’re just not used to it.”She let out a low, mental whine in return, half-annoyed but I could feel the other half overeaten with concern. “You freeze over when you get worked up. You burn when you calm down. That’s not how it’s supposed to be.”“Says who?” I mentally replied, tugging my glove down tighter. “It wo
She looked uncomfortable in the attention, but she didn’t shy from it either. Her expression was more distant yet a small cool grin rested on her lips. It seemed like she’d already decided how this day would go and was just going through the motions of playing nice.Higan followed her. His hand touched the small of her back, guiding her like she was something breakable. My stomach twisted at the scenery, and my right leg bounced on the ball of my feet but I kept my expression still. He smiled at people, greeted his friends, and nodded at the teacher. But his eyes didn’t settle too long on anyone in the room.Except me. I felt it and the subtle way Ethan’s aura shifted beside me in menacing waves. But that didn’t seem to deter the stubborn fool.However, I didn’t look away. Not from Becca. Not even when Higan’s gaze lingered. I watched her movements, the delicate way she removed her coat, and how she smiled too precisely at the people around her.Becca didn’t sit at the back as she lo
The morning light spilled into the halls of Springville High like it didn’t know any better. As though nothing had happened. As though the world hadn’t shifted beneath my feet under the glare of firelight and applause.Except it did. But I was still standing.The halls buzzed with that first-day-back tension—new boots squeaking against the waxed floors, lockers slamming too hard, too loud, laughter sharp and half-nervous. Everyone was trying to act like they weren’t wondering who had changed over break.I had. And not in ways I was necessarily happy about.Khalid and Abigail flanked me like shadow and flame as we moved past the entrance. Abigail carried her silence like a protective knife in her pocket. Khalid carried his like a banner of passive-aggression, barely speaking to me still.I’d long told myself to not be bothered by it.“First bell rings in five,” Abigail said, glancing at her phone. “Ethan will be with you first and third period, we’ll meet at the second and Khalid is at
“The barrier,” Ethan answered before either of them could. “Between here and… some other side where Melbringers reach for immense power.““Usually used when they're trying to commit massacres,” Khalid scoffed out, his shoulders squared defensively.My stomach turned. “I didn’t mean to.”“But you did do something,” Khalid said, voice lower. “Because what? Someone pissed you off again?“ He bit harshly, glaring at me.I flinched, his words sharper than they needed to be. My chest ached, my ears rang, and I felt Ethan step closer like a shield I hadn’t asked for but suddenly needed.Why was he being like that? I didn't mean to. All I knew was that I was angry, more than angry and I had every right to be angry given what I saw.“She didn’t do anything—” Tyler began, but Khalid cut across him with the heat of a snapping blade.“She did enough. She nearly destabilized a veil. You all know what that means. She opened something ancient and violent just because.”“Khalid,” Ethan growled a dange
The fire towers glowed brighter, crackling behind us. Laughter and footsteps surrounded us with the kind of joy people tried to bottle into New Year’s Eve like it was a perfume they could wear into January.I was delighted to an extent, enjoying swaying to the music with Ethan but my gaze kept darting sideways, past his shoulder.Why? Higan. He was still watching, still standing under the same flickering lamplight, but in a twisted way that made my stomach turn, he seemed a little closer.He hadn’t moved since we last made eye contact, but somehow the space between us felt thinner. Like the crowd could part at any moment and he’d be there, right in front of me staring me down with that same contemptuous look in his eyes.Ethan noticed my tension. “He's really riling you up.”I bit my bottom lip. Ethan could feel my emotions stirring. So I really hoped he wouldn't misunderstand what they meant. I just couldn't shake the sensation of Higan’s gaze crawling along my skin.“I'm sorry,” I w
“Have you ever done this before?” he asked, a hint of hesitation playing in his tone.I tilted my head. “Gone to a town party?“He shook his head slightly. “Dressed up. Gone out with someone.”My throat tightened. Not because I didn’t have an answer, but because I did. “No,” I said honestly. “Not really.”“From moving around a lot with my parents and settling here only to be rejected and forced to stay, I couldn't really find time to dress up and go out with anyone,” I went on doing my best to keep my tone light. I didn't want to sound pitiful.Ethan didn’t say anything right away. His thumb moved over my knuckles slowly, steady.“It’s not just a party,” he said eventually. “It’s the way people watch each other. The way they pretend their new year means something new when half of them are still dragging their old regrets behind them like a second shadow.”My brows knitted softly as I tried to understand what he meant. “Poetic,” I quipped.He turned slightly toward me, his expression s
“Here, this should do,” Abigail strutted into my bedroom with clacking heels, holding up a charcoal sleeveless drop-waist dress on a hanger.She was already dressed, of course, donned in a simple tailored maroon dress that sharpened her silhouette. Her raven black hair was swept into an elegant braid and adorned with white-jade clips.I was still barefoot in front of the mirror, hair curled and pinned halfway up, mascara wand in hand, and blinking at my own reflection like I didn’t quite recognize it.The room smelled faintly of my rose toner, flat iron smoke, and the lingering pomegranate scent from the lotion I borrowed from my mom. My nerves were a separate scent, sharp and cloying, like metal and something gone sour.I stared at the dress she brought like it had teeth. “You do realize it’s winter, right?”Abigail hummed resonantly and dropped it on the bed with a careful flourish. “I'm aware but you'll live,” she asserted, turning away.I reached for the fabric on my bed, caressin
I did. Once. Then again, till the air felt right in my lungs once more. My hand had stopped its throbbing but my heart was still plagued. The dark pull at my sanity loosened, inch by inch, fading like the most huffing out my mouth as I gasped. My wolf still hovered, tense and angry, but no longer foaming in the mouth. It was only after my body stopped trembling did Abigail let me go. She stared at me like she was trying to gauge if I was still in there. “That wasn’t just your wolf,” she said quietly. “Something else was pushing through.” I nodded. I couldn’t lie. Not about this. “The doppelganger in my dreams,” I muttered, pressing my fingers to my temples. “Me?” I corrected, confused about how exactly to address her. She was a part of me after all. No. She was me. “I wanted to kill her,” I confessed, hanging my head low as I held my chest. That was the ugly truth. My desires were mine, they were not separate from myself but somehow they managed to exist as an entity outside