Chapter one: "INVISIBLE UNTIL HIS EYES FOUND ME

Elara's POV

The first rule of being invisible? 

Keep your head down, Don’t make noise, Don’t make eye contact. I’ve had years to get good at it. Even now, walking across the courtyard of Moonridge Academy, I keep my gaze glued to the cracks in the stone beneath my boots. Every student here looks like they belong in a movie. Like they know they were born to shine. Their laughter echoes like they own the air. I don’t shine. I survived.

“Elara!”

The sound of my name  shouted like it’s not something fragile, makes me flinch. I turn just in time to see a blur of pink hair and chaotic energy racing toward me. 

“Oh, thank goddess, you’re real!” the girl says, practically bouncing. 

“I thought I got assigned a ghost.” She’s grinning like this is a reunion instead of our first meeting.

“I’m Lila,” she adds, grabbing my arm like we’ve been best friends for years.

“ Lila Hart, Humans, Theater geek. Future journalist-slash-scandal queen. And you are Elara Quinn. I stalked the roommate list.” 

“Uh. Yeah. That’s me.” 

“I like your vibe, a kind of haunted librarian meets an undercover witch.” I blink. 

“Is that… a compliment?” Lila beams.

“Totally.” 

****** 

Our dorm room looks like a fairy exploded on one side. Lila has posters of bands I’ve never heard of, pillows shaped like donuts, and lights strung across every corner. My side has one duffel bag and a box of books. She talks while she unpacks. Rapid-fire facts about professors, traditions, and which bathrooms have the best mirrors. I let her voice fill the room. 

It’s warm, distracting, a little too loud—but not in a bad way. 

“ Have you  heard of Kael Draven?” She gasps when I don’t react to the name. 

“Seriously? 

Tall, dark, terrifying? Alpha of the Bloodfang line? He shifted at thirteen and bench-pressed a car in front of the gym once. 

”I try not to keep up with local legends,” I say. 

Lila throws a pillow at me. 

“He’s not a legend; he’s a walking power surge.

Girls practically combust when he walks by. Half the pack thinks he’s cursed. The other half wants to marry him. 

”What do you think?” Lila asked while chuckling. 

“I think if he ever actually smiled, the world might end” I said sarcastically. 

******* 

The next morning, I woke before my alarm. Too early for class, too early for anything. But the silence is tempting. I pull on a hoodie, lace up my boots and slip outside. The mist is thin but glowing like the morning hasn’t decided whether to wake up or stay dreaming. My breath fogs the air in small puffs. The stones are damp beneath my feet. I feel alone. 

And then I don’t. 

I stop. He’s there. Standing under the willow tree as he grew from it—solid, still, sharp-edged in the fading fog. Dressed in black. His  hands are in his pockets not moving. 

Kael Draven.

I know it’s him before my brain can argue. Something in the air around him feels… heavier, older. His head lifts. And his eyes, those storm-gray eyes lock on mine. It’s only a second, but it hits me like a punch to the chest. Something inside me stirs. Not fear, not desire.

Something stranger, Familiarity. Like my bones know his name. 

He doesn’t smile, doesn’t speak, just holds my gaze for one heartbeat too long. Then he turned and walked away. That should’ve been the end of it, but I can’t move, can’t breathe. Because for one stupid second, it felt like we were the only two people on earth. I whisper into the mist, my heart pounding like it’s trying to outrun something I can’t see, as I forcefully drag my feet back to the dorm. 

*******

Back in the room, I shut the door quietly behind me. Lila’s sitting cross-legged on her bed, typing something furiously on her laptop. She looks up the second I move.

“You good?” she asks, squinting at me. “You look like you ran into a prophecy.”

“Just… couldn’t concentrate ,” I say, kicking off my boots. “Needed air.”

Lila tilts her head. “Air or brooding alpha wolf vibes?”

I pause, and apparently, that’s all the confirmation she needs. She snaps her laptop shut with a dramatic gasp.

“No freaking way. Did you see him?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to,” she says, grinning. “Was it Kael?”

I hesitate. “Maybe.”

Lila throws a pillow at me. 

“Girl! You can’t just casually see a dangerous guy on campus and not tell me every detail.”

“There’s nothing to tell,” I mutter, grabbing a snack from my drawer . 

“He just… looked at me. That’s it.”

“Well, did he snarl? Growl? Mark his territory by knocking over a tree?”

“No. He just stared.”

Lila’s face goes serious for a moment. 

“You know he doesn’t usually do that. Look at people, I mean.”

“I’m not a person,” I say under my breath.

She doesn’t hear me, or maybe she pretends not to. 

“Well, maybe you’re different. In a good way.”

Different.

The word stings a little more than I expected.

If she knew how different I was, she wouldn’t be smiling right now.

No one would.

“Don’t read too much into it,” I say quickly. “He probably looks at all the new girls like that.”

“No,” she says, shaking her head. 

“He doesn’t. Trust me, I’ve been here long enough to know when Kael Draven notices someone, it means something.”

I want to argue, but I don’t. Because part of me is afraid she’s right. And part of me hopes she’s not.

Because being noticed isn’t safe. Not for me.

The last time someone noticed me, everything fell apart.