TEYA’S POVThe name wouldn’t stop echoing.Professor Marell.It chased me down the hall. Clung to my skin. Crawled beneath it like something alive.By the time I made it back to my dorm, my legs were trembling. Not from exhaustion—but from the weight of it. Of him. Of everything I thought I knew… twisting into something darker.I locked the door behind me, flipped the lights on, and didn’t even bother taking off my coat. I dropped straight to the floor. My knees hit the rug hard, but I barely felt it. My fingers moved on instinct, pulling open the satchel, scattering the files, the parchment, the half-ripped reports. I didn't care about the mess.I needed the truth.My breathing was shallow as I scanned everything again. Line by line. Memo by memo. I knew I’d seen it. I knew.And then—There.Buried in a footnote Kael had written. A research partner. Marell. A mentor. A shadowy name that had slipped past me more times than I could count.Except… it wasn’t just that.My eyes froze on
TEYA'S POVThe dorm room was silent, save for the low, rhythmic thud of my heart pounding in my chest. I sat cross-legged on my bed, surrounded by a storm of fragmented evidence. Loose papers, old parchment, worn folders—every one of them a piece of a puzzle too warped and incomplete to solve. The overhead light flickered occasionally, like it too was struggling to make sense of the chaos.Reya Wellington. My sister's name felt like a ghost, whispering from the ragged pages of time. The scraps of her file—empty enrollments, curfew warnings, and that brutal nothingness where something real should have existed—lay sprawled across my blanket. Lucien’s file, thicker, detailed, and disturbingly clean, sat open at my feet. Kael’s memos peeked out from underneath, his writing familiar now, almost sickeningly so. Each stroke of his pen told a new lie.I had the pieces. I just didn’t have the picture. Or maybe I wasn't seeing it. I ran a hand through my hair, tugging at the roots in frustrat
Teya’s POVAs I pushed the heavy door to the archives, it let out a groan that felt almost like a warning—a creaky sigh, as though the very hinges were protesting my intrusion. A thick plume of dust erupted from the cracks of the old wooden frame, swirling in the dim light and settling back down like the lazy breath of a slumbering giant. I might have expected to feel a chill run through me or even a twinge of hesitation, but really? I didn’t even blink.Fear had become a luxury I could no longer afford. Not after everything that had spiraled out of control just moments ago.Not after the incident where I nearly sent Lucien crashing through a stone wall.The school's archives were tucked away in the far east wing, hiding beneath those ancient classrooms long abandoned by students and the laughter that once echoed within. There’d always been whispers that this room was off-limits, safeguarded by magical wards that prevented any unauthorized access, but honestly? That didn’t matter to
Teya’s POV Stepping back into the academy felt like trying to carry an oversized spotlight strapped to my back, illuminating every secret and whispered suspicion in the air. Each hallway pulsed with an almost electric tension that I didn’t need to conjure up in my imagination; it was all there, right in front of me. As I made my way down the corridor, the hushed murmurs began before I even had the chance to turn the corner. They didn’t even need to say my name aloud to make their point. It was clear as day to anyone who bothered to look. Every single gaze shot my way, each head that turned just a bit too hastily, every barely concealed stare that lingered on me as I walked by screamed the implications of a truth that hung thick in the air, one that no one had the guts to state outright but everyone felt. Lucien and Kael had gotten into it. And it was all because of me. My chin was tilted high, but there was an uncomfortable itch beneath my skin that made me want to scratc
Lucien stood there, utterly paralyzed in the courtyard long after Teya had stormed away, her furious presence still reverberating within him like an echo that just wouldn't fade. The intensity of her voice rang in his ears, her raw power crackling like electricity in the air, leaving lingering impressions in the depths of his mind.That piercing look in her eyes, filled with a swirl of fury and heartbreak—it was etched in his memory, as if it were branded into his very soul. Everything about that moment had burned itself into him, leaving him feeling like a man trapped under the weight of his own thoughts. Around him, the crowd had dispersed, but not before casting furtive glances back in his direction. A handful of his fellow students pretended to be engrossed in their phones, some wandered past with an air of nonchalance, yet their sidelong stares betrayed their interest in the wolf who had just suffered a social catastrophe in public.Lucien's hands dangled limply at his sides, bu
Lucien’s POVThe courtyard was quiet.For once, the academy breathed in silence, the chaos of the day held at bay by golden shafts of sunlight filtering through the treetops. I sat on the worn bench under the east arch, half-tilted toward the sun, a book open in my lap though I wasn’t really reading it. My fingers traced the weathered edge of the page as my mind wandered,.drifting into memories I wasn’t sure I wanted to examine too closely.Teya’s laugh echoed here once. That small, surprised giggle she let slip when I dropped a stack of scrolls because she startled me, how her eyes lit up when she teased me for being too serious. Those tiny moments had lodged themselves somewhere deep inside me, like hooks I hadn’t known I’d swallowed.But I should’ve known peace wouldn’t last long.It hit me all at once, like a pressure drop in the air, a sudden crackle across my skin that made my wolf stir inside me.She’s coming.The hair on the back of my neck stood upright as the scent hit nex