Chapter 13

AURORA'S POV:

If I didn’t know better, I would think they were communicating telepathically, with fangs and claws. Their silence is thick, charged with tension that settles like a storm cloud over the hallway. Neither speaks, but the way Jon’s hand flexes and Arc’s lip curls at the corner is enough to make the air hum.

I shift on my feet, feeling nervous and crossing my arms over my chest.

"You both planning to keep doing this silent alpha staring contest, or...?"

"Don't you dare call me THAT." Arc said in disgust. I almost flinch at his cold tone.

"Oh, please."

Nothing. No response. It’s like I’m invisible unless I’m bleeding or being fought over.

My heart pinches a little at that thought, but I hide it behind a sigh.

"Okay, I’m going to class," I announce, deliberately turning on my heel.

Jon’s attention snaps to me like a magnet, eyes softening ever so slightly, but he doesn’t speak. Arc stiffens, almost like he wants to stop me, but his pride wins the battle.

Fine. Let them stew in their supernatural angst.

I storm off, feeling the heat of both their gazes on my back like twin spotlights. Each step echoes louder than it should, my sneakers squeaking on the polished floor.

The classroom is cold, not from the air-conditioning, but from the stark contrast of the hallway’s chaos. I take my usual seat near the window, resting my cheek in my palm, trying to will the heat from my face to fade.

Cali isn’t here yet. The empty seat beside me only amplifies my feeling of isolation.

I glance at my reflection in the window.

Same messy ponytail. Same tired eyes. Same girl trying to pretend her world hasn’t been flipped upside down in the span of weeks.

But something is... off.

I lean closer to the glass. My amber eyes catch the light, gleaming faintly. Not like usual. Brighter. Almost gold.

My breath catches.

Before I can question it further, the classroom door creaks open and Jon walks in, late.

He flashes the teacher a look of apology and then scans the room, his eyes landing on me like a tether snapping into place. He doesn’t ask if the seat beside me is taken. He just slides into it like he’s always belonged there.

Fool.

I shift slightly away, but his presence is like a furnace. Even a foot apart, I feel him. The scent of pine and musk. The warmth that rolls off him like he’s part sun.

We sit in silence. And then the door opens again.

I definitely spoke too soon about that silence.

Arc strolls in like he owns the place, tall, pale, and somehow still managing to look like trouble incarnate in school uniform. He doesn’t look at me. Not directly. But I feel him, too. Cold where Jon is warm. Dark and sharp like midnight steel.

He takes a seat in the far back. As if distance might dampen the pull between us. It doesn’t.

The teacher starts droning about ancient civilizations. Something about empires rising and falling. It should be interesting. But I can’t focus. Not when my skin’s buzzing, my blood humming like it’s trying to tell me something.

I draw absent shapes on my notebook, my fingers twitching slightly. A swirling pattern begins to take shape before I even realize what I’m sketching.

It’s a symbol. One I’ve never seen before.

Two crescent moons cradling a single eye in the center.

I blink. The pencil drops from my hand like it burned me.

What the hell is happening to me?

The bell finally rings, dragging me out of the fog. Students chatter, chairs scrape, backpacks zip. I shove the notebook into my bag without looking at it again.

I barely make it to the hallway before Cali swoops in, linking her arm with mine.

"You look like you just saw a ghost,” she teases. Then her eyes narrow. "Wait. Did you?"

I snort, the sound weak. "No ghosts. Just... boys."

She winces. "Yikes. Jon and Arc?"

"They’re-" I falter. I can't tell her, at least, not yet.

"It’s like they’re trying to rip each other apart with their eyes."

"Well, I mean, you are the glowing girl caught between the hot mysterious rude guy and the cute warm transfer. Classic highschool love triangle."

"I am not glowing."

She pulls me closer, squinting at my face. "Actually… you kind of are." My breath gets stuck in my throat.

"What?" Maybe if she's seeing what I'm seeing, I won't think I'm running mad anymore.

"I’m serious, you’ve got this whole... inner light thing going on. It’s subtle, but it’s there." Of course, that's not what she meant. I feel dumb.

You are dumb.

Shut up.

I start to laugh, but the sound dies when I notice something strange.

People are gathered around the far end of the hallway. Whispering. Some laughing nervously. Others wide-eyed, murmuring things I can’t hear over the chaos.

"What’s going on?" I ask.

"Only one way to find out," Cali mutters.

We push through the crowd. And then I see it.

A locker is melted. Not broken, not dented. Melted. Like someone poured acid over it and let it stew.

Smoke curls from the edges. The metal sizzles softly, a grotesque hiss in the stunned silence.

"Oh my God," someone whispers behind me.

Students begin pulling out phones. A teacher shouts for everyone to back up, but my feet remain planted. Because there, scorched into the blackened surface, is a word.

One word.

SEER.

My breath leaves my lungs in a rush.

Cali grabs my wrist. "Aurora-"

"I didn’t do that," I whisper, my voice shaking. "I swear-"

“Of course you didn't. Your name is not seer. What are you saying?" Her grip tightens as her eyes trail my shaky figure. "But someone else did. It's definitely just a prank. The school cameras must have-"

A shiver races down my spine.

Cali trails off whilst looking upwards. I follow her line of sight and see that the CCTV cameras are also melted.

"Damn" She breaths out.

We start backing away, but then I stop. Something feels... wrong.

The hairs on the back of my neck rise. I turn toward the far end of the hallway.

There, barely visible beneath the flickering lights, stands a tall figure in a black hoodie. He’s still, unmoving. But his eyes-

Gold.

Blazing.

They pierce through the crowd. Through the noise. Through me.

My blood runs cold. He tilts his head slowly, like he’s studying me.

And then-

He’s gone.

No sound. No footsteps. No blur of movement. Just... vanished. But in his absence, something echoes. Not aloud. Not in the hallway.

Inside me.

"You opened the seal, little Seer. Now the cage breaks."

My legs nearly give out.

"Aurora?" Cali steadies me. “What happened? Why do you look so pale?”

But I can’t speak.

Because I know, with every trembling part of me...

That wasn’t Arc.

That wasn’t Jon.

That was someone else.

Someone older. Someone darker. And I think I just woke him up.