Chapter 5
1064 Words
Chapter Five: Among the Living
Blackthorn Academy looked exactly the same.
The same iron gates.
The same cracked statues of wolves guarding the front.
The same ivy-choked walls and broken windows that whispered ghost stories to the freshmen.
But Ember wasn’t the same.
And she wasn’t here to learn.
She was here to haunt.
---
She wore her hair differently now—long and loose, dyed pitch black to cover the red that had once made her a target.
Her eyes were hidden behind tinted glasses. The glamour Lucien helped her weave made her smell human to wolves and vampire alike. A few drops of his blood had sealed it.
It wasn’t perfect. It wouldn’t hold forever. But it was enough to get her inside.
Her new name on the registry?
Eva Cross.
Transfer student.
Daughter of some fabricated out-of-town diplomat.
And a mystery that made Blackthorn’s rumor mill explode within an hour of her arrival.
---
The first bell rang as she stepped through the courtyard.
The scent of damp grass. The laughter. The sound of feet scraping over the stone floor…
It should have comforted her.
But it felt like walking into the belly of a beast.
She saw the place where she’d dropped her books in front of Killian last fall.
The tree where Celine had hexed her locker to spit out her personal letters.
The bathroom stall where she had cried quietly after a failed shift while the others howled in celebration.
And now, they all walked past her, unaware.
Oblivious.
Alive.
It made her stomach churn.
---
Lucien had warned her not to engage. Not yet.
“Learn them first,” he’d said. “Know their weaknesses before you rip them open.”
It took everything inside her not to break that rule the moment she saw Celine.
The queen of Blackthorn.
Still flawless. Still cruel.
Surrounded by her coven of wannabe witches and smirking wolf-boys.
But she looked… paler.
Her magic flickered when it shouldn’t.
And for the first time, Celine looked afraid.
Not openly.
But Ember saw the twitch in her fingers when the wind blew the wrong way.
She saw her eyes flick toward every shadow like they were watching her back.
Good.
Let her feel the fear Ember drowned in.
---
“Hey!”
The shout came from behind her as she turned the hallway corner.
A boy bumped into her, scattering her new textbooks.
“s**t, I’m sorry. Wasn’t looking—”
He paused when he saw her face.
“Oh… you’re new.”
She crouched silently, picking up the books, waiting for the sarcasm or insults.
None came.
He helped her gather the papers, offered a genuine smile, and stuck out his hand.
“Zane. Zane Whitlock. Sophomore. Witch division. You?”
She hesitated.
“Eva.”
“Cool name. Gothic. Are you here for the course training or the werewolf classes?”
“Uh… undecided.”
“Smart. They’re both a mess this semester. Want me to show you around?”
She nodded, unsure.
But something about Zane’s smile disarmed her.
He wasn’t like the others.
At least, not yet.
---
By lunch, she had two maps, a class schedule, a cracked phone she barely remembered how to use, and three warnings about Celine’s temper from girls she didn’t know.
Apparently, Celine was spiraling.
Everyone could feel it.
“She swears someone’s following her,” Zane whispered as they sat under the old willow tree. “Her coven says it’s just anxiety, but she’s been jumpy since—well…”
He lowered his voice.
“Since that girl died last semester.”
Ember didn’t move.
Zane leaned in. “Did they tell you? A student died. No one really talks about it, but… it was bad. They said it was suicide. But that’s a lie.”
She looked at him. “How do you know?”
“Because Celine started drinking protective potions the day after it happened.”
He pulled something from his pocket.
A locket.
Inside was a scrap of cloth soaked in blood.
“Found this behind the gym. And a grave marker with no name.”
---
That night, Ember skipped her dorm.
Instead, she followed the scent.
Back to the edge of the woods.
To the place where They buried her.
Her shallow grave was still there.
Half-collapsed. Hidden behind thorns and roots.
The marker had been ripped up. The soil disturbed.
Something had dug her out.
Not Lucien.
Something else.
Something she hadn’t noticed before.
---
The earth pulsed under her feet as she knelt.
And then… she heard it.
A whimper.
A voice inside her mind.
“He knows you’re back.”
She spun.
No one there.
But the air crackled.
“He waited for you.”
---
Back at school, Killian stood on the balcony of the Alpha Dorms, staring out at the forest.
He hadn’t told anyone, not even Celine, but he felt it—the tremor in the pack link.
Something had come undone.
Something… ancient.
---
Later that night, Ember snuck into the school library. Zane had shown her the restricted section during their second tour.
It was hidden behind a moving bookcase and required a drop of blood.
She gave it willingly.
Inside, she searched through grimoires, bloodline registries, cursed blood records, and ancient vampire treaties.
What she found stunned her.
There were records of a hybrid. Just one.
Dated 317 years ago.
Burned alive for threatening the balance.
A creature of moon and shadow.
A werewolf who drank blood and survived silver.
Sound familiar?
Her.
---
Then she found something else.
A document marked with the Graves family seal.
Killian’s bloodline.
And on it… was the symbol of binding.
It was an oath. A pact signed in secrecy. A promise made to keep “the blood of fire and night” from rising.
And it had Ember’s family crest stamped beneath it.
They knew.
They’d known for generations what she was.
That she was destined to be more.
That her death would awaken it.
And still—they killed her.
Or worse…
They planned it.
---
As she clutched the document to her chest, something cold pressed against the back of her neck.
Steel.
A knife.
And a whisper.
“You should’ve stayed dead.”
Ember froze.
Killian.
He was behind her.
Smiling.
And his eyes were glowing silver.
- Writer
