Chapter Two : The Forbidden Wing
1432 Words
The night hummed with energy.
It always did at Nightshade Academy.
The moon hung low over the spires, its light spilling through the stained-glass windows like liquid silver. From her dorm room, Seraphine Vale could hear whispers threading through the corridors …voices that didn’t sound entirely human.
Elara was asleep in the next bed, tangled in her blanket, one hand glowing faintly blue in the moonlight. The light pulsed softly, like a heartbeat.
Sera frowned. “Elara…” she whispered.
Her friend didn’t stir. The glow faded.
It wasn’t the first time strange things had happened around Elara, but tonight, everything at Nightshade felt… louder.
The walls whispered. The floorboards sighed. And from the forest beyond the school gates came a sound that made her blood run cold … like a thousand wings brushing against the night.
By morning, the academy looked deceptively normal. Students gathered in the courtyard, their chatter laced with rumors about the human girl who’d argued with a Blackthorne.
Sera ignored them, pulling her coat tighter. The cold bit at her skin like teeth.
“Do you think he’ll challenge you again?” Elara asked, her curls bouncing as they crossed the lawn.
“Lucien?” Sera scoffed. “Probably. People like him don’t like being wrong.”
“He wasn’t wrong,” Elara teased. “You just made him look wrong. That’s worse.”
Sera smiled despite herself. “Maybe he’ll forget about it.”
But when she stepped into Ancient Civilizations, her hope shattered.
Lucien Blackthorne sat in the same seat as before …. two rows ahead, perfect posture, perfect composure, his gaze flicking toward her with practiced indifference.
Except his eyes, for a fleeting moment, weren’t indifferent.
They were curious.
Professor Dorn entered soon after, robes sweeping the floor. “Today,” he began, “we discuss the Warden Era … when psychic humans and vampires fought side by side against the Wraiths.”
Sera perked up. Psychic humans? That was new.
Professor Dorn continued, “Who can tell me what became of the psychic bloodlines?”
Lucien raised his hand. “Extinct. Their minds collapsed under the strain of their own power.”
Sera’s hand lifted almost instantly. “Not extinct. Hidden.”
Lucien turned, eyes narrowing again. “You just enjoy contradicting me, don’t you?”
“If you’d stop being wrong,” she said sweetly, “I wouldn’t have to.”
A low murmur rippled through the class.
Professor Dorn’s smile was faint. “Miss Vale, elaborate.”
Sera flipped open her notebook. “Records from the Witch Codex say some psychics went into hiding after the Wraith War. The witches called them Seers of the Veil. They believed the strongest of them would be reborn when darkness rose again.”
“Witch myths,” Lucien replied. “They romanticized everything. There’s no proof.”
She leaned forward, eyes gleaming. “Maybe not in vampire records. But why erase something that never existed?”
Lucien’s lips curved, a dangerous half-smile. “Because lies spread faster than truth.”
“Or because truth scares the people in power.”
That did it.
The class had gone silent. Even Professor Dorn seemed entertained by the storm building between them.
“Enough,” the professor finally said. “I see we have two historians with very sharp teeth. Perhaps detention will dull them.”
Sera’s stomach dropped. “Detention?”
“Midnight. The Forbidden Wing,” Dorn said simply, writing their names with a flourish. “Maybe spending an hour among the Academy’s ghosts will remind you of humility.”
Lucien muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like, perfect.
Midnight came too quickly.
The Forbidden Wing was nothing like the rest of the academy. The air was colder, heavier, thick with the scent of dust and iron. Candlelight flickered weakly against ancient portraits … faces long dead, eyes that still seemed to follow her.
Sera tightened her grip on her candle as she stepped through the doorway.
Lucien was already there, leaning against a marble pillar like he owned the place. His uniform jacket was unbuttoned, his sleeves rolled just enough to show the veins beneath pale skin.
“You’re late,” he said without looking at her.
“I didn’t realize this was your private chamber,” she shot back.
He glanced at her then …slow, deliberate. “Everything here belongs to my family. Technically, that makes it mine.”
“Then maybe you should fix the cobwebs.”
His lips twitched …. almost a smile. “You’re infuriating.”
“You started it.”
They fell into silence as the heavy door creaked shut behind them. The sound echoed like a warning.
Professor Dorn’s voice drifted faintly from somewhere down the hall. “Catalog the relics. No magic, no wandering. I’ll know if you disobey.”
And then they were alone.
Sera moved through the rows of glass cases, each filled with relics: rusted blades, shattered mirrors, books bound in runes. She paused at one … a black crystal pulsing faintly beneath the glass.
Her breath caught. The pulse matched her heartbeat.
Lucien noticed her stillness. “Don’t touch it,” he said quietly.
“I wasn’t going to.”
“You were thinking about it.”
“Do you read minds now?” she muttered.
His gaze lingered on her. “No. But that stone feeds on curiosity.”
Sera tore her eyes away. “Good thing I’m not curious.”
He almost laughed. “You’re the most curious person I’ve ever met.”
The admission startled her …and him. He turned away too quickly, pretending to study another case.
Minutes passed in uneasy silence. Then Sera heard it … a whisper, faint but clear.
Seraphine…
Her candle flickered violently.
She froze. “Did you hear that?”
Lucien frowned. “Hear what?”
The whisper came again, this time from the shadows behind the relic cases. Her vision blurred; the air shimmered like heat.
Suddenly, she saw flashes …images not her own: blood-red skies, a circle of witches, and a girl who looked just like her standing before a wall of fire.
“Sera?” Lucien’s voice snapped her back. His hand was on her shoulder. “You went pale.”
She staggered slightly, gripping the glass. “I….I saw something.”
He stared at her, confusion flickering in his eyes. “What do you mean, saw something?”
“It was like….a vision. The stone….it…”
Before she could finish, the crystal inside the case cracked. The light inside it exploded into a flurry of black smoke that rushed out, curling around them like serpents.
Lucien reacted first, shoving her behind him as he hissed a word in an ancient tongue. His eyes flashed crimson, veins rising along his temples. The smoke hissed and recoiled, retreating into the cracks of the wall.
When silence returned, her candle had gone out.
He turned toward her slowly, eyes still glowing faintly red. “What the hell are you?”
The question stung. “I could ask you the same thing.”
“I’m exactly what you think,” he said softly. “You, on the other hand…” His gaze dropped to the locket at her throat. “That thing pulsed when the relic reacted. You didn’t notice?”
Sera instinctively covered it with her hand. “It’s just a necklace.”
“Nothing in this school is just anything.”
Their eyes locked …hers defiant, his searching.
For a heartbeat, the air between them felt charged again …not with anger, but something raw and unspoken.
Then the door banged open. Professor Dorn stood there, his expression sharp. “What happened here?”
Lucien stepped forward. “A relic malfunctioned. I handled it.”
Dorn’s eyes flicked between them …Lucien’s reddened gaze, Sera’s trembling hands. “Handled it,” he repeated slowly. “Very well. Leave before something else breaks.”
As they walked out, Sera whispered, “You didn’t have to cover for me.”
Lucien’s voice was low. “I didn’t do it for you. I did it because I want to know what you are.”
Sera didn’t answer. But as they stepped into the moonlight, the locket under her collar pulsed once …a faint psychic hum that whispered of power awakening.
Far above them, in one of the tower windows, a figure watched …. Vivienne, her crimson eyes gleaming.
“She’s not supposed to be here,” she murmured. “And if Lucien keeps protecting her, he’ll ruin everything.”
The shadows seemed to agree.
- Writer
