BLACKTHORN HEIR

Chapter One: Before Everything Changed I ran. I didn't know how long I had been running. The trees blurred around me as I pushed through the darkness, branches catching against my clothes and leaves crunching beneath my shoes. My lungs burned. My legs felt weak. But I couldn't stop. Something was behind me, I could feel it, not see it. Feel it. Every instinct inside me screamed the same thing RUN!! I stumbled over a root and nearly fell. My hand caught the trunk of a tree, and I stayed there for a second, trying to breathe. My heart was pounding so hard it hurt. "What is happening to me?" I whispered. My voice sounded strange in the silence, I looked down at my hands. They were shaking. Then I heard something. A whisper, not behind me, not in front of me. Inside my head. Ixora. I froze. My breath caught, nobody was supposed to know I was here. I slowly turned, nothing. Only trees,fog,darkness. Then the whisper came again, Ixora Vale. My blood ran cold. I took one step backward, and that was when the darkness moved. Not the trees, not the shadows they cast. The darkness itself, it stretched across the ground toward me. My eyes widened. "No..." Something inside my chest suddenly burned, grabbed my shirt. The pain was spreading through my body, fast and violent, as if something had been sleeping inside me for years and had finally decided to wake up. I screamed. And the forest disappeared. Three Weeks Earlier "IXORA!" I groaned and pulled my blanket over my head. "No." "Get up!" "No." The blanket was yanked away, as I opened one eye. Emily stood beside my bed, already dressed in her Blackthorn uniform, staring at me with the expression of someone who had been personally offended by my existence. "It's seven-thirty." I stared at her. "So?" "So we have class." "I know." "And breakfast." "I don't need breakfast." Emily folded her arms. "You said that yesterday." "And I survived." "You survived because I forced toast into your hand." I sat up slowly. "You're becoming controlling." "You're becoming impossible." I smiled. "Good morning to you too." Emily rolled her eyes, but I caught the tiny smile she tried to hide. That was Emily, she could complain about me for ten straight minutes and still be the first person to check whether I'd eaten. I climbed out of bed. Blackthorn Academy was already awake. Through the window, I could see students crossing the courtyard below, some hurrying toward the main building, others standing around in little groups and talking. The old stone buildings looked almost beautiful in the early morning. Almost. Blackthorn had always been strange. Not frightening. Just... strange. The school had been built centuries ago, long before anyone thought modern schools needed things like elevators, bright classrooms, or heating systems that actually worked. Still, I liked it. I'd been attending Blackthorn since the previous semester. I had arrived knowing absolutely nothing about the school's history. At first, I thought everyone was simply dramatic. Then I noticed the things nobody talked about. The locked corridors. The old portraits. The strange symbols carved into some of the walls. And the way certain students seemed to know things about the school that weren't written anywhere, but I'd never thought much of it. Blackthorn was just school. At least, that's what I believed. "Are you going to stare out that window all morning?" Emily asked. I turned, she was holding my blazer. "Put this on." "You're like my mother." "Your mother isn't here." The words came out casually. But for some reason, they made me pause. My parents had left England a few days earlier, they had returned to America for work and decided it would be easier for me to remain at Blackthorn instead of travelling back and forth. I'd told myself I didn't mind. I was eighteen, I could handle being away from home. Besides, I had Emily. And school kept me busy, most of the time. I took the blazer from her. "Fine." "Thank you." We headed downstairs. By the time we reached the dining hall, it was already noisy. Students filled the long tables, talking over one another while the smell of toast, eggs and coffee filled the room. Emily spotted our friends immediately. "There." She grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward them. "Good morning!" Ember called. "Morning." Caspian looked up from his breakfast. "You two are late." Emily dropped into her seat. "Blame her." She pointed at me. I sat beside her. "Why is everyone always blaming me?" "Because you're usually responsible." "That doesn't even make sense." "It makes perfect sense." Ember laughed. Caspian shook his head. For a few minutes, everything felt normal. Just school, friends, breakfast. Arguments over who had stolen whose toast. I actually forgot about everything else, until I noticed someone staring at me. I looked across the dining hall. A boy stood near one of the doors, He wasn't talking to anyone, he was simply watching me. I frowned. For some reason, he looked familiar, not familiar like I'd met him before. Familiar like I'd seen his face somewhere I couldn't remember. I blinked, He was gone. "Who are you looking at?" Emily asked. "No one." She followed my gaze. "There isn't anyone there." "I know." I looked back at my plate, maybe I'd imagined him. "You're weird today," Ember said. "Today?" "Okay. You're weird every day." I laughed. "Thanks." The bell rang, everyone began getting up. Emily grabbed her bag. "Come on." We followed the crowd toward the main building. I was halfway across the courtyard when I stopped. Something had changed. I couldn't explain what, the air felt different. Colder. I looked around. Students were still talking, someone was laughing near the stairs. A teacher was shouting at two boys running through the corridor. Everything looked completely normal. Yet I could hear something underneath all of it. A faint sound. Like whispering. I turned toward the old eastern wing. The doors were closed they had always been closed. But for a brief second, I thought I saw something move behind the glass. A shadow. I stared. Nothing. "Ixora?" Emily's voice pulled me back. I looked at her. "Coming." I followed her inside. Neither of us noticed the figure standing at the far end of the corridor. Watching. And behind him, carved into the ancient stone wall, almost invisible beneath years of dust, was a symbol that had not been seen in Blackthorn for a very long time. A Vale symbol. And beneath it, someone had recently written four words. She has come back.