BLACKTHORN HEIR

Chapter Four: Not So Normal

Chapter Four: Not So Normal

Two Days After My Birthday

By the time I reached the dining hall, I had already decided on one thing.

I was going to have a normal day.

No strange whispers, no mysterious doors. No conversations about things that shouldn't exist.

And absolutely no staring at my friends like they were creatures from another dimension.

Simple. At least, that was the plan.

“You're late.” Emily's voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

I looked up to find her sitting at our usual table, a piece of toast in one hand and a look of amusement on her face.

“I’m three minutes late.”

“Four.”

“You counted?”

“Of course.”

I dropped into the seat beside her. “You need hobbies.”

Emily smiled. “Watching you struggle through school is my hobby.”

“That's concerning.”

“Very.”

I laughed despite myself. Everything was Okay

Students were talking loudly around us. Someone at the next table was arguing over a missing notebook. Two boys were trying to balance spoons on their noses while their friends laughed at them. Somewhere near the entrance, a teacher was telling three students to stop running.

It was just a school, a normal school. Except it wasn't.

I looked across the table.

Sylvan was reading something on his phone, completely uninterested in the chaos around him.

Caspian was leaning back in his chair, talking to Ember. Whatever he whispered made her roll her eyes, but she was smiling.

Nocturne was quietly eating. Hecate was looking through a book.

They all looked completely ordinary, that was the strange part.

I knew better now. I knew they weren't ordinary.

And somehow, knowing that made everything around me feel different.

I picked up my juice, then paused.

“How many supernatural people do you think are in this school?”

Emily nearly choked on her drink.

I blinked innocently. “What?”

She stared at me. “You just asked that very casually.”

“I was curious.”

“You're becoming curious at a dangerous speed.”

“I thought you liked curious.”

“I do.”

She leaned closer. “Just not when your curiosity involves things that can bite.”

I lowered my voice. “So there are things here that can bite?”

Emily stared at me for another second, then she smiled. “I never said that.”

“You basically did.”

“I said nothing.”

“You said it with your face.”

“My face says many things.”

“Your face is annoying.”

“Your face is annoying.”

I laughed.

Across from us, Ember looked over. “What are you two arguing about?”

“Nothing,” Emily said quickly.

“Supernatural creatures,” I answered at the same time.

Emily closed her eyes. Ember burst out laughing.

Caspian turned toward us. “Already?”

“Already what?” I asked.

“Questioning the entire supernatural population before breakfast?”

“I've already had breakfast.”

“That doesn't make it better.”

I smiled.

For the first time since everything had started becoming strange, I didn't feel completely uncomfortable sitting among them.

Maybe because I was beginning to understand that they were still my friends.

They were supernatural. Yes.

They had secrets. Definitely.

But they were still Emily, Ember, Caspian, Sylvan, Nocturne and Hecate. And somehow, that mattered.

The bell rang.

Everyone around us immediately started gathering their things.

I stood. “What do we have first?”

“History,” Emily said.

I groaned. “You're kidding.”

“Nope.”

“Why does Blackthorn hate me?”

“Maybe because you keep asking questions.”

“I ask reasonable questions.”

Emily gave me a look. “Yesterday you asked Sylvan if he could read minds.”

“He refused to answer.”

“Exactly.”

“That wasn't a no.”

Emily laughed as we walked out of the dining hall. The corridor was crowded with students heading toward their classrooms.

I followed Emily through the crowd, listening to the noise around us.

For once, there was nothing strange. No whispers, no strange shadows, no impossible sounds.

Just students rushing to class.

I almost relaxed, almost. Then someone passed us.

A girl I didn't recognize.

She walked quickly, her dark hair falling over one side of her face. As she passed, she glanced directly at me.

For barely a second, but something about her expression made me stop. She looked surprised, not curious, not confused.

Surprised.

Like she'd seen me before. I turned around.

She was already gone. “You coming?”

Emily was several steps ahead.

“Yeah.” I hurried after her.

I didn't mention the girl, maybe it meant nothing. And I was beginning to learn that not every strange thing needed an explanation.

At least, I hoped so.

History was surprisingly normal. Our teacher spent most of the lesson talking about the history of old British estates and the families that had once controlled large areas of land.

I tried to take notes, I really did.

But halfway through the lesson, the teacher wrote a name on the board.

Ashbourne.

My pen stopped, something about the name felt familiar. Not familiar like I'd heard it recently, familiar in a way I couldn't explain. I looked around.

Sylvan's expression had changed. Only slightly, but I noticed. His eyes had gone toward the board. Caspian wasn't smiling anymore either. Emily noticed me looking at them. She shook her head very slightly.

Don't ask.

I understood, so I didn't. I looked back at my notebook. A few minutes later, another name appeared.

Vale.

My stomach tightened.

My surname.

The teacher continued talking as if nothing had happened, but I wasn't listening anymore.

Vale.

Why did everything connected to this school somehow lead back to that name?

I looked at Emily, she was staring at her notebook..Too carefully.

I looked at Sylvan, he was doing the same thing. Nobody said anything. And somehow, their silence said more than words could have.

At lunch, I decided I wasn't going to think about it, that lasted approximately seven minutes.

“Stop staring at your food.”

I looked up.

Ember was watching me.

“I’m not staring.”

“You've been holding the same fork for thirty seconds.”

I looked down.

She was right.

I stabbed a piece of food with it. “Happy?”

“Very.”

Caspian laughed.

“She's thinking again.”

“I think all the time.”

“That's dangerous.”

“Why does everyone keep saying that?”

“Because you keep asking questions,” Emily said.

I pointed my fork at her. “You're not helping.”

“I know.”

Everyone laughed.

And for a moment, I laughed with them.

It was easy, normal, almost ordinary. Then I looked around the table. These people had secrets, big ones. Secrets I couldn't even begin to understand. But I was starting to realize something.

Maybe I didn't need to understand everything at once. Maybe I could just take it one day at a time. One strange thing at a time. One unanswered question at a time.

Because Blackthorn wasn't going to explain itself to me.

I had a feeling I was going to have to discover it myself.

And somehow, that thought didn't scare me as much as it should have.

Not yet.

By the time classes ended, the sky outside had turned gray.

Emily and I walked through the courtyard, talking about an assignment we had been given.

I listened to her complain about the amount of work, I complained about the teacher. She complained about the teacher.

We were just two students complaining about school.

And I liked it, maybe I needed that. Something ordinary.

Something that reminded me that despite everything I'd discovered, I was still just Ixora. A girl trying to survive school.

A girl trying to understand her friends. A girl who had absolutely no idea what was waiting for her.

I looked up at the old Blackthorn building. Its tall windows reflected the cloudy sky.

For a moment, I wondered how long it had been keeping its secrets. How many students had walked these halls without knowing what lived beneath them?

How many people had known the truth? And why did it feel like the school was slowly letting me see pieces of it?

I didn't have the answers, not yet. Maybe I wasn't supposed to. It hadn't even been a week since I'd returned to Blackthorn.

And already, I knew my friends weren't ordinary. I'd learned that the world wasn't as simple as I'd always believed.

I'd learned that things I'd once thought belonged in stories could actually exist. And somehow, the strangest part was this:

I was starting to believe there was still so much more I didn't know.

I looked at the school one last time. Blackthorn stood quietly beneath the darkening sky.

Beautiful.

Ancient.

And full of secrets.

I took a slow breath.

It hadn't even been a week.

And I was already beginning to understand that my world had never been as ordinary as I thought.

Maybe it never had been.