The Devils heart

Mira had always thought her grandmother’s warnings were just bedtime stories—tales to keep her on the straight and narrow, or so she believed. But on the night of her twenty-first birthday, everything changed. It started with the feeling of eyes on her, that strange sense of being watched that made her skin crawl. She was alone in her apartment, the flickering streetlights outside casting shadows against the walls. She felt a twinge in the air, the temperature suddenly dropping, as if something—someone—was coming for her. When she turned to the mirror, her heart stopped. A symbol, ancient and dark, had appeared on the back of her neck, glowing faintly. It was a sigil—something she’d seen only in her grandmother’s grimoires. A binding mark. And she knew then, with a cold certainty, that the stories weren’t just stories. A knock echoed from the door. Mira’s pulse raced, but she didn’t move. She couldn’t. There was something in the air, something wrong, and whatever it was, it was beyond anything she could fight. The door creaked open. Lucian Nightshade stepped into the room, his gaze locking onto hers with an intensity that made her breath catch. He was everything she feared—and everything she couldn’t resist. His presence filled the room, suffocating yet electrifying. And in that moment, she knew exactly who he was. Lucian stepped forward, his voice dark and smooth. “You’ve been marked, Mira. You belong to me now.”