Chapter 17: The Warning Beneath the Rose
389 Words
The letter trembled in Elara’s hand.
She read the words again—If you go to them, you’ll never walk out alive—and a cold chill swept over her skin. There was no signature, no sign of who sent it. But she didn’t need a name.
She already knew.
Serena.
Or worse… someone Serena was working with. Someone in the shadows, someone powerful enough to have hidden her identity for seventeen years.
She folded the note slowly, tucked it into her desk drawer, and locked it.
The Belmonts were coming.
And now more than ever, she had to be ready.
The next morning, Crestmont Academy buzzed with gossip. Whispers of the Belmonts' arrival spread like wildfire. Staff scrambled, students speculated, and Serena… Serena wore a crown of ice.
She walked into class like nothing had changed. Like the world wasn’t crumbling beneath her stolen throne.
But when she passed Elara’s desk, she paused.
“I hear the Belmonts are looking for a daughter,” she said sweetly. “Pity they’ll be disappointed.”
Elara looked up, smile razor-sharp. “They don’t seem like the type to settle.”
For once, Serena had no comeback. She only narrowed her eyes and moved on.
Later that afternoon, Nolan found Elara at the back of the music hall.
“They’re here,” he said, breathless. “Our parents. They're meeting with the headmaster now.”
Elara’s heart thundered. “Do they… know I’m here?”
“They suspect,” he said. “I told them I found someone. But I didn’t give a name yet. I wanted to be sure you were ready.”
She nodded, voice barely above a whisper. “I am.”
Just then, Zane burst in, face pale. “You need to see this.”
They followed him out to the school garden where the Belmont crest had been carved crudely into the stone fountain… with a red rose beneath it, its petals soaked in blood.
A message.
A warning.
Julian appeared beside them, clutching his phone. “There’s more. Look.”
He showed them a message sent anonymously to the school’s private student forum:
“The Belmonts may find their daughter… but will they bury her next?”
Elara swallowed hard.
This wasn’t just jealousy anymore.
This was war.
And someone wanted her gone
- Writer
