Chapter 4 – The Warning
1597 Words
The night air was sharp against my skin as I left the party. My heels clicked too loudly on the sidewalk, echoing like a metronome to the pounding of my heart.
Mia had wanted me to stay. She’d thrown me her classic puppy-eyed look when I said I was leaving, but after the hallway incident with Adrian, there was no way I could pretend to be carefree anymore. I needed space. I needed to breathe.
I wrapped my arms around myself as I walked across campus. The streetlights flickered, some too dim to be useful. I hated how quiet everything felt. Every rustle of leaves, every shadow stretching across the ground made my pulse quicken.
Get a grip, Elena. It’s just the night.
But then I heard it.
Footsteps.
Not Adrian’s. His steps were controlled, deliberate, like he owned the ground he walked on. These were different—uneven, rushed, almost stumbling.
I froze, my throat tight.
“Who’s there?” My voice came out stronger than I felt.
Silence.
Then, from the shadows near the library, a figure stepped out. A man. Not Adrian. His hoodie was pulled low, his face hidden, but I saw the glint of something metallic in his hand.
My stomach dropped.
Panic seized me, my body screaming at me to run. But before I could move, another figure appeared behind me. Strong arms wrapped around my shoulders, pulling me back.
I gasped, ready to fight, but then I saw them. Silver eyes.
Adrian.
His grip was steady, protective, his body angled between me and the hooded stranger. His voice was a low growl in my ear. “Stay behind me.”
The stranger muttered something I couldn’t catch. His words were slurred, angry, dangerous. The metallic glint shifted—I realized it was a knife.
My chest seized. This was real. Not a vision, not a dream, not paranoia.
“Walk away,” Adrian said, his voice like steel.
The man didn’t move. He raised the knife, his shoulders trembling with rage. “She’s marked,” he spat. “You can’t keep her.”
The words chilled me more than the blade pointed in our direction.
Adrian’s jaw tightened. He shifted his stance, his entire body coiled like a predator ready to strike.
“You don’t know what you’re dealing with,” Adrian warned.
The man lunged.
I screamed, but Adrian moved faster than I could process. His hand shot out, gripping the man’s wrist with inhuman strength. The knife clattered to the ground, and in a single motion, Adrian shoved him back. The hooded man stumbled, then bolted into the shadows, disappearing into the night.
Silence crashed down. My breaths came in ragged gasps.
Adrian bent, picked up the knife, and tossed it into the bushes like it was nothing more than trash. Then he turned to me.
“Are you hurt?” His silver eyes scanned me, sharp, searching.
I shook my head, too stunned to form words.
He reached out, brushing his fingers against my arm where his grip had held me. “I’m sorry if I scared you. But if I hadn’t been here…” His jaw tightened. “He would have taken you.”
I swallowed hard, my throat dry. “Who… who was that?”
His gaze darkened. “Someone who knows what you are.”
I blinked, the words hitting me like ice water. “What I am? I’m no one. I’m just—”
“You’re not just anything,” Adrian cut in, his tone sharp. “And the sooner you accept that, the better chance you have of surviving.”
My knees weakened. I backed away a step, shaking my head. “No. I don’t want any of this. I don’t want… you. Or your visions. Or people coming after me like I’m some prize to be stolen.”
Adrian’s expression softened, but his eyes never lost their fire. “You don’t get to choose fate, Elena. None of us do.”
I wanted to scream, to demand answers, to run until my legs gave out. Instead, I found myself staring at him, at the faint vulnerability hidden beneath the steel of his voice.
For a terrifying moment, I wondered if maybe he wasn’t my enemy at all.
Maybe he was the only thing standing between me and something far worse.
Adrian didn’t give me a chance to argue. His hand closed gently but firmly around my wrist.
“Come with me.”
“No.” I jerked back instinctively. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
His silver eyes locked on mine. “Do you want to wait here? For him to come back with friends? For someone else to try again?”
My stomach twisted. He wasn’t wrong. The image of the knife flashing under the streetlight was still burned into my mind.
I hated that he was right. I hated that part of me wanted to cling to him, to hide behind his certainty.
I didn’t answer, but when he turned and started walking, I followed.
We moved quickly across campus, the night air biting against my skin. He didn’t look back to check if I kept up—he knew I would. His pace was confident, purposeful, like every step had been mapped out before.
We stopped near the edge of the university grounds, where a row of tall oaks loomed like silent guardians. The noise of the party and the hum of the city felt far away here.
Adrian released my wrist and faced me. His expression was unreadable, but his eyes… those eyes were storms of silver light.
“Who was he?” I demanded, wrapping my arms around myself.
Adrian hesitated, as if weighing how much truth to give me. “A hunter.”
The word alone sent a shiver through me. “A hunter of what?”
His jaw tightened. “Of people like me. And now, people like you.”
I let out a sharp laugh, too high-pitched, edged with hysteria. “People like me? Adrian, I’m normal. I go to class, I drink coffee, I binge terrible TV shows. There is nothing—nothing—special about me.”
“You’re wrong.” His voice was calm, steady, but carried an iron core that cut through my denial. “You carry a mark. That’s why he came after you. That’s why I found you.”
My head shook violently, refusing his words. “No. You’re insane. This is insane. Marked by what? Magic? Destiny? That’s not real!”
He stepped closer, his presence overwhelming. “It’s real, Elena. Whether you believe it or not.”
My heart hammered. I wanted to shove him back, to scream at him until he left me alone. But his words echoed in my mind, tangled with the memory of the knife, of the stranger’s voice calling me marked.
I swallowed hard. “Then explain. If you expect me to believe this, you’d better start talking.”
Adrian studied me, his eyes narrowing slightly, as if deciding how much of the truth I could handle. Finally, he said, “There is a line of men and women called Oracles. My family has carried the curse for centuries. We see futures—shattered fragments of what could be. Deaths. Choices. Paths. Most people don’t want to know what awaits them, but there are others… others who hunt us for that knowledge. Or to destroy it.”
I stared at him, torn between disbelief and the nagging terror that his words fit too perfectly with what I’d seen. “So you’re telling me you’re… what? A fortune teller with better special effects?”
For the first time, his lips curved into something almost like a real smile. “If that helps you sleep tonight, yes.”
Despite myself, a laugh escaped. Short, sharp, but real.
His smile faded. “But it’s more than that. The visions come with a price. Oracles are bound by them, chained to what they see. And no matter how much we fight, there’s one rule we can’t escape.”
My throat felt tight. “And what’s that?”
His gaze pierced me, burning like molten silver. “That every Oracle is tied to one person. Always. You are mine. And because of that, you carry the mark. Others will sense it. They will try to take you. Or kill you.”
The world tilted beneath me. I shook my head, laughing nervously, desperate to tear through the tension strangling me. “No. That’s… that’s crazy. I’m not anyone’s. Especially not yours.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened. His voice dropped low, steady. “You don’t have to want it. Fate doesn’t care what you want.”
Silence fell between us. The trees groaned in the wind, the leaves whispering above. My pulse thundered in my ears.
Finally, I forced my voice out. “You think you can scare me into believing you. But I’m not your prophecy. I’m not your destiny. I’m just… me.”
Adrian’s expression softened, but his eyes still burned. “That’s what you don’t understand, Elena. Being you is exactly what makes you mine.”
I backed away, my breath coming too fast. My heart screamed at me to run, but my body stayed rooted, caught in the pull of his words, his gaze, his certainty.
For the second time in twenty-four hours, I realized something terrifying.
It wasn’t just the hunters in the shadows I had to fear.
It was the silver-eyed man whose claim I could no longer escape.
- Writer
