It wasn't folklore to them. It was history. Their history.
A knot of pure, cold suspicion tightened in my gut. My mind, usually so precise and analytical, began spinning through a hundred different anomalies I had dismissed since moving to California:
The uncanny speed with which Gabriel had moved to catch me in the library weeks ago.
The strange, amber flicker in his eyes when he was furious.
The way the entire student body parted for him like sheep fleeing an apex predator.
The eerie, terrifying aura that rolled off his father, Victor Jakes, in the administration wing earlier today—a presence so overwhelming it had made my entire body scream at me to run.
"That concludes today's module," Professor Sterling announced, clearing his throat as the heavy brass bell rang throughout the h
