Chapter 3
1120 Words
Aria Draven
I didn’t sleep that night.
The sound of the storm outside never stopped. The window kept rattling like it was trying to warn me. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the shadow Cassian killed. The way it moved. The way it disappeared into ash. I didn’t know which was worse, the monster that came through my window, or the way my heart had raced when he stepped between us.
I told myself it was fear.
But fear doesn’t make your hands shake when you remember someone’s eyes.
When dawn came, I found the uniform folded neatly on the chair. Black jacket, silver crest, boots polished to a shine. The tag still smelled new. Whoever left it hadn’t made a sound.
The halls of Nightbourne looked different in daylight. The torches burned low, and mist drifted through the open courtyard. Students in dark uniforms moved like shadows. Quiet, trained, dangerous. No one spoke to me. They didn’t have to. I could feel their eyes.
The whispers followed me: “That’s the Draven girl.”
“The one who threatened her own stepmother.”
“Human, they said. Won’t last a week.”
I clenched my fists, forcing my face blank. They could talk all they wanted. I’d learned a long time ago how to survive being watched. You give them nothing. No fear. No emotion.
Only silence.
By the time I reached the training field, my stepbrothers were already there.
Luca leaned against a stone pillar, grinning that same grin he used the night he told me I was “nothing but a broken pawn.” His younger brother, Rhett, stood beside him, hands in his pockets, eyes colder. The silver bands on their wrists glinted. The Draven mark. My mark once, before it was stripped from me.
“Well, look who crawled back from Daddy’s punishment,” Luca said loudly. “Did the guards go easy on you, little sister?”
I ignored him and kept walking, but his hand shot out, gripping my wrist. “I asked you a question.”
Before I could pull away, a shadow fell across us.
Cassian.
His voice was calm, but there was no warmth in it. “Touch her again, and I’ll break your hand.”
Luca froze, then laughed nervously. “Didn’t realize she needed a bodyguard.”
Cassian didn’t move. He didn’t need to. The power in his stillness said everything. “I don’t repeat myself.”
The field went silent. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.
Luca let go of me slowly, stepping back. “Whatever you say, Proctor.”
Cassian’s gaze flicked to me. “Training starts in ten minutes. Don’t be late.”
He turned and walked away, every step controlled. The students parted for him like the tide, no one daring to meet his eyes. He didn’t look back, but I could feel it. The awareness between us, sharp and heavy.
I hated that he’d saved me again.
I hated that part of me wanted him to.
The training field was brutal.
We were thrown into combat drills immediately, paired with upper-level students. My partner, a girl with pale eyes and a cruel smile, went for my throat before the signal even sounded. I blocked her once, twice, but she was faster. Her claws sliced across my arm, drawing blood.
“Pathetic,” she hissed.
Something inside me snapped. My pulse roared in my ears. Before I knew it, my body moved on instinct. Too quick, too strong. I caught her wrist mid-swing and twisted, slamming her into the ground. The air cracked with energy.
For a second, everything stopped.
Even Cassian.
He stood at the edge of the field, arms crossed, eyes locked on me. His expression didn’t change, but the faint glow in his pupils told me what I already feared.
He’d seen it.
The thing inside me.
The thing I didn’t understand.
I stepped back, shaking. The girl I’d thrown down gasped for breath, staring at me like I wasn’t human.
Maybe I wasn’t.
Cassian’s voice cut through the silence. “Enough. Dismissed.”
No one argued. The students scattered, muttering as they left. I stayed where I was, the blood on my sleeve mixing with the dirt.
He walked toward me slowly, his boots leaving dark prints in the sand. “You’re bleeding.”
“I’m fine,” I said, stepping back.
He didn’t stop until we were almost touching. His hand brushed my arm. Just once, deliberate and warmth spread through my skin, the wound closing in seconds. I flinched.
“What was that?”
“Control,” he said simply. “Something you’ll need if you want to stay alive here.”
I met his gaze. “What am I?”
His jaw tightened. For the first time, he looked uncertain. “You don’t want that answer.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Not yet.”
The words cut deeper than I expected. I wanted to scream, to demand the truth, but his voice dropped to a whisper, too low for anyone else to hear.
“You’re being watched,” he said. “Not by me. Not by the students. By something older.”
My stomach twisted. “Older?”
Before he could answer, the academy bells rang—sharp, metallic, urgent.
Cassian’s head snapped toward the towers. His entire body went still, muscles tensing like a predator sensing danger. “Get inside. Now.”
“What’s happening?”
He didn’t answer. He just grabbed my hand and pulled me after him. His grip was firm, unyielding, and even through the fear, I could feel it—the energy that always sparked when he touched me. Something raw. Dangerous.
We turned a corner just as the first scream echoed down the corridor.
It came from the east wing.
Cassian released me. “Stay here.”
“Cassian…”
“Don’t move.”
He vanished into the dark, his form dissolving into shadow before my eyes. One heartbeat, two and the hall was silent again.
I pressed my back against the wall, my pulse hammering. The silence felt wrong, heavy, alive.
Then I heard it. Soft at first, like whispering.
My name.
Aria...
The sound came from the ceiling vents, the walls, the air itself. I turned in a slow circle, throat tight. The torches flickered, one by one, until only darkness remained.
Aria...
And just before the last flame went out, I saw them, eyes in the dark. Dozens of them. Watching. Waiting.
I opened my mouth to scream, but the shadow behind me moved first.
A hand covered my mouth.
A voice breathed against my ear.
“Run.”
It wasn’t Cassian.
- Writer
