Royal Crest University buzzed like a hornet's nest.
It had started like any other day — students yawning in lecture halls, hungover chatter in the quad, professors droning through syllabi. Aurora kept her hoodie up and her headphones in, trying to ignore the burning ache under her skin. Her powers pulsed beneath her ribs like a second heartbeat.
Zayne hadn't texted.
And her dreams last night had been dark — full of whispers and fire, and Fiona's twisted face smiling through the flames.
She slipped into Professor Gray's lecture late, hoping not to draw attention.
Too late.
Everyone was staring at the board.
At him.
Professor Gray stood at the front, eyes wide, jaw slack. His hand trembled as he gripped the lectern.
"The girl is the key," he said.
Aurora froze.
His body jolted—then smoke poured from his mouth, eyes, ears. He screamed, and then collapsed.
Gasps. Screams. Someone called campus security.
But all Aurora could see was the message scrawled behind him on the blackboard. Written in glowing red:
"Silence her before the blood moon."
Her hand—without her thinking—rose. A soft golden glow danced between her fingers.
The curse was waking.
And the whole university just got a front-row seat.
Later that day.
Campus was in chaos. Rumors of demons, seizures, witchcraft. Half the students were recording TikToks, the other half crying.
Aurora hid in the library. Not even Eira, the grumpy assistant librarian, gave her the usual side-eye. Everyone was too shaken.
Then the shadows in the aisle moved.
Zayne.
"We don't have time," he said, pulling her into the back archives. "That wasn't a coincidence. That professor—he was marked."
"Marked by what?"
Zayne looked around.
"Fiona. Or what's using her now."
He unrolled a scroll — yellowed parchment, blood-red ink.
It showed a girl with golden eyes, standing at a crossroads of fire.
"It's you, Aurora. The key to breaking the curse. Or letting it loose."
Her hands shook. Her lips parted. "What do I do?"
Zayne's fingers brushed her jaw.
"You run. Or you fight. But either way, you have to choose. Before the blood moon rises."
Aurora swallowed. "And if I choose wrong?"
His voice dropped. "We all burn."
To be continued.