Chapter One – Arrival
The gates of St. Matthew's Academy loomed like iron teeth, swallowing me whole as the car rolled through. The driver—a man who hadn't spoken since collecting me from the station—stared straight ahead, as if silence was part of the school's rules.
It was late afternoon, and the light was fading. The main building rose from the mist like something carved out of an old Gothic painting: stone walls streaked with age, windows like watchful eyes, a spire stabbing the grey sky. My stomach twisted.
I was used to being invisible, but this place felt different. It wasn't that no one saw you here—it was that the walls themselves seemed to judge.
When the car stopped, the driver unloaded my single suitcase and left without a word. I stood there, alone, the chill creeping into my bones. Boys in crisp blazers strode past in groups, their laughter sharp, rehearsed, like they had practiced belonging. I didn't know where to go, so I followed the sound of voices into the main hall.
The smell of polish and paper filled the air. A line of portraits stared down at me from the walls—men and women with eyes that seemed to know secrets I didn't.
That was when I first saw her.
Isabella Blackwood.
She stood at the center of a group near the stairwell, her dark hair pinned neatly back, her grey eyes sharp as glass. She wasn't just another student—there was something untouchable about her, the kind of presence that bent the air around her. Even from across the hall, she looked like she belonged to another world.
Her laughter rang out, light but calculated, like she knew exactly how it sounded to everyone listening. And everyone was listening.
I told myself not to stare. Not here, not on my first day. But her gaze flicked across the room—and for the briefest second, it landed on me.
It wasn't long enough to mean anything. And yet, it felt like a mark, like she had seen straight through the surface of me.
I dropped my eyes and gripped my suitcase tighter.
This was St. Matthew's. A place of rules, hierarchies, and masks. A place where someone like me could disappear without a sound.
But standing there under her gaze, I had the strange, dangerous sense that I wouldn't.