The dream always began with fire.
It licked at the edges of her vision, red and gold flames swirling in patterns that made no sense, yet felt achingly familiar. In the middle of it all stood a pair of golden eyes, unblinking, glowing like molten amber. They watched her with a mixture of hunger and longing, a gaze so intense it made her heart thunder as if it could break free from her chest.
Aria tried to speak, to ask who or what they belonged to, but her voice never came in the dream. The silence was heavy, suffocating, broken only by the rhythmic crackle of unseen fire. Her feet moved without her command, pulling her closer to those eyes, closer to the dark figure that lurked beyond the blaze. The heat pressed against her skin, yet her body trembled with cold.
Then came the sound. A low, guttural howl, so deep it shook the ground beneath her. It was sorrow and rage, love and loss, all tangled together in a sound that was both terrifying and heartbreakingly beautiful.
She woke up gasping, tangled in sweat-soaked sheets.
Aria's hands gripped her pillow as though holding onto the last thread of the dream. The howl still echoed in her ears, fading into the rustle of the curtains that swayed with the dawn breeze. Her chest rose and fell quickly, and when she tried to sit up, her body felt heavy, as though she had actually run through fire.
It was the third night in a row she'd had the dream. And it was getting stronger.
Aria sat on the edge of her bed, pressing her palms against her face. The coolness of her skin didn't match the heat that still pulsed inside her. Every time she had this dream, her body reacted as though it were real. Her muscles ached, her heartbeat was wild, and her mind carried the weight of something… ancient. Something older than she could ever name.
She ran a hand through her tangled dark hair and forced herself to glance at the clock on her nightstand. 6:47 a.m. She was late again.
"Damn it," she muttered under her breath, throwing off the sheets and stumbling toward the bathroom. The cracked tiles of the floor felt colder than usual beneath her bare feet, or maybe it was just her. Lately, her senses had been doing strange things hearing whispers where no one spoke, smelling rain before clouds gathered, and most disturbingly, noticing heartbeats in people if she paid too much attention.
Her reflection in the mirror stopped her mid-motion. Her eyes looked different this morning. Not in color they were the same stormy gray they'd always been but sharper, almost glowing under the dim bathroom light. She leaned closer, heart quickening, as if searching for an answer in her own gaze. For a moment, she could swear she saw a flicker of gold shimmer across her irises.
The sound of a knock startled her.
"Aria! You're going to be late again!" It was her best friend, Lila, shouting through the apartment door.
Aria jolted back, blinking hard until her eyes looked normal again. Normal. She needed normal.
Aria pulled on her jeans and a faded hoodie, grabbed her bag, and swung the door open to meet Lila's impatient glare.
"You look like you wrestled with a thunderstorm," Lila said, her fiery red hair tied in its usual messy bun. "And lost."
Aria forced a laugh, though her chest was still tight from the dream. "Thanks for the pep talk."
Lila rolled her eyes but offered a grin. "Come on. Professor Dorian will have our heads if we're late again. And unlike yours, mine is way too pretty to lose."
The two girls rushed down the apartment stairs, the morning air carrying a strange chill. Autumn in Ravencrest was always unpredictable sunshine one day, mist the next but this felt heavier, as though the fog clung too tightly to the skin.
As they walked toward campus, Aria couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching them. The narrow streets were nearly empty, yet she kept catching shadows shifting at the edges of her vision. Every time she turned, there was nothing there just swaying branches or the flap of a stray bird. Still, her instincts screamed otherwise.
"Aria?" Lila nudged her shoulder. "You okay? You've been zoning out a lot lately."
"Just… tired," Aria lied. She couldn't exactly admit that her nights were filled with fire, wolves, and a haunting voice calling her name.
They reached Ravencrest University, its towering Gothic buildings rising like ancient guardians against the pale sky. Students filled the courtyard, chatting, laughing, living their ordinary lives. Aria tried to blend into the noise, tried to pretend she was just like everyone else.
But as she stepped onto campus grounds, the sensation returned sharper this time. Eyes. Watching. A low hum vibrated through her chest, like the echo of an approaching storm.
And then she saw him.
Across the courtyard, leaning casually against a stone pillar, was a tall figure dressed in black. His posture was relaxed, but his gaze locked on her burned with an intensity that made her breath hitch. Even from a distance, she could feel it. A magnetic pull.
The stranger smirked, as if he knew a secret she didn't.
Aria tore her eyes away, heart pounding. But when she glanced back, he was gone.
Aria forced herself to focus as she and Lila slipped into the lecture hall, sliding into two empty seats near the back. Professor Dorian was already at the front, tall and sharp-eyed, scrawling notes across the chalkboard with the precision of a man who cared far too much about the past.
"History," he began, voice deep and commanding, "is not just a record of what has been. It is the echo of what still lives within us. Every myth, every legend… carries a truth."
Normally, Aria found his lectures oddly comforting, like stepping into another world where the weight of her own didn't press so hard. But today, his words seemed to crawl beneath her skin. Legends. Myths. Truths.
Her mind kept circling back to the man in black. That stare unshakable, burning into her even now. Who was he? Why did it feel as though he had been waiting for her?
"…and so the ancient tribes of this region spoke of wolves as guardians of the boundary between worlds," Professor Dorian continued, his chalk tapping against the board. "They were not simply beasts. They were messengers. Judges."
A sharp shiver ran down Aria's spine. Wolves. Fire. Dreams. The pieces threaded together in ways she didn't understand, but her body seemed to recognize before her mind could.
Her pen slipped from her fingers and clattered against the desk. The sound made Lila glance at her with a frown.
"Aria, seriously what is with you today?" Lila whispered.
"I" Aria started, but the words stuck. Her chest tightened, her pulse roaring in her ears. She felt it again: the sensation of being watched.
Her gaze swept the lecture hall, desperate, searching.
And there he was.
At the far side of the room, half-hidden in the shadows near the tall arched window, sat the stranger from the courtyard. His black clothes made him blend into the gloom, but his eyes those same eyes cut through the distance, locking with hers.
Aria's lungs seized. She couldn't move, couldn't breathe.
He tilted his head, the faintest smile playing at his lips.
And then, as suddenly as she blinked, the seat was empty.
Her heart hammered violently, her skin clammy as though she'd run a marathon.
Professor Dorian's voice pulled her back: "Some say the wolves do not choose their prey at random. They choose the ones marked by destiny."
Aria's pen snapped in her trembling hand.
Aria pressed her hand against the broken pen, black ink smearing across her fingers. Her breathing came shallow, uneven. The room felt smaller, hotter, as though the very air was being pulled away.
Her gaze darted back to the window where the man had been sitting. Empty. Just empty.
But the sensation of his stare lingered. Heavy. Inevitable.
"Aria?" Lila's voice was distant now, muffled, as though spoken through water.
Professor Dorian's chalk dragged against the board with a long screech, making Aria flinch. The sound twisted into something else inside her head a low, guttural growl.
Her heart lurched. She froze.
The growl grew louder, echoing not in the room but within her chest, vibrating against her ribs. Her vision blurred at the edges, bleeding into shadow.
"Do you hear me, little one?"
The voice wasn't Dorian's. It wasn't Lila's. It wasn't anyone's. It was deep, wild, ancient the voice of something that didn't belong in the world of classrooms and chalkboards.
Her chair scraped loudly as she stumbled to her feet. A few students turned, whispering.
"I—excuse me," Aria stammered, her voice barely working. Her legs felt weak, but she forced them to move, rushing for the door. Lila tried to catch her wrist, but Aria slipped free, ink-stained hands trembling.
The hallway outside was colder, emptier, but the voice followed.
"You can't run from what you are."
Her pulse pounded so hard it hurt. Aria pressed herself against the stone wall, squeezing her eyes shut. This isn't real. This isn't real. This isn't real.
But then
A flicker of movement at the end of the corridor. A shadow, tall and broad, unfurling like smoke.
And within that darkness, two golden eyes snapped open, burning through her like fire.
Her scream caught in her throat.
And everything went black.
...
Aria's eyelids fluttered open. The world was blurred, soft around the edges. The familiar stone ceiling of the academy swam above her, dim lantern-light glowing against the carved beams.
She was lying on a cot the infirmary. A cool cloth pressed against her forehead, and faint herbal smoke drifted from a small bronze bowl at the bedside.
"Easy," a voice whispered.
Her breath caught. For a heartbeat she thought it was the same deep, wild voice she'd heard in the corridor but when she turned her head, it was only Lila, perched on a stool, eyes wide with worry.
"You fainted in class," Lila explained, her tone soft, careful, as though Aria were glass that might shatter. "Professor Dorian nearly had a fit. You scared everyone."
Aria tried to sit up, but her head throbbed. She pressed a hand against her temple only to find her fingers still faintly stained with ink. Her chest tightened. It hadn't been a hallucination. She knew it hadn't.
Before she could answer, the lantern flickered. Once. Twice. The shadows in the corners of the room deepened unnaturally, stretching like claws across the walls.
Her breath froze.
"Do you see it too?" she whispered before she could stop herself.
Lila blinked, confused. "See what?"
But Aria wasn't looking at her anymore.
From the far corner of the infirmary, where the darkness pooled thickest, something stirred. The air rippled as though a storm had been trapped inside the walls.
Two eyes opened molten gold, just as they had in the corridor.
The wolf.
But not entirely. It hovered between shapes: fur bristling, fangs glinting, then fading into the outline of a man, tall and broad, his features lost to shadow. He stepped forward, and the air filled with the scent of earth and blood.
Aria's pulse hammered in her ears. She couldn't move. Couldn't breathe.
Lila reached out, shaking her arm. "Aria what's wrong? There's nothing there!"
But there was. She could feel the heat of its gaze searing her, feel the ground itself tremble with each step it took closer.
And then, that voice again, curling around her like smoke.
"You are mine, little flame."
The world shattered.
Light exploded across her vision a forest on fire, shadows of wolves racing through the flames, their howls tearing through the night. In the center of the blaze, she saw herself, but not herself: eyes glowing amber, blood streaking down her hands, a crown of smoke and fire circling her head.
Aria screamed
And snapped awake.
The lantern burned steady. The shadows were gone. The infirmary was still.
Only Lila remained, gripping her hand tightly, fear etched across her face.
But Aria's body was trembling, her skin damp with sweat. Because the echo of that voice still lingered in her ears.
"You are mine."