Chapter 1 – The Veil Between Worlds
The rain swallowed Crescent City whole.
It poured until the streets shimmered like mirrors. Elara ran through the storm, her umbrella forgotten, breath fogging in the cold air. The night felt wrong. Too quiet. Too heavy. As if the city itself was holding its breath.
She wasn't supposed to be out this late.
But the library had always been her refuge, a place where myths whispered louder than people. Tonight, even those stories couldn't drown the feeling that something was watching her.
Her bag bumped against her hip, full of old books about the line between worlds. Legends of veils and shadows. Stories no one believed anymore.
A gust of wind tore through the street. The lights flickered. Elara stopped.
Something moved in the corner of her vision.
A ripple in the rain.
A shadow clinging too tightly to the walls.
Her pulse quickened.
It was nothing. Just the storm.
Then she heard it.
A whisper.
Soft. Low. Impossible.
"Elara."
Her name.
The sound slid through the storm, close and distant at the same time. The umbrella slipped from her hand. Her body froze.
Something stepped out from the mouth of the alley.
It wore the shape of a man but wasn't one. Its body shifted like smoke, its edges fading into the dark. When it looked at her, two silver eyes blinked open, cold and endless.
Her throat went dry. She couldn't move. Couldn't scream.
The shadow tilted its head, studying her like prey. The air folded inward, twisting around her.
"Elara."
Her knees buckled. Pain and cold shot through her chest. She stumbled back, clutching her bag like a shield.
Then another presence filled the night.
The air grew heavy with a strange power. A figure stepped from the storm, tall and cloaked. The rain seemed to bend around him.
He moved with quiet authority. The shadow recoiled as if it knew him.
A flash of steel cut through the dark. The creature screamed, a sound too sharp for human ears, then dissolved into mist.
Silence fell.
Elara gasped. She hadn't realized she was holding her breath.
The man stood a few steps away, hood dripping with rain. For a second she saw his face—strong jaw, cold eyes that gleamed the same silver as the creature's.
But his eyes were alive. Human. Fierce.
Their gazes met. The world seemed to still.
He spoke, his voice low and steady. "Go home."
The words carried a strange weight. "Forget what you saw."
Elara's lips parted, a thousand questions trembling there—Who are you? What was that thing? How do you know my name?—but before she could speak, he turned away.
The storm swallowed him. One blink, and he was gone.
She stood alone in the rain, trembling, her heartbeat pounding in her ears.
The whisper of her name still lingered, soft and haunting, as if the darkness itself remembered her.
And Elara knew, with terrifying certainty, that this was only the beginning.
Chapter 2 – The Man in the Rain
The city never slept, but tonight, Elara couldn't close her eyes.
Every time she did, she saw him—
the man who moved through the storm like it obeyed him.
She had replayed the night in her head a hundred times.
The silver eyes.
The blade.
The voice that cut through the rain and told her to go home.
But how could she forget something like that?
Her phone buzzed on the table. A message from her friend, Lila.
Lila: You coming to class? You've been ghosting all week.
Elara stared at the screen, her heart still heavy. She typed, then deleted, then typed again.
Elara: I'm fine. Just tired.
A lie.
Sleep had become her enemy.
She walked to the window. The rain had stopped, but the sky still looked bruised, purple clouds hanging low. The streets below gleamed with leftover puddles.
Her reflection in the glass looked pale, eyes ringed with dark circles.
She whispered to herself, "Who are you?"
The words fogged the glass.
A sudden chill filled the room. The light flickered once, twice, then went out.
Her breath caught.
The temperature dropped fast, as if winter had slipped through a crack in the world.
"Elara."
Her name again.
She spun around, heart pounding. The whisper came from nowhere—and everywhere.
Her books fluttered open on their own. Pages turned rapidly until one stopped. The page showed an illustration of a veil, drawn in faded ink, splitting a dark figure from a human silhouette.
Before she could reach for it, the lights flickered back on.
Everything was still again.
Her phone buzzed once more.
But this time, it wasn't from Lila.
Unknown Number: You shouldn't have seen that.
Elara's fingers trembled. She stared at the text, her chest tight.
She typed back.
Elara: Who is this?
No reply.
Then, another message appeared seconds later.
Unknown Number: You're not safe. Stay inside tonight.
Her pulse raced. She dropped the phone.
A sharp knock echoed at the door.
Once.
Twice.
Then silence.
"Elara?"
The voice was male. Calm. Familiar.
She hesitated, then opened the door just enough to see him.
The man from the rain.
Up close, he was even more unsettling—too composed, too still. His black coat dripped faintly onto her floor, and those silver eyes met hers like he'd been watching her for a long time.
She froze. "You—how did you find me?"
"I told you to forget," he said quietly. His tone wasn't threatening, but there was something heavy behind it. "You didn't."
Elara stepped back, gripping the doorframe. "You can't just—show up at my home."
He looked past her shoulder, scanning the dark corners of the room.
"You left the veil open."
Her brows knit. "What are you talking about?"
He turned his gaze back to her. "The space between. You crossed it when you saw that thing."
Her pulse quickened. "That thing tried to kill me."
He nodded slowly. "And now it knows your name."
For a long moment, neither of them spoke. The world outside seemed to fade, leaving only the sound of her heartbeat.
Then he said, "My name is Kael."
She almost laughed. "And what are you, Kael?"
His silver eyes darkened slightly. "Someone trying to keep you alive."