The morning sun barely pierced the fog that clung to the old house, but I couldn't stay still. The message had changed everything. My reflection, the shadow queen, the whispered warning—they were pulling me into a world I hadn't seen before.
At school, Lucas was gone, and an empty space seemed to stretch between whispers and glances. The note I found—*"Meet me after school. Don't tell anyone."*—felt like a thread pulling me toward a secret I wasn't ready for.
Under the ancient oak, Lucas's eyes held the same darkness I'd seen in the mirror. "You're not alone in this," he said. He revealed the pendant—a crown-shaped relic humming with cold power. "You carry the blood of lost queens. The darkness is waking, and it's hunting for its queen."
Fear twisted in my gut, but I clenched the pendant tighter. Whatever awaited, I couldn't run. Not anymore. The hunt had began