The cafeteria buzzed with laughter and chatter, but Aiden kept to his usual corner table. His tray was barely touched — scholarship kids didn't exactly fit in at Aurelian Academy, the most prestigious school in the country. Here, every student came from money, power, or legacy. He came from nothing but an orphanage.
"Oi, dreamer," his friend Noah nudged him. "You'll starve at this rate. Eat."
Aiden smirked faintly, but before he could respond, pain stabbed his chest. It was sharp, sudden, like fire searing under his skin. He dropped his fork, clutching his shirt.
The cafeteria went on as if nothing happened, but across the room, Selene Veyran froze mid-sentence. Her crimson-tinted eyes widened. She had felt it — a presence, raw and suffocating, like the shadow of death itself pressing against her veins.
Her heart hammered. Whoever it was… was here. Right now.
Selene stood abruptly, ignoring her friends' questioning looks. She grabbed her bag, heels clicking fast as she strode out of the cafeteria. Within an hour, she was in her mother's office, pale and shaken.
"Mother…" she whispered, bowing her head. "Something… dangerous is here. At school. It feels like… it could swallow me whole."
The Countess Lysandra, regal and terrifying even in her business suit, narrowed her eyes. "So, it begins," she murmured, though Selene could not understand what she meant.
Back at the cafeteria, Aiden's pain subsided. He lifted his head, breath shaky. Nobody had noticed, except maybe… he glanced around. A few students were staring at him with narrowed eyes — the kind who never looked at scholarship kids. The kind who thought bloodlines mattered.
And for a fleeting moment, Aiden felt something else stir deep within him — not pain this time. Hunger.
He clenched his fists. He didn't know it yet, but the world had just begun to notice him.