Rain pounded against the old rooftop, each drop echoing in Elara Winters' ears like a countdown she couldn't escape. She had always felt the world was a little… wrong. Too quiet sometimes, too loud at others, as if something unseen moved just beyond her reach.
Tonight, on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, that feeling clawed at her bones.
The power went out. Darkness swallowed her attic room, leaving only the pale moonlight spilling through the cracked window. Elara sat up in bed, her heart hammering, because something was glowing on her skin.
Her wrist burned.
A silver mark had appeared, curling in strange patterns—alive, as though it had been waiting all these years to wake.
She stumbled toward the mirror by her desk. Her breath fogged the glass.
But what she saw wasn't her.
A man's face emerged in the reflection, sharp as a blade, eyes glowing like embers under water. His dark hair clung to his cheek, wet with storm. He looked no older than twenty-four, but there was something ancient in his gaze.
Elara froze, unable to breathe.
"Who—who are you?" she whispered.
The man's lips barely moved. *"Run."*
The glass cracked.
Elara stumbled back as shadows spilled from the mirror, pouring into her room like black smoke given form. They twisted, shrieked, and lunged. Cold hands of darkness reached for her throat.
She screamed—
And then he was there.
The same man from the mirror, only real, solid, standing between her and the monsters. A blade of silver light appeared in his hand, cutting through the shadows like fire through paper. His voice was low, commanding, dangerous.
"Stay behind me."
Elara's knees trembled. Her entire world had just shattered, but she couldn't take her eyes off him.
"Who are you?" she demanded again, her voice breaking.
The man turned his head slightly, his eyes catching hers. For the first time, she felt the weight of his presence—not human, not safe, but undeniable.
"My name is Darius Blackthorn," he said, his blade humming with light. "And you… Elara Winters… were never meant to be ordinary."
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✨ End of Chapter 1 ✨
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