Chapter 5 The Incubus

It started with velvet. She felt it under her bare feet - rich, dark fabric stretching out beneath a sky of endless stars. The scent of lilies and firewood. The soft echo of her name. "Seren..." She turned in the dark. He was there again. The boy from her dreams. Tall. Barefoot. Wrapped in shadows and moonlight. His eyes - silver with a ring of violet - were too familiar, like she'd stared into them for lifetimes. His hair was tousled, obsidian-black, and there was a glow beneath his skin, like his heart beat with starlight. "You came back," he whispered. "I don't know where I am," she said.

"You never do, at first." He stepped closer - and the world shimmered. He reached for her hand. She should've pulled away. But she didn't. His fingers were warm, his touch light - but it sent a pulse through her veins like honey and fire. "I've been waiting for you," he murmured. "Lifetime after lifetime." "Why?" "Because you promised," he said, brushing her cheek. "That when the world fell apart, you'd find me again." Her breath caught. His lips brushed hers - not demanding, not rushed - just... there. Familiar. Gentle. And suddenly- A flood of memories. Dancing in a glass palace. Whispered vows in the dark. A forbidden bond. A betrayal. Her screaming his name as fire consumed the sky. "Talon," she breathed. He smiled, sad and soft. "You remembered." She woke up in her bed at Ashmoor, tangled in sheets, heart racing, breath shallow. The room was cold - too cold. Her hand brushed something on her pillow. A single black feather. Her mark burned beneath her skin. "That was just a dream," she whispered. But the air still smelled like lilac and smoke. And she wasn't alone. He was sitting in her window. Not in a dream this time. Real. Wearing the same loose black shirt and silver eyes. Barefoot. Watching her with an amused smile. "You're prettier when you're not afraid," he said. She scrambled up. "How are you in my room?" "I never left." "That- That doesn't make sense-" "Most things about me won't," he said with a sigh. "But you'll get used to it." "You're the Incubus." "Talon, if you're nasty." "You- you were in my dream." "No, you were in mine," he said, cocking his head. "You just don't know the difference anymore." He rose, walking toward her. "I shouldn't be near you yet," he murmured. "You're too new. Too raw. One touch could ruin you." "Then don't touch me." He smiled. "But you want me to." He reached out - not to touch, but to hover. And still, the space between them crackled. "You're drawing power from me," she realized. "We draw power from what we desire," he said. "And you, darling, are made of desire no one understands." The feather in her hand pulsed with magic - glowing violet before disappearing. "That's the first part of your gift," he whispered. "You'll get more." "Why me?" His face darkened. "Because you were cursed. And part of the curse... was me." Later, after he vanished into shadows, Seren looked at her arm. The glowing mark had changed again - curling upward now like wings. Each time she encountered one of them - the Vampire, the Dragon, now the Incubus - something awakened in her. She wasn't just marked. She was being rewritten. And something inside her whispered: "One more to find. Then the circle begins again." After Talon vanished, Seren couldn't sleep. Instead, she crept into the private bathroom she shared with her dorm wing. The mirror fogged without steam. Her reflection didn't quite move in time with her. She wiped it clean-and gasped. For a single second, her reflection had horns curling from her hairline. Black, twisted. Beautiful. And then it was gone. "This school is going to drive me insane," she whispered. From behind her, a voice purred: "Insanity is just another way of seeing things others can't." She spun. No one there. But a purple lily bloomed on the counter. Still warm. She tried to lose herself in books the next day. Ashmoor's library was enormous - dusty, enchanted, and half-haunted. She wandered into the forbidden wing, pulled by instinct more than choice. Talon's feather still sat inside her jacket pocket, warm against her skin. She found a book with no title. It opened itself. "The Bound Soul. The Lover Who Returned." Illustrations spilled across the pages: a girl with a glowing mark. Four shadowed figures. Fire. Death. Rebirth. One of the pages showed a woman who looked eerily like Seren... bleeding silver from her heart, while an Incubus wept at her feet. The caption read: She died to save him. He cursed her to remember. That night, she didn't fall asleep. Talon pulled her into a dream anyway. "That's cheating," she said when she found herself lying on a bed made of rose petals in a palace made of glass. "You're in my realm now," he said from the shadows. "And you're still wearing too many clothes." She rolled her eyes. "Not happening." "Tease." He sat beside her, not touching, just existing close enough that her skin tingled. "I didn't curse you to hurt you," he said. "Then why did you?" "Because I couldn't stand the thought of you being reborn and forgetting me." "That's selfish." "Love often is." He looked away, voice low. "They're waking you up. One by one. The Vampire fed on your blood. The Dragon ignited your core. I... I awakened your longing." "And the Wolf?" she whispered. He met her eyes. "He'll teach you pain." Talon stood, pacing now. Nervous. Unusual for him. "They'll want to mark you. Bind you. Fight over you. But you don't belong to any of us." "Then why do I feel like I'm already theirs?" she whispered. He turned to her - fierce now. "Because you've lived this story before. And each time it ends the same." "With what?" "You choosing one. And the others... falling." A flash: blood on roses. A scream. Her mark splitting into four burning pieces. Talon grabbed her hands, suddenly desperate. "Don't choose too soon this time. Let me have you just a little longer." She didn't stop him when he kissed her again. And this time, it didn't feel like betrayal. It felt like fate. She woke with her heart pounding, lips tingling like they'd actually been kissed. The feather in her pocket had turned violet-black - and now shimmered like obsidian glass. Her mark had grown again, curling up toward her collarbone like a vine. Now the dragon, the vampire, and the incubus had all left their marks. She was changing. The question was... into what?