Chapter 2 The Blood in the silence

Aris didn't dream.

Not anymore.

But that night, after her first day at Ridgewood High, something shifted.

She woke gasping, tangled in damp sheets, her heart pounding like something was chasing her even as her bedroom remained still. The images haunted her-bare trees bathed in moonlight, wolves howling in a circle, a man standing at the center with eyes so dark they swallowed the light.

He spoke her name.

Not softly. Not tenderly.

He commanded it.

"Aris."

She jerked upright, breath shallow. Her phone buzzed on the nightstand: 1:47 a.m. Cold sweat clung to her skin, and her fingers trembled as she pushed back her hair.

Just a dream, she told herself.

But then she looked down at her palm.

A faint mark glowed there, etched in silver-blue light. Circular. Intricate. Ancient. It pulsed once, then faded into her skin as if it had never been there at all.

But she had seen it before.

In her father's journals. On the blade he always carried. On the crest carved into the wooden box he told her never to open.

Until the night he died.

---

The next morning, Aris drifted through school like a ghost. Every sound seemed sharper, the lights too bright. It was like the dream had followed her, whispering behind her every step.

And people were noticing.

"You okay?" Kai asked casually, falling into step beside her as they headed down the corridor toward first period. "You look like you haven't slept since the Cold War."

Aris shrugged. "Didn't feel like dreaming."

He looked sideways at her. "Weird thing to say."

She didn't respond.

But Kai didn't press-just watched her with eyes that were far too knowing. As if he wasn't just a student, but something more. Something hidden.

In Chemistry, Aris kept to the back of the class. The teacher talked about molecular bonds, but her mind kept circling back to the mark. It hadn't reappeared. But her hand still felt strange-like it remembered something her mind didn't.

Like it was waiting.

She looked up and noticed someone watching her.

A girl with raven-black hair, skin as pale as snow, and eyes that shimmered crimson under the fluorescent lights. She sat near the window, unmoving. Watching.

And then-she smiled.

Not kindly.

Like she knew something Aris didn't.

---

At lunch, Aris escaped to the edge of the school grounds, where twisted trees bent over the fence line. The shadows were longer there. Quieter. She needed the silence.

She sat at a moss-covered table and pulled her sketchpad from her bag. Drawing helped. When the noise got too loud, sketching helped quiet the storm.

But her pencil moved on its own.

She wasn't thinking-just following instinct.

By the time she blinked, the page was filled with the symbol from her palm. Over and over. Surrounded by eyes. And teeth. And wolves.

"You're drawing death," a voice said softly.

Aris looked up.

The raven-haired girl stood in front of her, hands folded neatly, eyes glowing faintly red.

"You don't belong here," she said.

Aris narrowed her eyes. "I could say the same to you."

"You have no idea what you are," the girl whispered. "But they do. And they're coming."

"Who?"

The girl tilted her head. "The ones bound to your blood."

Then she disappeared.

No footsteps. No sound. Just gone.

Aris stood quickly, heart hammering in her chest.

A shadow moved in the trees. Something tall. Something that watched.

She backed away.

And that's when Kai stepped out from behind a tree, arms folded, like he'd been there the whole time.

"Interesting friends you've got," he said.

"You were spying on me?"

"Protecting you," he said simply. "Or trying to."

"From what?"

Kai's smile faded. "From yourself. From what's waking up inside you."

Aris took a step back. "What do you mean?"

He sighed, stepping closer, voice low. "I know who you are, Aris. Not everything. But enough. You're not just some transfer student. You're the daughter of a hunter. The last one. And there's blood in you the whole supernatural world can smell."

She froze.

"How do you know that name?" she asked.

Kai's eyes darkened.

"Because I've been waiting for you, Aris. We all have."

---