By the time I left the cafeteria, I felt... wrong.
The air was too thick. Too warm. Like someone had turned up the humidity inside my skul, my legs weak.
My wrist still burnt like it was housing hell. And my head?
Foggy. Floaty. Drowsy in a not normal way.
Like sleepwalking underwater. It felt terrible.
I stumbled through the hallway, bumping into someone's shoulder.
They didn't say anything.
Actually… they didn't even look back. I would normally have to stare down at them.
Weird.
Everything sounded muffled, like I had cotton in my ears and eyes. The world felt a second too slow. Like it was buffering.
I needed to lie down. I needed a break.
I needed—
I broke into a jog.
Then a run.
By the time I reached my dorm floor, I was sweating. Cold and confused. I slammed my key into the door, twisted hard—
And froze.
The door was already open.
Just slightly ajar.
My stomach turned. My breath caught.
No one leaves my door open. No one has access to my dorm except...
I stepped inside slowly. Carefully. My fingers hovered near my sleeve, where the mark now burned like wildfire.
"Ezra," a familiar voice called softly from inside.
I blinked.
It was—
"Draken?" I whispered.
He sat on the edge of my bed, smiling like he always did. Calm. Steady. Safe. I almost ran to him but...
He was wearing the hoodie I know he borrowed last semester and never returned. But it looked… cleaner. Pressed. Too perfect.
And his eyes?
I don't know how to explain it.
They were wrong.
Not the color. The shape. It didn't seem right.
Like they'd been drawn on by someone who didn't quite remember what human eyes looked like.
"I missed you," he said, tilting his head like he was trying to study my reaction. "You don't call anymore."
I took a shaky step back.
"I called...You… weren't here this morning," I said as I retreated slowly.
"Sure I was. You just didn't notice me." He smiled wider. Too wide.
The lights above flickered.
My stomach clenched.
"Where were you yesterday?" I asked, voice barely steady.
He blinked. Paused. Then smiled again.
"Where I always am," he said. "Waiting."
I took another step back.
He didn't move.
Not yet.
My mark pulsed again.
Then—
his smile cracked and he jumped at me.
Not metaphorically. Literally. Like something underneath it shifted the skin wrong. Like he was struggling to hold the shape.
"Don't you recognize me?" he asked, voice now off.
Like two voices layered together—Draken's… and something lower.
That's when I turned and bolted....it was chasing me.
Where's his Highness when I need him!
The second I turned to run, the air in the room shifted. It thickened, like the walls were holding their breath.
My door creaked wider behind me.
I didn't look back. How could I?
I flew down the hallway, feet slamming against the floor, heart pounding so hard it drowned out everything else.
My vision blurred at the edges. Not from fear. From that awful, sleepy haze still dragging at my brain like gravity had tripled.
I should've screamed.
I didn't.
I don't know why.
I just needed to get out.
I didn't stop running until I was outside the dorm building, hunched over beside the vending machine that still hadn't been refilled since last week. I clutched the edge like it could anchor me to reality.
"Where's he?!" I said as I looked around.
My wrist pulsed again.
No—not pulsed.
It buzzed.
Like it was trying to warn me.
I pulled back my sleeve for the first time all day.
The mark had changed. What kind of horrible day is this?
Before, it was just a faint scar. Pale, soft-edged, almost forgettable. Now it was darker.
Glowing faintly at the center.
And worse—shaped like something. A sword...maybe. A symbol I didn't understand but felt down to the marrow.
And then my phone buzzed. That dumb notification sound Draken set.
I flinched so hard I nearly dropped it.
Draken...1:23PM
where are you bro the ladies are here???
I froze....what?
No way.
I just saw him.
He was in my room.
He was in my room.
I typed with shaking fingers:
Are you joking?? You were just here
In my room
Sitting on my bed?
Read. No reply.
Then…
Draken....1:24PM
"Dude what??
i've been in class since 12, check the group chat...I got In late. I want to mark you too but C'mon."
I opened it. Sure enough—photos. Him, making peace signs behind the lecturer's back along with the students who made me seem crazy. Time stamped. Geotagged. Real but how.
No way.
So who—
What—
I was gonna be sick. I have to sit.
I stumbled away from the building, across the courtyard, past the benches and rusted bicycle rack. My dorm didn't feel safe anymore.
Nothing did.
"Ezra."
I turned so fast I nearly fell. His scent. It felt so safe.
Zayden stood at the edge of the courtyard. Half in shadow. Half in sun.
Too far for me to have heard him.
Too close for me to have missed him walking up.
I stared at him, chest heaving.
"Ah! your highness" I said. Obviously upset.
He looked… calm. Too calm. Like he hadn't just disappeared an hour ago. Like he hadn't broken time.
"You left me," I spat. "You knew something was coming and you left me in there alone with that thing"
"It wasn't Draken," he said quietly.
"I KNOW THAT!" I screamed, loud enough that a few birds scattered from a tree behind us. "But I thought it was. That's the whole damn point. It looked like him. It talked like him."
Zayden stepped closer.
I took a step back.
"You're not safe anymore," he said. "I can't have them hunting my bride"
My breath caught.
"You said someone else came back," I whispered. "Who?"
Zayden didn't answer right away.
Then—he looked me dead in the eye. The wind shifted, rustling the leaves. My mark stung again. Ah...bad news.
He spoke:
"The thing in your room?
That was someone who used to serve me."
"He died. Long ago. But something... someone brought him back."
I stared at him, heart in my throat.
"You mean—"