Damian didn't return to his dorm that night.
He wandered the academy grounds until the lanterns burned low, the whispers of students fading into silence. His footsteps echoed on the empty cobblestones, but it wasn't the cold air that made him shiver.
It was the voice inside him.
You failed them. You failed her.
His fists clenched. The assembly had been his chance to expose Adrian, to drag the truth into the light. Instead, he had stood there like a madman, the letter slipping through his fingers, his words drowned by Adrian's calm deceit.
And Elena—she hadn't defended him. Not once.
His chest tightened as he remembered her silence, her wide eyes fixed on Adrian, as though searching for safety in his shadow instead of Damian's light.
"She was supposed to be mine," Damian whispered, his voice raw. "She was supposed to trust me."
The voice inside answered. Then take her back. If light won't protect her, let darkness arm you.
---
The academy's library had wings most students never entered. Past the rows of textbooks and history scrolls, beyond the locked gates marked "Restricted," lay a collection of knowledge sealed away for centuries.
Damian knew the stories—every student did. Forbidden tomes, spells, and relics. Dangerous things that twisted men into monsters. But in that moment, he no longer cared.
He needed power. Any power.
Slipping through a side passage he'd discovered years ago, Damian found himself in the forgotten archives. Dust thickened the air, cobwebs stretched across shelves, and the scent of mold clung to every stone. His lantern cast trembling shadows, and each step felt like trespassing against the world itself.
His hand brushed against spines of leather-bound volumes etched with sigils. His pulse quickened when he found one that burned faintly at his touch.
"The Doctrine of Shadow Binding," he read aloud.
The book whispered to him the moment he opened it. Pages of rituals, contracts written in blood, warnings carved in margins by trembling hands.
But one passage burned brighter than the rest.
A soul bound by desperation may summon what light cannot give: strength beyond measure, hunger beyond reason. But the price is irreversible.
Damian's lips pressed into a thin line.
"Then I'll pay it."
---
Meanwhile, Elena tossed in her bed, sleep impossible. She saw Adrian's smirk at the assembly, Damian's broken face, the way the crowd had turned so easily.
The letter haunted her, its words echoing: Her soul must not fall into the wrong hands.
But what were the right hands? Adrian's, who claimed her heart even as he confessed his darkness? Or Damian's, who loved her fiercely but burned with an obsession that frightened her?
When her window creaked open, she didn't flinch.
"You're restless," Adrian murmured, stepping into her room like he belonged there. His shadow stretched across her walls.
"I can't stop thinking about what happened today," she whispered.
He brushed her cheek with his thumb, his touch gentle but firm. "Forget Damian. He's already lost."
Her eyes searched his. "You don't understand. He looks… desperate. I'm scared of what he'll do."
Adrian's smile was thin, dangerous. "Let him try. Desperation only makes prey easier to break."
His words should have chilled her. Instead, they sank into her bones with a dark comfort.
Still, a shiver ran down her spine—because somewhere deep down, she wondered if Adrian underestimated Damian's resolve.
---
Back in the archives, Damian knelt on the cold stone floor, the forbidden tome open before him. A circle of chalk, hastily drawn, surrounded him. His blood dripped from a cut across his palm, soaking into the sigils.
The air thickened, cold and alive. Shadows stirred where there should be none.
"Give me strength," Damian whispered, his voice shaking. "Give me the power to save her from him."
The shadows responded.
A voice, low and serpentine, hissed through the chamber: Power comes at a cost, child. Are you willing to pay with more than your blood?
Damian's hands trembled. But he saw Elena's face in his mind, saw Adrian's arm draped around her, saw the smirk that mocked him before the whole academy.
"Yes," he whispered fiercely. "Take whatever you want—just give me enough to destroy him."
The sigils flared crimson. Pain ripped through his veins, fire and ice coursing at once. His scream echoed through the archives, swallowed by shadows.
When the light dimmed, Damian staggered to his feet. His reflection in a cracked mirror nearby made his breath catch.
His once-bright eyes now gleamed faintly red, shadows licking at their edges. His aura pulsed darker, heavier.
He had become something less than human.
But also something more.
---
At dawn, whispers spread again through the academy. Not of assemblies or letters, but of Damian's sudden transformation. His steps sounded heavier, his presence darker. People shrank back when he passed, as though instinct warned them he was no longer the boy they once adored.
Elena felt it too when she saw him in the corridor. His gaze locked on hers, burning, endless. For the first time, she didn't see the senior she once admired.
She saw something else. Something that frightened her more than Adrian's shadows ever had.
"Damian," she whispered, her throat dry.
He smiled, but it wasn't the smile she remembered. It was sharper. Hungrier.
"For you," he murmured, "I'll do anything."
And Elena realized with a jolt of dread that the battle between Adrian and Damian was no longer a rivalry of boys.
It was a war between monsters.
And she was the prize.