ARIA POV
The screaming always wakes me at 3 AM.
Not real screaming—just the memory of it, burned into my brain like a scar. Two hundred years ago, my ancestors died in the Grand Purge, hunted like animals and burned alive in the town square. Their crime? Being born a Siphon, able to steal magic with a single touch.
I'm the last one left. And if anyone finds out, I'll burn too.
My hands shake as I sit up in bed, sweat soaking my nightshirt. Across the dark dorm room, my three roommates sleep peacefully in their fancy beds with silk sheets. Probably dreaming about their perfect Pureblood lives, their powerful families, their bright futures.
I press my trembling fingers against my mouth to keep quiet. Can't wake them. Can't draw attention. The first rule of survival at Thornwick Academy: be invisible.
"Stay small, stay quiet, stay alive," I whisper the words like a prayer.
But my hands won't stop shaking.
I need magic. Just a little bit to calm the panic clawing up my throat.
I slip out of bed, bare feet silent on the cold stone floor. The dorm room glows with soft blue nightlights—expensive enchantments that cost more than my entire year's scholarship. Everything here costs more than I'm worth.
Carefully, so carefully, I move to the first bed where Melissa Chen sleeps. She's a Pureblood with fire magic, the kind of girl who's never been afraid of anything in her whole spoiled life. Her magic radiates off her like heat from a stove, invisible to normal people but bright as the sun to me.
I reach out, stopping my hand an inch above her exposed arm. My Siphon ability tingles in my fingertips, hungry and eager. It would be so easy to just take it all, drink her magic down until she's as empty and powerless as everyone thinks I am.
But that's not who I am. I'm not a monster.
I am NOT a monster.
I let my ability activate just a tiny bit, absorbing only the ambient magic that leaks naturally from her skin. It's like sipping steam rising from hot chocolate instead of drinking the whole cup. She won't notice. Nobody ever notices.
The magic flows into me—warm and fierce and alive. My hands stop shaking. The nightmare fades. I can breathe again.
I move to the next bed, then the next, taking only wisps and traces. Just enough to survive another day of pretending to be weak. Just enough to practice later in secret, keeping my real power sharp in case I ever need to run.
Because someday, they'll find out what I am. And when that happens, I'll need to be ready to fight or disappear forever.
By the time I'm done, the first rays of sunrise paint the windows gold. My roommates start to stir. I'm back in my bed, eyes closed, pretending to sleep like I've been here all night.
"Ugh, Monday," Melissa groans, throwing a pillow at Courtney's bed. "I hate Advanced Spellwork. Professor Vance is such a jerk."
"At least you're good at magic," Courtney shoots back. "Some of us actually have to try."
They both laugh, getting up to raid their closets full of designer robes. Nobody even glances at my corner of the room, where I own exactly three outfits and sleep on a mattress that's basically a rock.
Invisible. Just how I need it.
I wait until they're in the bathroom before I get dressed. My scholarship uniform is plain and patched in two places, but it's clean. I braid my silver-blonde hair tight against my skull—can't let it look pretty, can't stand out. I'm just Aria Nightshade, the charity case, the girl with dead parents and no magical talent.
Nobody special. Nobody dangerous.
I'm halfway through lacing my boots when Melissa's phone buzzes on her nightstand. She left it charging while she showers. The screen lights up with a message preview:
UNKNOWN: The Siphon has been spotted. Thornwick Academy. Begin surveillance.
My heart stops.
The phone screen goes dark. I stare at it, frozen, my breakfast turning to rocks in my stomach.
They know. Someone knows there's a Siphon at Thornwick.
They're looking for me.
My hands start shaking again, worse than before. The walls feel like they're closing in. I can't breathe. Can't think. Every instinct screams RUN, but where would I go? I have no family, no money, nowhere to hide in a world where everyone wants people like me dead.
The bathroom door handle turns.
I force myself to finish tying my boots with numb fingers, to grab my bag, to look normal and bored like my entire world didn't just collapse.
Melissa emerges in a cloud of expensive perfume, not even looking at me as she snatches her phone. She reads the message, and her face goes pale.
"Court, get out here," she calls urgently. "NOW."
Courtney appears, hair dripping. "What's wrong?"
"There's a Siphon at our school." Melissa's voice drops to a horrified whisper. "An actual monster. The Council is sending hunters."
The third roommate, Jade, gasps from her bed. "Oh my god, that's terrifying! What if it's been feeding on us this whole time?"
"They'll find it," Melissa says firmly. "And when they do, they'll burn it like they should have burned all of them two hundred years ago."
I stand up slowly, bag over my shoulder, face blank even though I want to scream.
"I have to get to class early," I say quietly. None of them acknowledge me.
I walk out of the dorm room on shaking legs, closing the door behind me with a soft click.
The hallway is empty and cold. My reflection stares back at me from the window glass—silver-blonde hair, violet eyes that shift colors when I use magic, the face of a dead bloodline.
I'm not scared of dying. I've been ready for that since I was old enough to understand what I am.
But I'm terrified of dying alone, unmissed, like I never mattered at all.
The thought is still spinning through my head when I turn the corner and slam directly into someone's chest.
Strong hands catch my arms, keeping me from falling. I look up into ice-blue eyes and a face so perfect it belongs on a statue.
Caspian Everhart. Crown Prince of the Pureblood elite. The most powerful student at Thornwick Academy.
And the boy who's made my life a living hell for three years.
"Watch where you're going, Null," he says coldly.
Then his eyes narrow, focusing on my face with sudden, terrible intensity.
"Your eyes," he whispers. "They're... purple right now. I've never seen eyes that change colors before."
His grip on my arms tightens.
"What exactly are you, Aria Nightshade?"