The next morning, I stared at my wrist in the mirror, the mark pulsing faintly under my skin like a secret heartbeat. It looked like intertwined thorns, etched in shimmering silver that faded when I blinked too hard. Had I gotten drunk last night and done something stupid? No, I'd unpacked boxes and crashed early. This wasn't normal. This was... impossible.
I threw on a hoodie to hide it and headed to the campus cafe, craving caffeine to drown out the weirdness. The place was buzzing with students—girls giggling over lattes, guys debating sports. I grabbed my coffee and found a corner table, but as I sat, the door swung open, and in walked Kai with a group of friends who looked just as edgy. Tattoos peeked from collars, piercings glinted in the light. They were the kind no one messed with.
Our eyes met again, and this time, his widened slightly. He excused himself from the group and sauntered over, sliding into the seat across from me without invitation. "Morning, Mia. Sleep well?"
My hand instinctively covered my wrist. "What do you want, Kai?"
He leaned forward, elbows on the table, his gaze intense. "You feel it, don't you? The pull. It's not just attraction—it's deeper. Dangerous."
I scoffed, but my voice wavered. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Liar again." He reached across the table, his fingers brushing mine, and a jolt shot through me—like electricity mixed with fire. The mark on my wrist flared, visible now, and Kai's eyes darkened. "Shit. It's already started."
"What is?" I yanked my hand back, heart pounding. "What did you do to me?"
He glanced around, ensuring no one was listening. "Not here. Meet me tonight at the old clock tower. Midnight. Come alone."
"Why should I trust you?"
"You shouldn't." His smile was wicked, promising thrills and terrors. "But you will, because you're curious. And curiosity, Mia, is the first step into the forbidden."
He left me there, breathless and confused. The rest of the day blurred—classes, notes, friends trying to drag me to a party. But my mind was on him. On the mark. On the dream where his kiss had tasted like shadows and sin.
That night, as the clock struck eleven, I snuck out of my dorm, the city lights flickering like distant stars. The campus felt alive, whispers in the wind that no one else seemed to hear. Was I losing my mind? Or awakening to something more?
The clock tower loomed, its hands frozen at midnight eternally— a campus legend about a lovers' curse. Kai was there, leaning against the stone, moonlight carving his features into something ethereal. "You came."
"I had to." My voice was barely a whisper.
He stepped closer, his hand gently lifting my wrist to reveal the mark. "This is the Bond of Echoes. A forbidden magic from a realm hidden beneath our world. Thoughts, emotions—they manifest here, in the urban veil. No one's supposed to know about it, especially not a normal girl like you."
"But I'm not normal, am I?" The words tumbled out, and he nodded, his thumb tracing the thorns, sending shivers down my spine.
"No. And neither am I. I'm a guardian of that realm, cursed to protect it from humans. But you... you've awakened it in me. This bond means our desires are linked—dark, dangerous ones. If we give in, it could consume us."
His eyes burned with hunger, and in that moment, I wanted nothing more than to lean in, to taste the forbidden. But as our lips nearly brushed, a shadow stirred in the darkness—a figure watching us. Kai tensed, pushing me behind him. "Run, Mia. They're here."
Who? My heart raced as I fled, but the question lingered: Was this love, or the start of a nightmare that would bind us forever?