I couldn't breathe. Like roots sprouted from my palms and heels into the brick behind and beneath me, I couldn't move either. The blood in my veins slowed. Everything except the vision at the window dotted with stars.

Though my lungs stopped before my weak heart, I might as well have forfeited my soul early.

His eyes, two golden eclipses, held attention to my chest.

Terror wrapped a hand around my throat and threatened to drag me under, but I also hovered over the dormant coil in my center, the second heartbeat that leapt to life at the scent of danger. As though sensing it, his gaze met mine, a bolt of lightning zapping my body, spreading from my nose to the back of my head, blazing all the way to my fingers and toes like an explosion under the skin. It left me breathless, but it also left me stripped. As though somehow it shed a layer of my skin, of me.

But I wasn't the only one that felt it.

His fangs retracted, lips parting anyway. His white shirt scooped low enough to show the top of his chest and more than enough view of his neck where black ink blossomed into branches, pathways under his skin. He clamped a hand over it, those golden irises darkening and a part of his face curling into a snarl.

Was he in pain?

He fought something as his jaw clenched, but he still mustered the strength to growl, "It's yours now."

That was all I needed to see.

A vampire broke into my suite. He'd bared his fangs at me. And his utterance of finally tore through every veil of diplomacy. As his hand fell from his clean neck, my body released paralysis too. I snatched the doorknob, my nails almost tearing it from its place as I threw the door open.

Running on just two feet wasn't fast enough. Nothing was fast enough. I barreled through the empty hall, the carpet beneath me seeming to cling to my soles like quicksand. This time, I did not dare sneak a glance behind me. Rather, with two white-knuckled fists I shot into one of the main halls, searching for a face, for anyone. The more the word crossed my mind, the more my nerves jumped over one another.

Vampire.

But I couldn't lead him to a main population of students, not without endangering more than just me, and if I couldn't do that then I left my luck of finding a school guard up to chance. The seconds dwindled down as I neared the end of the corridor.

Left or right?

You or them?

I skid into a sharp right, away from the masses, away from the classrooms--and into a solid, yelping wall. Limbs tangled with mine, the hardwood floor knocking the wind from my lungs. Flashing white panic blurred beneath my eyelids, my scream guttural as I clawed my way up despite the grunting beneath me. Except it was too feminine to be left behind, and it caught my elbow in an iron grip.

"Melissa!" Clara shrieked. "Melissa! What the hell!?"

Her call mixed into my rage long enough to slam me into the present. Glowering at me through her visible eye, she clutched the other half of her face in anguish. Her messed up hair was a blessing compared to how it'd be when he got a hold of it, and the thought of his claws tearing into her scalp made me snatch her up from the ground and drag her forward.

"Come on! We have to run!"

It wasn't until another hand clamped my shoulder that I considered blowing the top off my magick. But as I whirled to come face to face with Jimin, despair had already clutched my last drops of fight. I shimmied off his hand, screaming as Clara yanked me backwards with both hands into her mate's open arms. Jimin's hold was solid. As steady as rope's binding.

"Get off me!" My shouting seemed to make the ceiling tremble. "He's coming! He's--," I kicked and thrashed, growing hopeful as Jimin stumbled with my weight. "Vampire!"

Clara pressed her soft hand against my lips, navy eyes still sliding over my shoulder to check. "Mel, there's nothing coming."

I opened my mouth to bite her hand.

"Do it and I swear to all things above I'll detain you myself," she warned.

My jaw went slack. There wasn't time to fight over trivial things. I wrestled my face free, trying to crane my neck to see Jimin. "He's coming. He's freaking coming!"

"Who is?" Clara gestured to the hall at my back. "There is nothing there!"

"Go look!" I snarled, no longer caring about holding my temper. If she wanted to die, she didn't have to take me down with her. But she narrowed her eyes, storming to the mouth of the open hall. I shut my eyes, unable to watch another bite and tackle, another face being disfigured. I prepared for my heart to be torn to shreds too. My best friend, destroyed by her own ignorance.

"Melissa," Clara continued. Even if I could not see her, I sensed enough of where she stood. I imagined her arms out in frustration, her candy pink lips forming another snide remark before getting rearranged.

"Mel," Jimin urged, spinning me to face the entrance and his beloved. "You can open your eyes."

I shook my head, unable to stop swallowing air.

Warm, soft hands kindly took mine. Clara's voice soothed the darkness. "I'm still here, see? Would a vampire wait to attack us?"

No, he wouldn't. Not when even outnumbered he could demolish us. A bit of frenzy slipped from my body. She guided my hands to her cheeks.

"Jimin, let her go."

His grip tightened against my ribs. "Are you sure?"

He lowered my feet to hardwood. The urge to run twitched in my back, but having her, holding her, and wanting to feel her heartbeat glued me to this spot. Jimin released my arms.

"Open your eyes," she murmured. "We're right here."

I obeyed. She was still pretty when roughed up. Just as shaken as me, too, by the furious blush on both of her tanned cheeks. Jimin lurked at her back, his brows furrowed in confusion and irritation. Torn between being worried about a friend or peeved that I hurt his other half.

Clara pursed her lips inwardly. "See? Safe."

"You shouldn't run around screaming vampire. You'll set off alarms," Jimin commented. At Clara's glare his expression softened.

"I'm going to take her to get something sweet. Can you grab someone and comb the halls for extra measure?" She reached for my trembling hand.

Jimin nodded, his disdain for past events still twisting his handsome face. But he pivoted on his heel and wandered into the castle's belly. He vanished around the corner and Clara rubbed my arm.

"I know what I saw."

"And that's the thing," she said, her head falling onto my shoulder as she guided me forward, "I don't doubt you. I trust you. I just think with everything you've gone through, you might have misread something." Though her tone was sweet, guilt sank into my stomach.

That vampire stood in my suite. He spoke to me. Not as an apparition but as someone there, and intent on finding me at last. Even now, as she lulled me ahead into the scattered remnants of students, I searched for his face again. But no matter who I saw, none of them looked like him. They couldn't. They didn't hold the same mystery or age. They did not carry the aura of permanence.

Just like after someone learned anything new, the decorated walls and passageways of the school were not the same. Like reality snapped its fingers while my back turned and changed the rules. That easily, I was a stranger again.

I released a breath I didn't realize I'd been holding as the scent of coffee beans loosened the air. A stone's throw from the dining hall was the student café, a combination coffee shop, small grocery store, and student shop. Complete with iron wrought tables near the miniature bakery, an entire section near the back of the drawing room carried tables of supplies, merchandise, and snacking goods that were near nonexistent by the final weeks of school.

What began as a group of students in the coffee club turning an old classroom into a parlor evolved into a mecca of treats and last minute lifesavers, and apparently my safe haven as well. Clara frowned when she found the balcony tables already closed for the evening, but she wandered to an open table that soaked up enough sunset to get her fill. A few minutes later and she'd had warm mugs of hot cocoa and extra marshmallows for both of us.

Over my mountain of whipped cream and chocolate shavings I surveyed the students that lounged at our side. So many of them lounged in the security of their sweatpants and slippers, of security as a whole. Meanwhile, my bones rattled despite the warmth of my drink. Clara must have noticed, because she cleared her throat to disturb our friendly silence.

"You look like you've been crying today," she said, munching on a marshmallow to await my answer.

My grin felt as taut as my muscles. "That's all I do these days."

Her optimistic front faltered. "That's all you think you do these days."

"Is it?" My mug hit the table, the cream finally melting into the brown sweetness beneath. "What do I actually do?"

She shrugged, not out of confusion but because I assumed it would take a bit more effort to explain. "I know you pretty well, so my answer might not mean anything. You just stare. Sometimes you're here, other times you're not. But you always look busy."

Maybe too busy to talk to anyone. It was a possibility that I kept my brain running so that it could never be caught idle again. I was tired of letting my guard down, if that made sense. For Clara, I nodded. Otherwise, I would appear busy again.

She dabbed chocolate from the sides of her mouth. "You be careful with all that brooding. It can give you wrinkles."

This time, my amusement was genuine. "I'd hate to have a wrinkle."

She pointed a finger at the ceiling. "You joke now, but when you're stuck that way with that wrinkle, forever, don't complain."

"You must love me then," I said. When she tilted her head, I couldn't help but smile a bit. "You let me touch your face."

Her eyes widened in realization. She shifted in her seat and scoffed for good measure. "And I'll pay for it by having to scrub tenfold tonight before a little friend pops up on my face."

I stirred my drink with a mixing straw, a bit of annoyance souring the taste. "You're beautiful, Clara. You don't even have to try."

"Neither do you, Mel."

There was such certainty there I stopped mixing, and there was no reason to be so tender, but I warmed all over again when I tried to meet her eye. But she gasped at the coffee bar, her smile as luminescent as the lamp above the table when she jumped up and down in her seat. "Oh my goodness, he's here."

"Who?" I prepared to turn until she rocked to the side and waved a hand, eyes sparkling when she grew more successful.

"Ezra! Come sit!"

Enough emotions piled my plate. She went ahead and welcomed another one. Defenseless, I gripped my mug with both hands as Ezra sauntered into view, using one hand to take a chair from another table and situate it at the corner of ours. The red and purple scarf around his neck swayed across his chest as he sat down, the scent of tea leaves and cardamom blessing my seat. He greeted Clara and turned to me.

"You are an expert at the game of Truth or Dare."

If being an expert meant hiding things in plain sight, then sure. Truth be told, I'd came to the coffee shop for time with Clara, and as much as I didn't mind his company, I still found it hard to accept. I drank again when Clara swept into the conversation.

"How did that go?" She handed Ezra a napkin from her stack.

He placed his black coffee on the table and yawned. "It was short-lived. We got into a story and let the game carry from that."

Before she could ask, I sat up. "I asked Yoongi if he was the one sneaking around the archives. Long story short," I lowered my voice, "we've seen more of the school than you have."

Ezra chuckled as she laughed.

"That's so good! What was he up to, that one?"

They both looked to me. My hands fell into my lap since my drink was finally gone. "Joth's ashes."

She mouthed the words and furrowed her brows, her brain seeming to work overtime until the lightbulb went off. "Cornelius Joth's ashes? He believes that rubbish?"

Ezra frowned over the rim of his coffee cup. "Rubbish? There's an actual legend?"

Clara's hand fell over her own throat. "Is that where you got the necklace from? The archives?"

I nodded, wishing my collar would do more to cover the red gems. They were the size of beetles and just as intricate. The sides of her lips tugged down at the corners in a way that said not bad. But just like Ezra, I'd latched onto her words. "Tell us the legend."

Clara could barely stifle her laughter. "It's more of a bedtime story, but some students think that Joth didn't die naturally. He was killed by his own magick because it was too powerful for him. I heard he was able to travel in time, and he'd use it often to relive his best memories. So, if you find the ashes and do something whimsical with them, you can hop through time too."

Ezra's nose scrunched. His accent also bloomed most when he seemed upset. "Vampires can't travel through time. That's impossible. Immortals are already freaks of natural law. Doubling that on top of it is too much."

"Hey, I don't make the rules." Clara threw her hands up in surrender. "I've heard it once or twice, but I agree, I think it's ridiculous."

I was the only one that thought it romantic then. They carried on, but I mulled it over. If I could relive memories, I'd jump to Miles' fifteenth birthday when I left campus for a day to surprise him at home. Very rarely did I see him cry, but when it happened, I fought back tears too. I'd revisit a family trip to Amsterdam. I'd--

I bit my lip to hold my emotions at bay. I'd go back to the good moments of having my first friends over for a sleepover, sharing a Halloween, playing on the same teams. I'd just see them again. Her and him. The two I was afraid to even name in my head.

Clara dusted her hands off, clapping me back into the conversation. "If that's true, then you could talk to the dead, and that's not even close to true."

"Think about it," Ezra urged. He leaned back in his seat, one hand fiddling with his scarf's fringe. "If you relive memories, are you reliving them or rewriting them? If the magick can kill him, there is no telling what he could do."

There was a difference in those words. Reliving was sinking into routine, venturing into the known. Rewriting was...

No, I wasn't going to consider it further.

"Too bad neither of you found them anyway," Clara said. "But you did get a pretty necklace out of it." Her gaze landed so close to my chest I almost covered up. It reminded me of being backed against the door in my suite. Of a gaze that did the exact same even if not half as familiar.

If he weren't staring at my breasts... had he been eyeing the necklace?

His ethereal voice echoed through my skull.

It's yours now.

I shivered, earning the attention of Ezra and Clara.

Except Ezra filled in my feelings for me. "It makes me shiver too."

I raised a brow, waiting for him to elaborate. Clara instead shook her head as the necklace started to feel heavy on my skin again.

"So many of us attended the bonfire though. Even you, and you ran with me and Jimin the whole time! I don't see how it could happen and go unnoticed," she said.

"He would've screamed. Ran for the rest of us, at least," Ezra agreed. He rubbed his eyes and stretched, his scent growing stronger. Not that I minded. "Did you see his body?"

I crossed one leg over the other, wishing I could disappear.

Clara covered her mouth and waved her hand. "No, the sight would make me sick but I heard he broke a few things. Did you?"

Ezra sucked in a sharp breath. "No, I just heard the same. I also heard majority of his blood had been drained. I just can't believe it." He leaned forward, the ghost of discomfort marring his attractive face. "Do accidents like that happen often here?"

"No!" Clara's outburst had a few nearby students listening in. She gripped her empty mug again. "This is the first time I've witnessed it. Maybe in the past? What do you think, Mel?"

I shrugged. Our security was a staple of our school. Maybe in the beginning there were more accidents, as a school for dhampir would be a breeding ground for vampires and vorvian alike. But I couldn't imagine leadership not taking that into account beforehand. Especially as their reputation grew. "It's not common," I said, but that didn't mean it wasn't possible.

Ezra frowned, his eyes glazing over as they settled on the table. "I hope it isn't. It's the one thing I was glad to leave behind."

As intriguing as it was, he went on without any of our urging.

"At my old academy, we had to be secret in many of the things we did. Not for jokes, but because we would be hunted if anyone knew we were dhampir, unlike at this school where you can wear it proudly and be unafraid."

His fingers stopped meddling with his scarf. "Where I am from, dhampir are not seen as deserving of a future. The dominant thought is that we attract the immortals that bring danger to humans. There is a stigma that we will be the pre-eternal world's undoing. So this accident hits closer to home, but I will not let it discourage me."

What was I supposed to say to that? I glanced out the window because it was all I could do to not put a bit of my white cloak in my mouth. Every day the world grew larger and at this table it became vast and unconquerable all at once. It minimized our studies and called what we'd learned and practiced useless in the face of it, and I hated the feeling of having more to learn.

Clara, though, as kind and compassionate as any half mortal nodded along silently. And she embodied the concept of hearing without understanding. She would have made a great human. She might have even thrived in ignorance of this life.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Ezra. But you're not a burden. Not here or anywhere else for that matter despite outdated beliefs. I'm glad you came here, and I hope you can eventually feel safe."

He smiled, somber and pretty. "Thank you. I look forward to a semester with you all. Perhaps another time we can do this again."

He stood and took all three of our mugs, moving the chair back and waving before entering school again. The parting grin I had given him was about as comforting as his worry of losing more classmates, but he didn't seem to mind. Even in his absence, I suddenly felt stupid for losing two friends when he might have waded through a cemetery.

Even so, I admired and coveted his smooth nature.

"So, you do realize if you get caught with that, nothing can save you, right?"

I turned back to Clara. The rubies sparkled in her eyes.

Such a pretty thing, but not worth the exchange of my entire career. I checked my phone's clock. The library wouldn't close for another hour or two. Yet, the darkness of the archives, the hall leading up to it, and the separate tunnels turned the idea of returning it to the box on its head. It was nerve wracking enough going back to the girls' dorms tonight. Taking a detour to pitch black tunnels didn't seem wise either.

Besides, I knew what I saw. I heard him. There was no explanation for why he didn't tear the school apart to sink teeth into me, but that didn't mean he would not be successful a second time.

✥ • • • • • ✥

To my own dismay, nothing followed me that evening. When Clara left, I expected a nefarious laugh from a distance, a pearlescent and sharp smile brightening the shadows. Instead, the chill of night frost numbed the nerves in my legs through my pants. My nose and the tips of my ears stung. Armed with every guard and instinct I had, nothing stirred. The night ignored me.

The necklace's clasp released easily. The wind rushed to press hands against my warm skin. To think, this might have been someone's treasure. A hero's prize or mistress's belonging.

Maybe later I could tell Jungkook what I really thought about his one-sided dare. I'd already lost enough. But Yoongi... he would applaud me for this, disregarding it so easily without considering consequences.

As I took another second to marvel over the gems, I scoffed at whether or not this could compare to Joth's ashes.

Whether it be worth a sad memory or bars of gold, nothing could compete with an object that let you rewrite or relive time.

Nothing could stand against a gift that would let me speak to those that passed on.

The necklace fell into the snow quietly, new snow piling atop it as though it covered a secret. Tucking my head further into my hood, the walk back to my suite for the evening was easier. Lighter.

Because all I did along the way was imagine, over and over and over again, what I would have done differently—what price I would pay, what pain I would endure, what I would have given to have my them here with me again.

✥ • • • • • ✥

(A/N) Kind student,

Thank you for reading!!!

Along we go discovering new things. I'm currently on vacation so the next update will be later!

Next release: 6/30, June 30th

With love,

Milan