THE INVITATION
Sera showed up at my door with a basket of glittering nail polish, enchanted hair brushes, and something that smelled suspiciously like brownies.
"Emergency girl's day," she declared. "You look haunted. Like you saw a ghost. Or worse—a boy."
I blinked at her from my doorway, wrapped in a fluffy robe, my silver-tipped hair half-braided and half-tangled. "I did see a boy," I mumbled. "Kind of. In a dream. He threatened to keep me in it forever."
She raised a brow, unfazed. "Well, that's sexy and horrifying. Let's paint our nails and ignore the trauma."
I snorted and let her in.
An hour later, we were sprawled on the enchanted rug in my room, toes wiggling in midair as our polish dried without smudging. My finger were stained with starlight-blue shimmer. Hers were venom green.
"I like this," I whispered. "It's quiet."
Sera flopped dramatically onto her back. "Yeah. You kinda had a week, huh? Magical orgasms. Power surges. Hair that won't stop growing. Mysterious ancient dream-men. The usual."
I covered my face with a pillow and screamed into it.
She giggled. "You're adorable."
I peeked out, cheeks flaming. "I feel like I'm always so much."
"You are," she said simply. "But in the best way."
There was a long pause, She twirled a curl of my hair around her finger, then said, "Christmas break is in a few days. I want you to come home with me."
I blinked. "Wait—what?"
She sat up, suddenly serious. "I'm not kidding. My family's... intense. But you'd love my mom. She collects cursed jewelry. And we throw this huge solstice party in the woods with enchantments and ice wine and way too many secrets. You'd fit right in."
My heart stuttered. "But your family—what if they think I'm weird?"
"They will," she said without hesitation. "And they'll adore you."
I hesitated. "What about the boys? My mates. I—"
Her expression shifted, a flash of something unreadable passing through her eyes. "They're not invited. Just you and me."
Something in her tone told me she knew. Not everything. But something.
I swallowed. "Okay," I said softly. "Yeah. I'll come."
That caught me. "You have brothers?"
"Twins," she said eyes glittering. "Older than me. A little... darker."
My mouth went dry. "Darker how?
She grinned. "You'll see."
The next day, I regretted everything.
Because I walked into Runic Applications class and the professor immediately halted mid-sentence when I entered.
Everyone stared.
My hair had grown again—longer now, brushing my waist, gleaming faintly with silver woven moonlight. My skin glowed too. Just a little. But enough.
"Miss sol," professor Alwyn said carefully. "Are you aware that your magical signature has quadrupled in the last seventy-two hours?"
I froze. "...No?"
He narrowed his eyes. "We'll need to preform a resonance test. Immediately."
The room murmured. Whispers followed me as I walked to the front, every step feeling heavier. My hands shook as I touched the crystal on the pedestal.
It lit up like a star had exploded inside it.
Gasps echoed.
The professor stated at the readout, stunned. "This... isn't possible.
I looked at the chart. It was flickering. Shifting. Changing colors like it couldn't decide what I was.
Not just siren.
Not just anything.
And in the reflection of the crystal's glow, I saw eyes again.
Watching.
Waiting.
The crystal still pulsed under my hand, colors flickering too fast for the chart to interpret. Blue, violet, silver, black. It hummed with power I couldn't control. Couldn't name.
Professor Alwyn stared, unmoving.
"This isn't normal," he said finally. "Miss Sol, step away from the pedestal. Slowly."
I did, stumbling slightly as magic crackled in the air behind me, wild and untamed. My classmates gawked like I'd sprouted horns. I might as well have.
"What does it mean?" I asked, voice barely a whisper.
The professor looked at me like I wasn't a student anymore—but a puzzle. Or worse... a threat. "It mean you crossed a threshold. Perhaps more than one."
"What kind of threshold?" Someone muttered behind me.
"Her signature is unstable," Alwyn said, loud enough for the whole room to hear. "It's no longer reading solely as siren. There's another lineage here. Dormant magic that's... waking."
That word again.
Waking.
My knees wobbled. My skin felt too tight.
I was about to speak—about to tell him I'd had a dream, that something ancient had touched me—when the classroom door swung open without warning.
Aeryn stood there.
His cloak billowed behind him like a shadow made real, silver-green eyes scanning the room with lethal calm. He didn't even glance at the professor before walking straight toward me, his gaze zeroed in on the glow still fading from the resonance crystal.
"Is she alright?" He asked softly, but there was steel beneath it.
Alwyn hesitated. "She experienced a magical event. A resonance anomaly. We need to keep her for further—"
"Shes done," Aeryn said, voice like a closing door.
The room went silent.
The professor bristled. "Mr thorn, with respect—"
"Shes done," Aeryn repeated, not louder, but colder. "Unless you'd like her to shatter every ward in this room."
My pulse throbbed in my throat. "I'm fine," I mumbled, even though my body said otherwise.
Aeryn stepped closer, slipping an arm around my waist as if I weighed nothing. "You're not. But you will be."
Heat blooms in my chest. Not the kind that burned. The kind that anchored.
As he led me toward the door, the room stayed silent—until someone whispered, "What is she?"
I didn't have an answer.
And that scared me most of all.
Outside the classroom, Aeryn didn't speak at first. Just kept his arm around me, guiding me down a quiet corridor until the noise and eyes were far behind.
"Your magic is growing faster than expected," he said finally. "You're changing."
I swallowed. "I know."
"You're scared."
I nodded.
He stopped walking, then gently turned me to face him. "You don't have to be. Whatever's waking in you—we'll handle it. Together."
I opened my mouth to thank him, but what came out was: "Aeryn... do you think I'm still me?"
He looked at me for a long moment. Then he touched my cheek, soft as mist.
"I think," he said slowly, "you've always been more than you believed. But you're still you, Noelani. You're just... becoming."
And somehow, that was the most terrifying part of all.
~