The day felt too long.
Ryan had woken up to the same buzzing tension in his chest that he'd felt when Vaelrion's eyes found him the night before. It hadn't faded with sleep, and now, under the unforgiving fluorescent lights of Mountain Crest University's lecture halls, it was worse.
He tried to keep his head down, tried to focus on the professor's droning voice and the neat diagrams on the whiteboard, but every other thought circled back to that rooftop—Vaelrion framed in moonlight, watching with a patience that felt more dangerous than any open attack. And Aria. Standing in the shadows like she belonged there, speaking like she knew more about him than she should.
By the time afternoon lectures ended, his notes were a mess of half-written sentences.
"You okay?" Ethan asked as they spilled out of the economics lecture, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets.
"Yeah," Ryan lied. "Just tired."
Tired wasn't the word. His senses were dialed so high it was like living under a microscope. He could hear the scrape of sneakers from students halfway down the hallway. The faint rustle of notebook paper three rows behind him still rang in his ears. And the smell—coffee that had gone cold hours ago, cinnamon sugar from a pastry someone had eaten near the back row—was clinging stubbornly to the air.
Act normal. That had been the point of last night, hadn't it? Pretend he was just another student, not the guy with a glowing mark hidden under his sleeve and a countdown timer ticking in his head.
Eighteen days.
And now—twenty-four hours to meet Aria.
He didn't know if she was a liar, a trap, or something else entirely. But if she knew what his mark was, if she could help him understand why Vaelrion seemed content to stalk instead of strike… then maybe she was worth the risk.
By sunset, he'd made up his mind.
The northern edge of the city was nothing like the warm, lantern-lit safety of campus. Ryan followed the cracked sidewalk until the concrete gave way to a dirt path overgrown with grass that brushed his jeans. The hum of student chatter faded behind him, replaced by the low chorus of crickets and the faint whisper of wind through weeds.
The old railway bridge loomed ahead—a massive, rusting skeleton stretching over a shallow, dark river. Its wooden planks were warped with age, and the iron railings were speckled with corrosion. No lights touched this place; the last train had crossed it decades ago. Now it was a crossing for no one, half-swallowed by the night.
Aria was already there. She leaned casually against the railing, her messenger bag slung over her shoulder, the wind tugging at the loose strands of hair escaping her tie. Her eyes caught the last light of the sun, reflecting it like polished glass.
"You came," she said.
"You made it sound important," Ryan replied, stopping a few feet away. "So this is the part where you tell me why you were following me last night."
"I wasn't following you." She tilted her head slightly. "I was watching your back."
Ryan crossed his arms. "From what?"
"From him." Her voice was quiet, but the weight in it made the name unnecessary. "Vaelrion doesn't make appearances for nothing. If he's showing himself this early, he's testing you."
Ryan's jaw tightened. "You seem to know a lot about him."
"I should." Her gaze drifted toward the horizon, now streaked with the first thin strands of night. "My family's been hunting his kind for generations. Not all wolves—just the ones who step outside the old laws."
"And you're saying he's one of them?"
"I'm saying he's worse," Aria replied. "And the fact that he hasn't killed you yet means you're important to him. Which means…" She nodded toward his covered arm. "You've got something he wants. Or something he fears."
Ryan said nothing, but the mark under his sleeve pulsed faintly in response.
She didn't press him. Instead, she reached into her bag and pulled out a leather-bound notebook, the edges worn and the cover scratched with travel and time. "This was my brother's. He disappeared two years ago tracking Vaelrion. Before he vanished, he sent me one page."
She flipped the book open. The page showed a rough sketch—a crescent moon, split down the middle, with angular markings curling around it like runes. The lines were jagged, hurried, but unmistakable.
The moment Ryan's eyes landed on it, his mark flared hot under his skin.
"Your mark reacts to this," Aria said, watching him closely. "That means you're part of the same prophecy my brother died chasing."
Ryan's throat tightened. "Prophecy?"
Before she could answer, the wind shifted.
Ryan caught the scent instantly—musky, metallic, wrong. It wasn't wolf. It wasn't human. It was something in between, and every instinct in his body screamed danger.
Aria tensed. "You smell it too."
Beneath the bridge, shadows moved. Something hunched emerged from the gloom, its limbs long and wrong, its skin a patchwork of slick fur and pale scars. Its eyes glowed sickly yellow, darting between them with a predator's twitchy hunger.
Ryan's claws slid out before he could stop them. "Friend of yours?"
Aria's hand went into her bag and came out with a short, curved blade that caught the moonlight. "Not even close."
The creature lunged.
Ryan met it head-on, their collision rattling the planks beneath their feet. Its claws ripped across his forearm, the sting fading almost as fast as it came. He slammed it into the railing, but it twisted like something boneless, snapping at his throat.
Aria was there in a blur, her blade slicing across its shoulder. The creature shrieked, stumbling back, black blood dripping onto the wood.
"What is it?" Ryan growled, stepping between her and the beast.
"Shadowspawn," she said, circling to its flank. "They follow Alphas like carrion birds."
The Shadowspawn lunged again, faster than before. Ryan ducked low, caught its ribs with his claws, and flung it sideways into the railing. Aria darted in, her blade flashing. The cut was clean and deep, and the thing howled in pain.
It swiped at her, but Ryan was faster. He slammed it to the boards, pinning it by the neck. Aria's blade found the gap beneath its jaw, and with a sharp twist, it went still.
Silence fell, broken only by the slow lap of the river below.
Ryan stood, breathing hard, the faint ache in his muscles already fading. Aria's arm, however, bore a gash where the creature had caught her. She pressed a cloth against it, unfazed.
"You fight well," Ryan said.
"You too," she replied, crouching beside the corpse. Her fingers found something around its neck—a charm, carved from bone into the same crescent moon shape as in her brother's sketch.
"Vaelrion sent it," she said, her voice low. "He knows we've met."
Ryan's chest tightened. "Then he's watching both of us now."
Aria met his gaze, and for the first time, there was a faint smile—cold, but defiant. "Good. Let him watch. If he thinks we're just prey, he's already made his first mistake."
The system's chime echoed in Ryan's head.
[Side Quest Updated: Aria's Alliance.][Objective: Protect Aria until the Blood Moon.][Warning: Threat level increased.]
Ryan ignored the flicker of unease that came with it. "You still haven't told me everything."
"No," she said, slipping the charm into her bag. "And I won't. Not yet. But I will tell you this—your mark isn't just a target. It's a key. And if Vaelrion gets it before you figure out how to use it…" Her gaze drifted to the dark river. "…then everything burns."
They left the bridge together, the faint stink of Shadowspawn lingering in the air.
For the first time since this all began, Ryan wasn't walking alone.But somehow, that didn't make the night feel any safer.