Sebastian Cole had one rule.
Don't be late on the first day.
He was late on the first day.
"I told you to take the left turn," Marcus said from the passenger seat. Boxes were stacked so high on his lap that Seb couldn't see his face. Just his hands gripping the dashboard like he was preparing to meet his maker.
"I did take the left turn."
"The other left turn, Seb."
"There was only one left turn, Marcus."
"There were literally two..."
"We're here aren't we?"
Marcus slowly lowered one box and looked through the windshield. His mouth opened. Then closed. Then opened again.
"Okay," he said quietly. "Okay yeah. We're here."
Seb stepped out of the car and looked up.
The buildings were old. Grey stone, tall windows, ivy crawling up every wall like it had been there longer than the school itself. The kind of place that looked like it had secrets buried in the foundation.
He grabbed his bag from the back seat.
Just a school, he told himself. Expensive bricks and overpriced tuition. Nothing special.
A bird landed on his shoulder.
He looked at it. It looked at him.
"No," he said.
It didn't move.
"I'm not doing this today." He gently nudged it off. It flew away, circled once, and came back to sit on top of his bag.
Marcus was already walking ahead pretending he didn't know him.
Their dorm room was small. Two beds, one window, and a view of the courtyard below where students were still moving in. Seb dropped his boxes on the nearest bed and noticed three things right away.
His bed frame had a scratch mark that looked a little too much like a claw.
The window had a lock on it that seemed way too heavy for a third floor dorm room.
And the guy standing across the courtyard, leaning against the opposite building with his arms crossed, was staring directly at him.
Not ugly. The complete opposite actually. Sharp jaw, dark hair, dressed like he'd never worn anything cheap in his life. He looked maybe nineteen but his eyes were... off. Not in a bad way. Just in a way Seb couldn't put words to. Like looking at someone and feeling like they had been standing in that exact spot for a very long time.
Their eyes met.
Neither of them looked away.
Then someone walked between them and the moment was gone.
Seb turned back to his boxes. "Weird school," he muttered.
"You haven't even been here twenty minutes," Marcus said.
"I know. I'm already concerned."
Orientation was at four in the main hall.
Seb was almost late again because the bird followed him halfway across campus. He spent ten minutes trying to convince it to leave. Three other birds joined while he was doing this. A squirrel watched from a nearby tree with what Seb could only describe as deep personal interest.
"This happens to you a lot doesn't it," Marcus said. It wasn't really a question.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
The main hall was huge. High ceilings, old wood everywhere, students packed into rows of seats. Seb scanned the room out of habit, exits, faces, anything that felt off.
Some people sat differently. Not their posture. Something else. Like certain people took up more space than their body should. Like the air around them was just a little heavier than normal.
He shook it off. Long drive. He was tired.
He found a seat near the middle and had barely settled when someone dropped into the chair right next to him. He turned.
A girl. Dark eyes, dark hair pulled up messy, a jacket that had definitely seen better days. She sat like she owned the seat and immediately reached over and stole the pen from behind his ear.
"Hey..."
"Relax, I'll give it back." She started clicking it. "You're in the wrong seat by the way."
"The seats aren't assigned."
"Unofficially they are."
Seb looked around. Now that she said it he could see it. The students had split naturally down the middle. One side of the hall was relaxed, loud, normal. The other side was quieter. Stiller. That same heavy air sitting over them like something invisible.
"Which side am I supposed to be on?" he asked.
She studied him for a second with something unreadable in her eyes. Then she smiled and it was the most genuine smile he had gotten since arriving.
"This one," she said. "I'm Lyra."
"Seb."
"I know." Too casual. Way too casual.
He opened his mouth to ask what she meant by that.
The lights dimmed.
Dean Aldric walked onto the stage and the whole room went quiet without him asking. He looked mid fifties, grey at his temples, glasses he kept pushing up his nose. He also looked tired in a way that suggested the tiredness had been there for a very long time and wasn't planning on leaving.
"Welcome to Crestwood Academy." His voice carried easily without a microphone. "For most of you this is your first year. For some of you..." his eyes moved slowly across the quieter side of the hall, "welcome back."
Standard speech after that. Rules, academics, campus facilities.
Seb stopped listening after two minutes and went back to watching people.
That's when he saw him again.
The guy from the courtyard. Sitting on the far side of the hall, one row ahead, turned slightly sideways like he was talking to someone. Close enough now that Seb could actually see him properly.
And he was... fine. Whatever. Not the point.
The point was he was looking at Seb again. Even while talking to someone else. Like he had a separate piece of his attention he could aim wherever he wanted without anyone noticing.
Seb looked away.
Then from the other side of the hall he felt it before he saw it. That heavy air again, thicker this time, pressing in from one direction. He turned slowly.
A guy stood against the back wall. Arms crossed, completely still. Big in a way that had nothing to do with a gym. Dark eyes moving calmly across the room like someone who was very used to waiting.
Those eyes landed on Seb.
Something shifted in his expression. Small and fast. Like something had surprised him and he hadn't decided yet what to do about it.
Seb frowned.
The guy looked away first.
Two unsettling strangers in one day, Seb thought. Probably a record.
Lyra leaned over. "Stop making eye contact with people you don't know."
"I wasn't trying to."
"You absolutely were." She clicked his pen again. "This school has a way things work. You just got here. Don't poke it."
"I was just looking around."
"Sure you were." She glanced toward the back wall then back at him with that same unreadable look. "Just keep your head down for the first week okay?"
"Why?"
She put the pen back behind his ear and smiled.
"Because interesting things happen to people who ask too many questions at this school."
Back in the dorm that night Seb pinned a blank sheet of paper to the wall above his desk and wrote one word in the middle of it.
Why?
Marcus stared at it from his bed. "Why what?"
"I don't know yet." Seb uncapped his pen. "But something about this place is off and I want to know what."
Marcus looked at the paper. Then at Seb. Then back at the paper.
"We've been here six hours."
"I know."
"Most people spend the first day unpacking."
"I did unpack."
"You put three things in a drawer."
"That's unpacking Marcus."
Marcus grabbed his pillow, pressed it over his face and went quiet.
Seb turned back to the paper and wrote a second word under the first one.
Crestwood.
Then under that he wrote two short descriptions. One for each person who had looked at him today like they already knew something he didn't.
He didn't have names for either of them yet.
But he would.
End of chapter 1