The moment Emily stepped out of the church, the heavy oak doors shutting softly behind her, a strange fog seemed to cloud her mind. The warm glow and rich scent of incense instantly faded into the chill autumn air, and with it went the clarity of everything she had just experienced inside.
She blinked hard, trying to focus on the path ahead, but the memory of the service of the hymns, the faces, even the exact moment when Adrian Blackwood had leaned close to whisper slipped like water through her fingers. It was as if her mind had hit a sudden pause, and the details vanished in a blur of quiet confusion.
Had she really been there?
Her fingers brushed the spot where he had sat beside her, the ghost of his voice still echoing in her ears: "Good morning, Emily."
A shiver ran down her spine as she pulled her coat tighter and began the walk back to her accommodation. The cobbled streets were quiet now, leaves rustling underfoot like whispered secrets, and the city's towering buildings loomed dark and distant beneath a blanket of twilight.
She tried to piece it all together but found only scattered fragments a violet flash, the deep toll of the bell, the strange thrill that had bloomed in her chest. It was maddening, and yet, beneath it all, a strange certainty took root. Something had changed. Something that had been waiting.
As she approached the familiar red-brick building she called home, her mind drifted back to her very first day at university the day everything had begun.
...…
Emily's first morning at Ravenwood University was a tangle of nerves and excitement, sharpened by the daunting reality of being far from her small village. She had arrived before dawn, carrying a heavy backpack filled with books and hopes, but the sprawling campus was a labyrinth she could barely navigate.
Lost and overwhelmed, she wandered the maze of lecture halls and courtyards, the low hum of bustling students a confusing backdrop to her panic. Every sign seemed written in a language just beyond her reach, and the cold stone buildings cast long shadows that swallowed her small frame.
Finally, she found herself standing outside a grand hall, its heavy wooden doors towering above her like the entrance to a castle. Gathering her courage, she pushed inside.
The moment she stepped through the threshold, her breath caught and then stopped.
There, at the front of the room, stood Dr. Adrian Blackwood.
He was every bit as imposing as the stories whispered among students tall, sharp-featured, with an air of cool, effortless control that seemed to command the space around him. His dark coat hung perfectly from his broad shoulders, and his eyes those impossibly violet eyes pierced through the dim light like twin stars.
Emily froze, rooted to the spot as if caught in a spell. For a heartbeat, the room vanished.
When he spoke, it was with a calm, precise voice that cut through the murmurs of the crowd. "You're late," he said to her, and then his gaze slid past, almost like he hadn't really seen her.
Emily's cheeks flushed crimson, but despite the reprimand, there was something magnetic about him a cold intensity that sent a shiver down her spine and made her heart flutter like a trapped bird.
Over the next few minutes, Adrian spoke to her a handful of times sharp questions, brief comments but always with that same measured calm, that quiet authority. The other students whispered about him being distant, unapproachable, famously cold. Yet every girl seemed drawn to him, enchanted by the mystery he carried like a second skin.
Emily wasn't sure if she was imagining it, but she felt their eyes meet more than once across the crowded hall, a fleeting connection that made butterflies burst wildly in her chest.
....
Weeks passed in a cycle of lectures, long study nights, and tentative greetings. Adrian remained the same: distant, reserved, and impossibly compelling. He was the person who stole her sleep, the one who haunted her thoughts and invaded her dreams.
Every time she caught a glimpse of his violet eyes, her heart raced as if she'd been caught doing something forbidden. She told herself it was just a crush, nothing more but the intensity of it unsettled her.
And then, today on this quiet autumn morning, beneath the ringing bell of the old church she had seen him again.
Adrian Blackwood, sitting beside her in a place she never imagined crossing paths with him, his voice a whisper meant only for her.
The timing was impossible.
Emily slowed her steps outside her building, pressing a hand to her chest as if to steady the wild beating within. The city around her felt suddenly charged, as if something ancient and powerful was stirring just beneath the surface of everyday life.
She didn't know what the future held, but she knew this much: her life had already begun to change in ways she couldn't yet understand.
And Adrian Blackwood was at the center of it all.