ECHOES OF THE UNKNOWN
The classroom buzzed with the usual morning chatter—laughter, chairs scraping, books thudding onto desks—but Lila sat motionless. Her gaze was locked on the folded piece of paper before her. It was the same letter she had found that morning, the same words looping in her mind like a curse:
"The blood you carry is not ordinary. The shadows are coming."
She reached out and ran her finger over the ink. It felt oddly warm, as if the message pulsed with a life of its own. Around her, the world continued, unaware. But for Lila, everything had shifted. The air felt heavier. The light seemed dimmer.
"Hey, Lila, you okay?" Maya's voice broke through the fog. Her friend leaned over with a concerned frown, her curly hair falling across her face.
Lila hesitated, then forced a weak smile. "Yeah. Just didn't sleep well."
Maya studied her for a second too long before nodding. "You sure? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Lila gave a breathy laugh, too dry to be real. If only it were just a ghost.
The bell rang, and their teacher began droning on about the French Revolution, but Lila heard none of it. Her mind was consumed by the dream, the glowing figure in the woods, Adrien's strange warning in the hallway—and now, this letter.
She glanced toward the classroom door, half-expecting him to be there again, watching.
But he wasn't.
Still, the feeling of being watched remained. That eerie sensation prickled the back of her neck, a silent pressure in the corners of the room. Every shadow seemed to slither. Every whisper behind her felt intentional. Familiar.
By the time lunch arrived, her nerves were frayed. She needed quiet. Answers. Space to breathe.
She skipped the cafeteria and ducked into the library—a dim, hushed place lined with towering bookshelves and warm pools of afternoon light. Lila wandered between the aisles until she reached the mythology section. Her fingers traced the spines of dusty tomes until one caught her eye: "Bloodlines and Prophecies of the Forgotten Realms."
"Looking for answers?" a voice asked behind her.
She whirled around, heart leaping into her throat.
Adrien.
He stood just a few feet away, hands in the pockets of his gray hoodie, face unreadable. His dark eyes locked onto hers with a calm intensity that unsettled her more than any scream.
"Do you always sneak up on people?" she snapped, trying to mask her fear with irritation.
He shrugged slightly. "Only when they keep running."
Lila crossed her arms. "I'm not running. I'm... processing."
"You don't have much time to process," he said, stepping closer. "The shadows don't wait, Lila."
She stared at him. "What are the shadows? And what do they want with me?"
Adrien looked around, then pulled a worn leather-bound book from his bag. It looked centuries old, its cover cracked and stitched along the edges. "This might help."
She took it cautiously. The moment it touched her hands, a strange heat surged through her palms, up her arms, and into her chest. She flinched, but Adrien said nothing.
Lila opened it slowly.
The pages were filled with delicate, hand-drawn symbols—runes she couldn't read, yet stirred something in her blood. Faded illustrations decorated the margins: cloaked figures, beasts with glowing eyes, maps of places she had never seen. But one image made her breath catch.
A girl stood at the center of a storm of shadows. Her long red hair whipped around her face. Her hand was outstretched, glowing with light. And the shadows… they recoiled from her.
She looked exactly like Lila.
"This can't be real," she whispered, her fingers trembling against the fragile paper.
Adrien's voice was steady, though quiet. "It is. That book holds the prophecy of the Bloodmarked—the one born every thousand years to seal or shatter the veil between our world and theirs."
Lila looked up at him, eyes wide. "And you think that's me?"
"I don't think," he said. "I know. I've been searching for you since I was twelve. The moment I saw you in that hallway, I recognized you."
A cold dread settled in her stomach. "Why me? Why not someone else?"
"Because it's always been you," he said. "Your bloodline is ancient. You come from the line of Solis—the protectors of the veil. But something is different this time. The shadows are moving faster. They know you've awakened. And they'll come for you."
Lila's mouth went dry. She hugged the book to her chest as if it could shield her from what she didn't yet understand.
The silence between them thickened, broken only by the ticking of the wall clock and the faint rustle of pages from the other end of the library.
"Why now?" she whispered.
Adrien's gaze darkened. "Because the veil is thinning. And they need your blood to tear it apart completely."
She backed up a step. "So what—you want me to fight them?"
"I want you to survive," he said softly. "But if you run, they'll find you. If you hide, they'll destroy everything you love. If you fight… maybe—just maybe—we have a chance."
Lila leaned against the bookshelf, her breath shallow. She had woken up thinking today would be just another normal day. School. Homework. Maybe a nap.
Now, she was the key to stopping a war no one else even knew existed.
Finally, she looked back at him. "What do we do now?"
Adrien offered a faint, almost reluctant smile. "We prepare. Together."