Isla's POV
The silver-haired man moved like death itself.
His moonlight blade sang through the air, cutting down creatures so fast they didn't have time to scream. One slice—a monster dissolved. Another swing—two more turned to black smoke. He didn't waste a single movement. Each step, each strike was perfect.
I pressed myself against a bookshelf, hugging the scroll to my chest, watching him fight seven shadow creatures at once. He didn't look scared. Didn't look angry. His face showed nothing at all—like he was bored.
A creature lunged at his back. Without turning around, he spun his blade backward and destroyed it.
"How is he doing that?" I whispered.
Another creature tried to attack from the side. He kicked it into a wall so hard the concrete cracked, then stabbed it before it could recover. Black blood splattered across the floor, sizzling like acid.
The last three creatures realized they were losing. They shrieked and tried to escape back through the tears in the air.
"Oh no you don't," the man said coldly.
He moved faster than my eyes could follow. One second he was on the ground. The next he was somehow in the air, his blade flashing three times. The creatures fell, cut in half, dissolving before they hit the floor.
Silence.
The man landed softly, his sword still glowing. He looked around the destroyed archive—broken shelves, scattered books, black blood everywhere—and his expression didn't change. Like this was just another Tuesday night for him.
Then he turned to look at me.
Those mercury eyes locked onto mine, and something shifted. His face went from cold to shocked in an instant. He staggered backward, dropping his sword hand to touch his chest like someone had stabbed him.
"Impossible," he whispered.
I didn't move. Couldn't move. This man had just killed seven monsters without breaking a sweat, and now he looked at me like I was the scary one.
"Who are you?" I managed to ask.
He didn't answer right away. Just kept staring at me, his hand pressed over his heart. His silver eyes were wide, confused, almost... afraid?
"This can't be happening," he muttered. "Not now. Not after so long."
"I don't understand—"
"Be quiet." His voice was sharp. He closed his eyes, taking deep breaths like he was in pain. When he opened them again, the emotion was gone. His face was cold and blank once more. "You shouldn't have touched that scroll, human. Now they know you're awake."
"Awake?" I stood up straighter, anger pushing past fear. "I don't know what that means! I don't know what any of this means! Those things tried to kill me, and you—" I gestured at him with the scroll. "You just appeared out of nowhere with a magic sword!"
"Not magic. Moonlight forged into solid form." He said it like that made perfect sense. "And I didn't appear out of nowhere. I came through the Veil. I've been tracking these shadow crawlers for three days. They were hunting something." His eyes dropped to the scroll in my arms. "They were hunting you."
My stomach dropped. "Me? Why would they hunt me? I'm nobody!"
"Clearly you're not." He walked closer, and I noticed he didn't make any sound when he moved. Like a ghost. "That scroll is a bloodline key. Only certain people can activate it—people with Veilweaver blood. When you touched it, you sent out a signal to every creature within a hundred miles. You might as well have rung a dinner bell."
"Veilweaver," I repeated. "That's what the creature said before you killed it. What is a Veilweaver?"
"Someone who's about to die if she doesn't come with me right now." He grabbed my wrist, and the moment his skin touched mine, we both gasped.
Heat flooded through me—not painful, but intense. The symbols on my skin blazed brighter. His eyes glowed pure silver. Some kind of energy snapped between us like an invisible rope tying us together.
He let go immediately, stumbling back. "No. No, this isn't—this can't—"
"What was that?" I demanded. My wrist tingled where he'd touched me.
"A mistake." He looked genuinely shaken now, which scared me more than the monsters had. "This complicates everything."
"What complicates everything? Would you please just tell me what's going on?"
He ran a hand through his silver hair, frustrated. For a second, he looked almost human. Almost vulnerable. Then the cold mask slammed back down.
"My name is Kael. I'm a Guardian of the Lunar Court—the realm on the other side of the Veil. Those creatures you just met? They're from the Dark Lands, a place where things that eat magic live. The Veil is the barrier that keeps our world and your world separate. And you," he pointed at me, "are apparently a Veilweaver, someone who can manipulate that barrier. Which makes you very valuable and very dead if you stay here."
I tried to process that. Other realms. Magic. Barriers between worlds. It sounded insane. But I'd just watched him kill shadow monsters with a glowing sword, so insane was apparently my new normal.
"Why do they want to kill me?" I asked.
"Because if you learn to use your power, you can strengthen the Veil. And if the Veil gets stronger, creatures from the Dark Lands can't cross over to feed on humans. So they kill Veilweavers before they can be trained." His voice was flat, emotionless. "You're the thirteenth one I've found in five years. The first twelve were already dead when I arrived."
Something about the way he said it—so cold, so matter-of-fact—made me angry. "You don't seem very upset about that."
"I'm not," he said simply. "I don't feel upset. Or happy. Or anything really. It's been a very long time since I've felt anything at all."
The admission was so honest and so sad that my anger deflated. This man who moved like a warrior god, who'd just saved my life—he was broken somehow. Empty.
"Then what was that?" I asked quietly. "When you touched me. You felt something then."
His jaw tightened. "That was a complication I don't have time to explain. Right now, you need to decide: come with me to the Lunar Court where you might survive, or stay here and wait for the next wave of shadow crawlers. Because they will send more. And next time, I might not arrive in time."
"I don't even know you!"
"True. But I just saved your life. That should count for something."
I looked down at the scroll, still glowing in my arms. At the symbols still burning on my skin. At the destroyed archive around me. Upstairs, the party continued. People laughing, drinking, celebrating Marcus's stolen success. People who wouldn't notice if I disappeared. Wouldn't care.
I had nothing here. No family. No home. No future.
"If I go with you," I said slowly, "will you teach me? About what I am? About this power?"
"That's not my job—"
"Make it your job." I met his silver eyes directly. "Those things killed twelve people like me. I don't want to be number thirteen. If I have power, I want to learn to use it. I want to fight back."
Something flickered in his expression. Respect maybe? It vanished too quickly to tell.
"Fine," he said. "I'll teach you. If you survive the journey."
"Journey to where?"
He held out his hand. "Through the Veil. To my world. Are you coming or not?"
I stared at his hand. This was insane. I should call the police. Should run upstairs and find help. Should do anything except trust a mysterious man with a magic sword who claimed to be from another realm.
But when I looked into his eyes, I saw something that made me believe him. Loneliness. The same kind I saw in my own mirror every day.
I took his hand.
The world dissolved.
One second I was standing in the ruined archive. The next, we were falling through a tunnel of light and darkness, spinning through colors I didn't have names for. I screamed, but no sound came out. Kael held my wrist tightly, keeping me from flying away into nothing.
Then we crashed through something that felt like breaking through water, and suddenly we were standing on solid ground again.
I gasped for air, looking around wildly.
We were definitely not in the Institute anymore.
We stood in the middle of a city square made of white stone that glowed softly in the darkness. Buildings rose around us—tall towers carved with symbols like the ones on my skin. Three moons hung in the sky. Three moons. People walked past, but they weren't normal people. Some had wings. Others had eyes that glowed. One woman had skin that looked like starlight.
They all stopped to stare at me.
"Is that a human?" someone whispered.
"Why did Kael bring a human here?"
"She smells strange. Like awakening magic."
Kael ignored them all. "Welcome to the Lunar Court. Try not to die."
Before I could respond, a bell rang out across the city—loud and urgent. The glowing people looked up in alarm.
"That's the warning bell," someone said. "That means—"
An explosion rocked the square. Part of a tower crumbled. People screamed and scattered. Through the dust and chaos, I saw them: more shadow creatures, dozens of them, pouring through tears in the air.
But these were bigger. Stronger. And they were all looking directly at me.
"They followed us through," Kael said, his voice tight. He drew his sword. "They've never been able to do that before."
A massive creature—twice the size of the others—stepped through the largest tear. It had a crown of black horns and eyes like burning coals.
"The Veilweaver," it rumbled, its voice shaking the ground. "We will feast on your awakening power. Your blood will open the gates. The Veil will fall."
Kael moved in front of me, but even he looked worried now.
"Isla," he said quietly. "Whatever happens next, don't let go of that scroll. And run when I tell you to run."
"But—"
"RUN!"
The massive creature roared and charged straight at us.