ARIA POV
The strange moment kept on coming; it wasn't obvious but quiet. Just enough to sit under my skin like a feeling I couldn’t explain.
I opened my eyes slowly, trying to figure out what had pulled me out of sleep. There was no sound, no movement, nothing out of place.
But at that moment I knew it wasn't just ordinary.
Like, I had been running, and I just escaped something I couldn’t remember.
I pressed a hand against my sternum, waiting for my heartbeat to settle, but it didn’t. It stayed fast. Uneven. Wrong.
A faint image lingered at the edge of my mind.
Red.
It was not clear enough, nor was it a memory, just a color. It was deep, burning wrong in a way I couldn't explain.
Then it was gone.
Just like that.
I blinked my eyes and exhaled slowly, trying to shake it off.
“Get it together,” I muttered under my breath.
It was probably nothing. Just a dream I couldn’t remember properly. That happens sometimes.
Still…
I tried to snap out of it, and my feelings didn’t leave.
I gave a sharp knock on the door.
“Hanna, I swear to God if you make me late again, I’m leaving without you.”
"Hanna, I swear to god, if you make me late again, I'm leaving without you."
"I'm coming, I'm coming, chill," Hanna stumbled out of our dorm room with one boot on and her hair half done. "You're so dramatic first thing in the morning."
"We have orientation in twenty minutes, and you're still getting dressed."
"Orientation is just people telling us things we already read online; relax."
"Some of us actually care about making a good first impression."
"And some of us slept through our alarm," she finally got her second boot on and grabbed her bag, "Okay, I'm ready, let's go."
We headed out, and the campus was already packed. Students everywhere, some looking just as lost as I felt, others walking around like they'd been here for years. I didn't know exactly what I expected college to feel like, but walking through it right now, it felt real in a way I wasn't fully ready for.
"Okay, this place is actually gorgeous," Hanna said, turning her head in every direction.
"Right? I told you."
"You did not tell me; you just kept saying we needed to get here early."
"Same thing."
She rolled her eyes, and we kept walking, following the signs toward the main hall. We found seats near the middle, not close enough to the front to look desperate, not far enough back to look like we didn't care. Hanna spent the first five minutes scanning the room.
"What are you doing?" I whispered.
"Looking for cute boys, obviously."
"We literally just got here."
"And? Time waits for nobody, Aria."
I shook my head, but I was smiling because that was just Hanna, always and forever. She'd been my best friend since we were eight, and she had been exactly like this the entire time. There was nobody else on earth I'd rather be sitting next to right now, in this big unfamiliar hall, starting this whole terrifying new chapter.
The orientation started, and honestly, Hanna was right; it was mostly stuff we'd already read online. I was taking notes anyway because that's just who I am. The air shifted slightly when he sat down on an empty seat right next to me and bumped my arm hard enough that my pen scraped straight across my notebook.
"Seriously?" I said before I could even think about it.
He didn't look at me. "It wasn't intentional."
"An apology would still be nice."
He turned then, and I got my first proper look at him. Sharp jaw, silver-grey eyes, the kind of face that made it very clear he already knew exactly how he looked.
"My apologies," he said, in a tone that had zero apology anywhere in it.
"Wow," I said, "super convincing."
Something moved across his expression, not quite a smile, not quite annoyance, somewhere right in between.
"Alexei," he said, like that was supposed to land somewhere.
"Good for you," I said and turned back to my notebook.
Hanna was in my ear barely two seconds later. "Oh my god, do you know who that is?"
"Someone with terrible manners apparently."
"People don't mess with him, Aria. That's Prince Alexei, like actual royalty; his family basically runs half the country; everyone on this campus knows who he is."
I glanced over at him. He was staring straight ahead now, jaw tight, like the conversation had already bored him completely.
"Good for him," I said, and meant it more this time.
Hanna grabbed my arm under the table. "You cannot just say 'good for him' to a prince."
"I just did."
"Aria."
"Hanna."
She stared at me with that look she always gave me when she couldn't decide if she was impressed or terrified. I turned back to my notes.
The orientation wrapped up about forty minutes later, and people started filing out in groups, loud conversations filling up the hall. Hanna was already on her feet, straightening her jacket.
"Okay, first things first," she said, "we need to find the cafeteria because I didn't eat breakfast and I'm about two minutes from being unpleasant."
"You're already unpleasant."
"I'm delightful, and you know it; come on."
We joined the crowd moving toward the exit, and I was just starting to feel like I knew where I was going when I heard him again, right behind me.
"You're in my way."
I stopped and turned around slowly. Alexei was standing there with two other guys behind him, both of them built like they'd never missed a gym session in their lives. He wasn't looking at me like I was a person; he was looking at me like I was a minor inconvenience standing between him and wherever he wanted to be.
"There's a whole hallway," I said. "Go around."
"You stopped in the middle of it."
"For two seconds."
"That's two seconds too long."
I stared at him. He stared back. Neither of us moved.
"Aria," Hanna said quietly behind me, her voice doing that thing where she was trying to communicate an entire paragraph in one word.
I ignored her.
"You know," I said, "for someone who apparently has everyone on this campus falling over themselves, you have a really interesting way of introducing yourself to people."
Something flickered in his eyes, quick, gone just as fast.
"I'm not introducing myself," he said, "I'm asking you to move."
"And I'm telling you to go around."
One of the guys behind him shifted, like he was getting ready to say something, but Alexei held a hand up without looking back, and the guy went still immediately.
That part was interesting. I filed it away.
"You're new here," Alexei said, looking at me differently now, not like I was an inconvenience anymore, more like I was something he hadn't seen before and hadn't decided what to do with yet.
"Everyone here is new," I said, "it's the first day."
"You know what I mean."
"I really don't."
He took one step closer and lowered his voice just slightly, not threatening, just direct. "You should be careful about the energy you put out on this campus. Not everyone here is as patient as I am."
I almost laughed, "patient?" You've been rude to me twice in the last hour."
"And yet here you are still talking to me."
I opened my mouth, closed it, and opened it again.
He watched me do all of that with an expression that was almost, almost a smile.
"Move," he said simply, then walked around me without waiting for an answer, his two friends following right behind him, the crowd parting for all three of them like it was automatic.
Hanna appeared at my shoulder the second they were gone, grabbing my arm with both hands. "Okay, what was that?"
"Nothing," I said, watching him disappear into the crowd.
"That was not nothing, Aria; that was very much something. He was looking at you like…"
"Like what?"
She paused, thinking about it.
"Like he was trying to figure out what you are."
I turned away and kept walking.
"Good for him," I said.
That’s when I caught it.
My own reflection in the glass door at the end of the hallway. Just for a second, less than a second, something is wrong with it. Not the angle, not the light. My eyes. They weren’t the color they were supposed to be.
I stopped walking.
The reflection stared back at me, normal now, completely normal, my face, my eyes, exactly as they always were. I blinked. Nothing.
I must be more tired than I thought.
“Aria?” Hanna was looking at me.
“Coming,” I said, and followed her; for a second my eyes weren't mine.
