Noxmere's dining hall was less "school cafeteria" and more gothic banquet chamber with long wooden tables and chandeliers that dripped violet fire.
The tables weren't arranged in neat rows but scattered across the massive hall. Candles floated midair. Food appeared on plates the moment you sat, designed to whatever your body needed the most.
Aeris wasn't sure what she needed. But apparently, the magic thought it was rosemary-roasted chicken with lemon-glazed vegetables and warm, buttered bread. Her stomach turned just looking at it.
She hadn't touched a bite. Across from her, Cas was halfway through his crimsoned meat, bleeding slightly at the edges. Next to him, Maya twirled her fork through a bowl of spectral fettuccine, the color of lavender fog. Her glass was filled with a thick silver elixir.
"Banshee comfort food," she murmured, catching Aeris's gaze. "Looks prettier than it tastes."
Aeris tried to smile but failed terribly because none of it — the magic, the meals, felt real. She sat in a castle of monsters, in a hall that fed off need and instincts.
Cas reached over, stabbing into his crimsoned meat with one hand and speaking around a bite with the other. "Still processing?"
Aeris gave him a sideways look. "Having an existential crisis."
"Well," Maya said cheerfully, as if that were normal lunchtime banter. "you just got selected into the most cursed House of the academy. So yay?"
Aeris arched a brow, scoffing. "Is that a congratulations?"
"Sort of," Maya tilted her head. "Thorne's selective like… freakishly so. It's not just power-based. Even some full-blooded supernatural don't make the cut."
Cas leaned in, the casual humor dropping from his features. "You're human, Aeris. How the hell did the runes even accept you?"
Aeris hesitated. Her fingers tightened slightly around her untouched fork. "I don't know," she swallowed. "I stepped up… and they glitched. You both saw it."
Cas hummed, mouth full, nodding slowly. "Aeris, you were radiating every house color at once like a possessed disco ball." He let out a wheezing sound. "And then it just..burned black. That's the color of Thorne, sure, but not like that."
"You weren't even supposed to be picked, right?" Maya leaned, fork twirling idly as her eyes narrowed with interest. "I mean, humans don't get Houses. We were betting you would end up living in the Commons like the other non-supernaturals."
"I'm not.." Aeris started, then bit down on the word like it tasted wrong. She didn't know what she was, not after tonight.
"Doesn't matter," she muttered instead, nudging the food across her plate without eating a bite. "That's not even what I wanted to talk about."
Both of them paused mid-bite, looking at her.
Cas arched his brows. "There's more?"
Aeris inhaled sharply, then let it go in one breath. "Vincent Ravenscroft almost attacked me."
Cas choked. Literally. He thumped his chest, eyes wide. Maya's fork froze mid-air, her tart drooping off the edge like it too had fainted in shock.
"What?" they said in unison.
Aeris lowered her voice, glancing around as if Vincent might materialize out of shadow. "He was… making out with a girl and feeding on her at the same time. It was intimate like a full-on make out level. Then he sensed me and went full bloodlust mode."
Cas paled, his fork hovering. "Shit," He leaned in, "That's practically a death sentence."
Maya let out a low whistle, her eyes gleaming like she'd just heard juicy gossip. "You're lucky he didn't rip your throat out. No one interrupts Vincent when he feeds and if he thinks you saw him vulnerable…"
"He glared at me during the selection," Aeris muttered. "Like he wanted to shred me."
Cas grimaced. "He's not going to forget that. Vincent plays long games. He'll wait, he'll plot, and when you're off guard? He'll strike."
Aeris blinked. "Yeah, well… but before he could do anything, Aldric..uh the fae guy showed up." She didn't mean to sound defensive, but his name had weight the moment it left her lips.
Maya's grin spread, immediate and unmistakably gleeful. "Oooh. Of course he did."
Cas groaned into his goblet. "Here we go."
Maya ignored him. "Did he do the thing? You know the dramatic entrance, swishy cloak, mischief sparkling in those fae eyes like he owns the moon?"
Aeris blinked. "He… sort of appeared out of nowhere like a smug fashion disaster with cheekbones."
"Yep," Cas muttered. "That's your fae prince, Aldric Blaise and unfortunately," he added, shooting a glare at Maya, "someone's favorite brand of fae poison."
Aeris blinked. "You know him?"
Maya leaned in, voice dropping like she was sharing state secrets. "Oh, everyone knows Aldric. Fae prince of insufferable charm and the only creature in this entire academy who can get Vincent to back off." She smirked. "They're best friends after all."
Cas rolled his eyes. "He's a pain in the ass. He once glamoured half the library to look like a moonlit forest because he claimed the lighting was oppressive to his creative spirit."
Aeris let that horror wash over her for half a second… then exhaled.
"But," she said, lowering her voice again until it was barely more than breath, "that's still not the wildest part."
Cas straightened, instantly suspicious. "There's more?"
"More more?" Maya added, already gleaming with anticipation.
Aeris hesitated then nodded. "Kael Wrenhart broke into my dorm last night."
Cas choked on his water. Maya thumped his back, eyes wide.
"What?" Cas rasped.
"Kael..our Kael?" Maya blinked. "Our brooding, murder-glare, emotionally repressed wolf boy Kael?"
"Yep." Aeris rubbed her temples. "In his wolf form."
Cas and Maya froze.
"He broke my balcony door," she continued, voice strained. "Literally broke it. Then… shifted in front of me, full-on morphing, fur to skin—bones cracking."
"And then?" Maya asked, barely breathing.
Aeris gave her a look. "He walked around my room naked like it was just another Tuesday."
Cas laughed so hard he clutched his stomach. "Kael Wrenhart, naked in your room? Oh my gods, Aeris, what are you doing to these men?!"
Aeris glared, cheeks heating. "I didn't do anything!"
Maya was wheezing, eyes wide like Aeris had just declared herself the Moon Goddess. "No, no..hold up. Kael? That emotionally constipated lycanthrope who flinches if someone breathes in his direction?"
Aeris groaned, dropping her head into her hands. "I'm serious!"
Maya looked half-horrified, half-thrilled. "He rejected twelve girls last year. Twelve, Aeris."
Cas wiped a fake tear from his eye, gasping, "Okay, but seriously? Vincent wants your blood, Kael wants your bond…"
"and Aldric just wants her entire existence to orbit his," Maya added, unhelpfully.
Cas nodded grimly. "These aren't guys who even look twice at freshers, especially not human girls. Yet, you've got the Prince of Bloodlust, the Alpha of Brooding, and the Crown Prince of Delusion all circling you."
He looked at her squarely. "What the hell are you?"
Aeris sat back, dazed. Her pulse thudded in her ears. "So, what I'm hearing is…" she muttered, "I've somehow caught the attention of three supernatural aristocrats. One wants me dead, one wants to mark me, and one wants to enchant me."
"And you're in House Thorne," Cas declared, raising his glass in a mock toast. "May the gods help you because you, my friend, are utterly screwed."
Maya stabbed a piece of her lavender pasta. "Honestly? Sounds like the start of a really twisted love quadrangle. Very tragic heroine. Very cursed romance energy."
Aeris gave a hollow laugh, but her mind had already drifted.
House Thorne.
The moment her name was announced and the seal of House Thorne flared behind her, all she could see was him.
The question tumbled out before Aeris could stop it. "What do you know about Damien Deveraux?"
That name dropped like a weight.
Maya's fork froze mid-spin. Her voice, when it came, was noticeably softer. "Damien is… dangerous. He's not like the others."
"Not even Vincent?"
Maya shook her head, "Vincent is cruel, he's the kind of monster who bares his fangs before he bites. Kael is all instinct and primal. Edric is sly, he plays the trickster."
She glanced at Aeris. "But Damien? He doesn't need fangs or claws. He won't act unless he's already ten steps ahead. Everything he does is intentional."
Cas nodded, his usual sarcasm absent. "He's a scholar, yeah, but not the library-rat kind. He collects old world knowledge like others collect weapons. He knows things. He sees things and no one ever knows what he's thinking."
Aeris felt a chill settle in her spine. "So.. he's the worst of them?"
Cas didn't hesitate. "Worse." He looked at her then, all traces of humor gone. "He's the kind you don't see coming until you're already caught in the snare."
Maya reached out and patted her arm with mock sympathy. "Welcome to Noxmere, darling. Try not to die before finals."
Aeris leaned back in her seat, staring down at her untouched food as realization sank in. She was still trying to figure out what she was, and now she had these four supernatural heirs circling her like sharks in different suits.
And the worst part?
Her classes hadn't even started yet.