The car door swung open with a gentle click, and Rhea stepped out, her heels tapping crisply against the pavement like a countdown. She paused to close the door with unnatural care, as though slamming it might offend the silence lingering heavily in the air. She bowed her head slightly at the driver as her way of saying goodbye before turning to face the academy.
The wrought iron gate ahead creaked open at her approach, the movement slow and deliberate. It revealed a pristine cobblestone driveway framed by glowing lantern posts and obsessively manicured hedges. It was a sight that left her momentarily enthralled.
Beyond that stretched the estate, an architectural fever dream in pale stone, all soaring glass arches and pointed spires that clawed at the sky. It was the kind of place that reeked of generational wealth and an unsettling quiet. She could pretty much deal with the silence, but the atmosphere felt eerily off.
She checked her phone, comparing the photos she'd studied to the scene before her. It was an exact match. Still, it felt too off. Too perfect. Like a painting that might move if she stared hard enough. Beautiful, yes, but also suspiciously orchestrated, like someone had tried too hard to impress. If she was thinking too much into it, she couldn't really tell at this point.
Sighting a white marble statue of a guardian beast, Rhea's steps slowed as she stopped to observe the masterpiece. It looked like some hybrid of lion and angel, fangs bared mid-snarl.
She tilted her head, amused by the beast's frozen expression. It looked like it was trying too hard to make an impression. And so, she instinctively leaned in, almost nose to stone, studying the chisel marks and mouthing the shape of its grimace like she was trying it on for size.
"Hey!"
A voice cracked the stillness.
Rhea turned her head smoothly toward the sound of the voice, and a man in a pressed uniform was walking toward her, urgency in his steps. Her smile was lazy and just shy of predatory.
She didn't even blink.
"Are you lost?"
"Me?" Rhea feigned surprise, as if she hadn't already memorized the Academy's layout on her way here. She pressed a hand to her chest and offered a sweet smile that didn't reach her eyes, but of course, the man couldn't tell since she had her shaded glasses on. To Rhea, the man was clearly security– broad-shouldered, tired eyes and uniform too tight in all the wrong places.
"I'm Rhea Ashbourne," she said, her voice smooth as silk, the kind that made people want to trust her. "I just enrolled."
"Rhea Ashbourne, you say?" the guard squinted slightly, his eyes sweeping over her from head to toe with the wary scrutiny of someone who'd seen enough chaos to recognize the scent of trouble. His eyes dropped to her luggage, and he fixed his cap. "Right, a newbie. Since you're new, I'll give you a pass– but listen up. No one wanders the main courtyard once it's past noon around here. But good luck, and be careful in there, the students can be very unhinged."
"Unhinged?" she repeated, her voice sounding like it had been dipped in honey. "They sound like my kind of people. Have a great day, Mr security man."
The guard gave her a sideway glance, clearly unsure whether she'd misunderstood or was just being cheeky. But she was already walking away before he could say anything, her steps light as she ascended the stone steps leading to the main door. The guard shook his head as he watched her go, almost out of pity.
"She's also an Ashbourne," he murmured to himself, already imagining how things would end before walking away to resume his post. What he certainly didn't know was that Rhea hadn't come here to be molded by this academy.
As she opened the door, ready to step into her new domain, what she hadn't expected to be her grand welcoming was when she was immediately flattened.
A blur of limbs collided with her the moment the door opened, sending her sprawling backwards onto the cold stone. Her breath whooshed out as she hit the ground, and for a moment, everything was still. After recollecting herself, she blinked up at the sky, still dazed but oddly calm about it too.
Now aware of the weight on top of her, her eyes shifted, and the first thing she saw was a pair of dark smoldering eyes inches from her face– eyes that had no business being that intense. They hovered over her like a threat and a flirtation all at once, framed by lashes so long and perfect they could've been illegal. And the bastard knew it too. He was staring at her like she was a puzzle he couldn't already wait to ruin, but that was supposed to be her thing.
Who the fuck is he?
The weight pinning her down shifted slightly, and the stranger's voice dropped low, already rich with intrigue. "Are those normal eyes?" he asked, as if that was an appropriate question when you've just body-slammed someone into the ground.
However, that was when Rhea realized her glasses were gone. She blinked, vulnerable and bared-eyed, and that was the final straw.
Her fist immediately rocketed up, connecting with the side of his jaw with a satisfying crunch, and she had done it so quickly to the point it left him startled. He grunted– a sound halfway between pain and shock– and rolled off her like a sack of bricks.
Rhea sat up with a huff, snatched her glasses from the floor and slipped them back on like war armor. "Here's a tip," she said icily, dusting herself off. "Next time, try starting off with an apology and getting off a woman. Then you can start interrogating her about her genetics if you're that curious. What an absolute ding-a-ling."
She gathered her things and stepped inside, strolling past three guys who had watched the entire train wreck unfold like it was the super bowl. They only let themselves breathe when she was out of sight, before turning to their buddy who was still on the ground.
"Damn, she clocked you," one of them said, laughing at his friend's condition.
A second guy immediately whacked him on the back of his head. "Bro, you're the one who launched him through the doors like a fuckin' missle. It's quite unfortunate he crash-landed on…wait— are you busy blushing?"
The victim of Rhea's wrath was already standing again, rubbing his jaw, dazed and slightly pink in the cheeks.
"Wow, everyone else got love at first sight, but dude ended up with love at first blow," the first guy uttered again, earning him another whack behind the head by the second guy.
Meanwhile, the third friend had taken a photo of the moment.