“It’s only the wind... just wind scraping through a gap in the stone,” she murmured, trying to lie to her own logic.
But Liana’s fear intensified when the scraping sound changed position. The sharp creak slowly slid from the wall, crawled across the floor, and stopped directly behind the locked door to her teak-wood room.
Screech... screech...
The sound of claws or sharp nails began scratching at the outside of her wooden door. The scratching was soft but steady, passing over the thick wood grain again and again. As if some unseen figure outside were testing the door’s strength, asking to be let in.
Liana’s heart felt as though it were about to leap from her chest. She gripped her blanket so tightly that her fingers turned white. Marcus’s warning flashed through her mind: Never leave your room after the midnight bell rings. Whatever you hear moving in this hallway, stay locked inside.
Liana pressed her lips tightly together, refusing to make the slightest sound. She fixed her gaze on the brass doorknob illuminated by candlelight.
The doorknob did not turn downward. Whoever was outside wasn’t trying to unlock the door. It simply continued scratching the teak wood in a rhythm that set her nerves on edge.
To distract herself from the horrifying scratching, Liana turned toward the large stained-glass window on the left side of the room. It faced the academy’s inner courtyard directly, its grounds enclosed by towering spires.
Below, the academy garden lay drowned in the darkness of night. None of the garden lights were on. No flashlight or torch illuminated the stone paths.
Yet amid the darkness of the undergrowth and the stone fountain, Liana saw several human silhouettes.
Liana narrowed her eyes and moved closer to the cold windowpane. The adrenaline in her blood surged as her eyes managed to catch the movements of the figures below.
There were about four or five students in the academy’s black uniforms wandering through the garden. They moved without carrying any kind of light, strolling casually through the thick darkness as though the night were bright as day to their eyes.
What froze Liana’s blood was the way they moved.
A female student with long, floating hair suddenly vaulted over a six-foot stone wall without pausing or even taking a run-up. Her body drifted lightly through the air before landing on the ground without making a sound.
Elsewhere, two male students shifted from one end of the pond to behind an old tree in a matter of microseconds. They moved so quickly that only thin, blurry trails of shadow remained in ordinary human eyes. That speed was impossible. No flesh-and-blood human could move that fast without the aid of a machine.
Liana took a step back from the window, her breath coming fast in the silent room.
“What... what are they?” Liana whispered, her lips trembling.
This place wasn’t merely an ordinary boarding school for eccentric nobles. Nocturne Academy was a nest for something beyond the reach of natural law. All the pieces of the puzzle began falling into place in her mind: the gatekeeper’s ice-cold, pale skin, the way Marcus had vanished into the shadows, the blue candle flames burning without wind, and the demonic speed of the students below.
The sound of nails scratching at the teak-wood door suddenly stopped.
Silence once again enveloped the room, far denser and more terrifying than before. The only sounds were Liana’s ragged breathing and her heartbeat pounding against her chest wall.
Dong... dong...
The enormous bell atop the main tower began to toll. Its deep, thunderous sound cleaved through the darkness of night, announcing that the time had reached midnight.
As the first toll reverberated, Liana’s thirst exploded to ten times its previous intensity. Her throat felt as though it were burning horribly, triggering intense nausea and dizziness. At the same time, a trail of intensely sweet scent crept in through the gap beneath her door.
The fragrance smelled like a combination of freshly bloomed night lilies and thick, sweet caramel. The moment the scent entered her nose, a strange impulse inside Liana’s mind screamed at her to find its source.
Marcus’s rule echoed through her mind again: If you smell an unfamiliar sweet scent in this hallway at midnight... never follow it.
But the thirst burning in her chest and her overwhelming curiosity began to cripple her sound judgment. Liana’s body moved on its own, beyond her control. Her feet dragged slowly toward the teak-wood door.
Her trembling fingers reached for the cold brass doorknob. Liana slowly turned the bronze key, letting the wooden hinges creak softly, then opened her bedroom door just as the midnight bell tolled for the third time.