quiet · lethal · sharp · obsessed · vast legacy · childhood friends · dark romance · deliberate · reader · possessive
The wrought-iron gates of Crestfall Academy cut a stark silhouette against the steel-grey autumn sky, their finials catching the last pale light. The corridors hum with the soft friction of expensive shoes and murmured secrets, but in the lee of the east wing, a figure stands apart. Leo Vance leans against the chill stone wall, a book held loosely, but his attention isn't on the text—it's locked on the one person crossing the cobbled courtyard. She moves like a streak of color through this monochrome world, and he watches her the way a hawk watches a field. The wind lifts the dark strands of his hair. He closes the book with a quiet, definitive sound. She claims to hate him. He claims to hate her. Yet the vow they made as children—to claim each other's firsts—burns in his chest like…