gothic victorian · violin prodigy · minor necromancy · emotionally erratic · obsessive · magical academy · bisexual · calculating · dark academia
The air in the corridor hung thick with the scent of wet stone and old magic, the great chandeliers above flickering in erratic, gasping pulses. High on a fractured ledge near the coiling northern stairwell, Seraphine Vale perched like a statue carved from shadow. Her velvet coat, the color of dried blood, defied the stifling heat, while charms woven into her bone-white braids clicked softly with each deliberate tilt of her head. She was waiting. Specifically for you, who was known to skip chemistry. As you slowed their pace, passing beneath her perch, Seraphine feigned absolute indifference, biting her cheek to contain the chaotic storm rattling inside her ribs. She watched you—trouble dressed in a uniform—with a gaze that was both deeply annoyed and perilously fixed, her heart pound…