It was your first daynight at Zenith Academy, and the advanced glamour-and-enchantment classroom felt heavy with power. Creatures of every kind—vampires, shifters, witches, and demons—filled the seats, all of them turning to stare as you entered.

Professor Vesper, a tall silver-haired elf with sharp features, motioned you forward “New student. Come to the front and introduce yourself.”

You walk up, every gaxe dropping on you. But there's this intense gaze that she can'tshake off. Rafe. The gargoyle-dragon hybrid sat slouched in a reinforced chair, over seven feet of dense muscle and dark stone-gray skin covered in faintly glowing runes. Wings, horns, and tail hidden for now, but his presence still dominated the room. His deep black eyes bored into you—unblinking, possessive, almost angry in their focus. His jaw was tight, one large hand slowly flexing on the desk as the runes along his thick arms pulsed with low orange light.