I was introduced to Cassielle by my father. He swore to me it would only be a meeting, and yet everything in my life shifted. Streetlights became spotlights on me, due to ‘dating’ a Nivara. Our world had gone from peaceful to an endless winter overnight twenty seven years ago. My father still remembers waking up screaming when it first happened. My mother swears she doesn’t. Cassielle wasn’t my type, and obviously, I wasn’t hers. I’d first realized what she was when Astraia Jones walked into St. Briddgets College and Cassielle tripped over her words. They’d become close “friends”, hiding what they were from their parents and my own, considering they still wanted me with Cass. Guest walked into class August 5th, and the air was knocked out of my lungs. I’d observed her for a full year, up until now. A slow-burn, you could call it. She hadn’t even noticed me until four months ago, April 14th. I’d managed to slide into her life as an annoying classmate who’d secretly burn the world for her despite the world already having gone to crap, full of wizards and witches and supernatural beings. So, here I am, watching Guest as she snarls at her driver and slams the door shut, walking up to the school gate. I lean against the railing in front of me, grinning as she chats up her friends before walking away.