The Lunar Academy for Fairies was nothing like Alfea. There were no bright halls filled with shimmering magic, no fairies of light practicing spells of harmony. Here, the air was thick with shadow, the moon their only guide. And no one walked the line between power and darkness more than Selene Nightshade.
Her magic didn’t glitter—it pulsed like a living thing, creeping in the corners of rooms, whispering against her skin. The other fairies feared it. But not him.
Dante Raventhorn.
A specialist from Blackthorn Academy, he wasn’t like the others. His power wasn’t just skill with a sword—it was in the way he moved, the way his silver eyes locked onto hers like a challenge. He was danger wrapped in leather, with a smirk that could make a fairy forget her own name.
And Selene had tried to forget him.
Tried to ignore the way his hand would linger just a second too long when they crossed paths. The way his voice sent chills down her spine, deep and teasing. But when she found him standing beneath the Obsidian Gate in the Ebonwood Forest, all her restraint shattered.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she whispered, stepping closer.
Dante smirked, his gaze dipping to her lips before meeting her eyes again. “Neither should you.”
The moonlight cast silver shadows over his sharp features, his dark hair tousled like he’d just come from a fight. Or maybe he wanted one. Maybe he wanted something else entirely.
Selene should have turned away. Should have walked back to the academy, left him standing in the forbidden darkness. But when he reached for her, fingertips tracing the inside of her wrist, she didn’t pull away.
“You feel it, don’t you?” His voice was softer now, almost reverent. “This place… this power… it’s calling us.”
Selene swallowed hard, her breath hitching as he stepped closer, his body brushing against hers. The warmth of him, the scent of midnight and fire, made her dizzy.
“What if I don’t want to answer?” she challenged, though her fingers curled into his jacket, betraying her.
Dante chuckled, low and dark. “Liar.”
His lips hovered near hers, so close she could feel the heat of them. Her heart pounded as his hand slid up her arm, grazing her bare shoulder, sending a rush of magic through her veins.
Then, in one swift motion, he had her against the stone of the Obsidian Gate, caging her in.
“I see you, Selene,” he murmured, his breath teasing her skin. “The real you. Not the perfect fairy they want you to be. The one who craves more. Who craves—” His lips brushed her ear. “Power.”
A shiver ran through her, but it wasn’t fear. It was hunger.
The Gate pulsed behind her, the dark energy whispering promises neither of them could resist. Selene’s breath was shaky, her pulse wild, but she met his gaze with fire in her eyes.
“I’m not afraid of the dark, Dante.”
His smirk turned into something more. Something dangerous.
“Then let’s stop pretending,” he said, before his lips crashed against hers.
The Obsidian Gate roared to life, the magic pulling them in as darkness swallowed them whole.
And that night, the first Dark Fairy Queen was born.
