Chapter 1
If someone had told me a year ago that my life would split in two, I probably would've laughed. Because that's the thing about change. You never see it coming. You just wake up one day and everything feels off, like the universe tilted a few degrees while you weren't looking.
Back then, I was just Mae Whitlock: College sophomore, psychology major, and a chronic overthinker. I wasn't the kind of person things just happened to. My world was small and quiet with morning coffee and late-night study sessions. I liked things that made sense. My friends all joked that I was an 80-year-old trapped in a 20-year-old's body.
My morning had started like any other -- the campus half awake, sunlight struggling to break through the clouds. I had taken the long way to class to walk through the scenery of the courtyard. It was lined with maple trees, and the leaves had just started to turn with the oncoming Autumn. The air smelled like rain and something sharp. I had my earbuds in as a defense against interaction this early in the morning. My mom called it "antisocial." I called it peace.
My class was across campus in the old humanities building. I was cutting through the main hallway when the crowd thickened. I glanced down at my phone attempting to switch playlists when someone brushed past my. Just a touch, barely there, but it was enough.
The world went silent. Not quiet -- silent. My skin lit up like static, every nerve alive and burning. For a second, I couldn't move. It felt like being struck by lightning, except the pain wasn't pain at al. It was... recognition.
He was a few steps ahead of me. He was incredibly tall, broad-shouldered, with dark brown curly hair and ice blue eyes. He had turned his head slightly, and even from behind him I could still feel that same pull. It was magnetic and terrifying. The sharp features of his face were outlined by the grey morning light. Then he was gone, swallowed by the crowd.
I stood there, still frozen, my coffee cooling in my hand as I tried to catch my breath.
What the fuck just happened?
I told myself it was nothing, just my imagination, but the feeling didn't fade. Not for the rest of the day. Not when the coffee wore off or when the rain started to fall. The spark stayed humming under my skin. Later, when I tried to sleep, I couldn't shake the thought that maybe something inside had woken me up.
