Page 2 of Marked By His Hunger

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“Yeah,” I mutter to my empty apartment. “That’s not creepy at all.”

But my heart doesn’t slow down.

If anything, it pounds harder—because buried beneath the fear is something else.

Something dangerous.

Hope.

I scroll further.

At the Runevald Institute, you will learn to understand, control, and master your power.

You are not alone, Serena.

You never have been.

That line hits me harder than it should.

Not alone.

I’ve been alone my entire life.

Alone when my parents stopped trying to explain me and started avoiding me.

Alone when kids at school whispered behind my back, called me freak, Witch, psycho.

Alone when I learned the hard way that telling the truth about what I saw only made things worse.

So I stopped telling.

Stopped trusting.

Stopped hoping.

Until now.

My gaze drops to the bottom of the email.

There it is.

A single line.

A single link.

Accept Your Admission

It pulses faintly, like it knows I’m looking at it. Like it’s waiting.

My stomach twists.

This is insane.

There is no magical Institute.

There is no hidden realm.

There is no place where people like me belong.

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