: The Fir

eamed o

g into grotesque smears. Her footsteps echoed as she ran barefoot across scorched wood, chasing a shadow

lled, never turning

rner, and there

e of the hall, unburnt, u

s Kira's-but pale, lifeless, eyes glassy with dark

urned

ched. Her mouth moved, but no sound c

ire r

scr

olt uprig

eft her mind since she opened the latch and found Elias Vane's book. But this-

legs out of

white chalk, was a symbol. One o

't put i

he symbols and Elias's journal. The librarian-Ms. Cordelia-watched h

r it," she said flatly, poin

to play dumb. "I need to

And the mirror is the infection. It wasn't meant to stay here. But eve

does i

is one here? It's an old alchemical glyph. It means 'dis

red at t

id softly. "But not as she was. She was...

ned closer.

at

ragments-memories, fears, sometimes futures. And then it s

felt

a way to

ed if someone faced the mirror on the night of the bloo

he next b

shelf and flipped through the pages. He

ays fro

hard. "And if I

it tak

e, Kira felt the

n made her way back to the study on the first floor. Among the for

pe labeled *FOR HER*. Kira blinked. A tape? She rummaged through the shelves until she fou

crackled

lyn

you've already seen it. I pr

n, the tape hiss

an with no shadow. We were fools. Every generation, one Langley woman was ch

silence

. Showing more. *Be careful, Kira. It lies.* It shows what you

e click

silence of the stu

look

of the glass cabin

ot *q

ingered even as

nd shadows stretched long throug

e stood *insi

ing

g herse

er, the refl