week

d like pine smoke

ay through the vent above my bunk. One of the younger kids must've found it du

looping ink that looked like it had been written by a foun

Just that odd silver seal: a

shoes I'd "accidentally" set on fire during my escape from a group home in

elt di

chment card with a

ren

ve Academy, a school for those of r

g, and board ar

e the forest bends twice and cross when

L

mid scheme at all. One that was executed bec

'scholarship' right,' then dropped it in the trash with a pile of pizza coup

laundry, but that letter? It hummed like it was ali

covered train platform, one cracked boot hangin

st a duffel bag, a half-dead phone, and a flask of lukewarm te

its sides, appearing from fog like something conjured from sleep. The conductor

window as branches clawed at the sky, and the fog thickene

think I'd hallucinated the whole r

n alarming student ghost-to-human ratio. It had Ivy-covered towers, spiral sta

dn't just roll

already regretting every life decision that h

, you must

ed to look at the owner o

ssembled itself into a person. Pink jacket, floral scarf, and perfectly applied eyelin

ie, please. And we're roommates! I know that cause I read your file...well, not the confiden

r confusion. "I.

ment, I'm an intuitive reader, and my third eye is super nosy. Come on, our room's in Elric Hall, it'

had said, so I didn't. I just followed her through the courty

er boarding school. The common room had a chandelier shaped like a floating moon,

ning and I was sweating into my coat. Callie, of

ocking a heavy wooden door

esk, a stack of books that smelled like burnt herbs, and of cours

he left bed and collaps

ady unpacking what looked like

mumbled into

ed something from her jacket po

at the item and saw t

w weeks ago now glowed fain

side me. "But it's weird, right? I got a similar one wh

ht bite. "How did it end up glowing?" I

ens when something big's about to happen. Don't

her a

or your latent magic awakening, or a harbinger of roman

red, shoving the letter int

liding into fuzzy pajamas. "I'll war

case of what." I didn't think t

fall asleep, I couldn't help b

, soft, and persistent, like

r

through the trees like someth