Page 59 of Every Shade of Shadow

“And don’t worry, Annabelle,” he continues, “I won’t tell a soul about what I witnessed just now, or last night. Can’t have everyone thinking the new girl has gone insane already, can we?"

“No, and it’s Ana," I correct him.

"Ana," he repeats, rolling the word over his tongue like a taste to be savored. “Got to say, I can’t wait to see what you come up with next.”

“You and me both, but you’re serious? You won’t tell anyone?”

He brings his finger to his lips and runs it sideways, like he’s zippering them closed. “I believe we have an accord, Ana.”

"So it would seem."

“And should you ever be looking for alliance, or anything else, you know where to find me.”

Not quite as repulsive as his original come-on, but still distasteful all the same.

“I’ll keep it in mind,” I fake-smile, easing past him and quick-stepping down the hall before anyone else decides to pop out on me tonight.

I am kind of annoyed the whole magic duel was in my head, though. I kind of liked being a badass for once.

There is the question of why Leo came to my aid in my dream, or illusion, or whatever the fuck it was. And then the conversation now… Is he trying to build an alliance or just get into my pants?

A piercing scream rings out.

I try to place it, but the way noise travels in here, echoing off all the hard surfaces, makes it hard to pinpoint.

Another scream, this one cut off.

Wherever it’s coming from, maybe best practice is to get the fuck out of here and back to the somewhat safe haven of my room.

A jog turns into a run, my boots hitting the floor harder. I turn right first, and then left, taking stairs two at a time as yet another scream rings out, closer now.

Pick up the pace, Ana.

I come around the next corner and stop.

It’s déjà vu—a cluster of students, someone lying on the floor, that same stench of metal in the air.

But I continue to move forward towards the gruesome spectacle out of some morbid curiosity, pulling up to join the ring of onlookers who watch on silently, whoever was screaming nowhere to be found.

I take in what’s before me. It’s a scrawny boy, half his head cleaved away as if by Umbraculum Dissencans, brain matter having slid out onto the floor. He’s lying face down, puncture wounds on his stomach and legs. They cover almost his entire chest, stopping just under his clavicle, which seems bent or broken and entirely unnatural. There’s a deep cut across his left palm.

The queasiness I felt staring at Stephanie’s body doesn’t rise, so maybe, like the others here, I am getting used to it.

“Dale?”

I turn and see a girl, a redhead, moving towards us, mouth dropping as he tries to get a better look at whoever’s on the floor.

“Dale?” she repeats, with more urgency now, starting to run.

A burly guy to my right manages to step out and catch her before she gets too close, because by the twisted curdle of her voice it’s clear she’s a friend, or a lover…someone close.

My stomach twists, the redhead falling to her knees in anguish, the burly guy going down with her.

The rest of us remain silent.

When I turn back a professor I don’t recognize has appeared, already starting to shoo people away.

And so it is Lumina, Academy of the Magical Arts becomes one student less.

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