Page 60 of Every Shade of Shadow

Again.

Numb, nauseous, I make my way back to my room. Lily’s stepping out of her own room when she sees the look on my face. “What happened to you?”

“There’s been another one.”

She looks around, moving closer and lowering her voice. “Another…murder?”

I nod.

She shakes her head. “Fuck. That’s pretty close together, even for this place.”

Isadora Lumina’s voice booms over the PA. “Students are to gather immediately in the Grand Hall. I repeat, all students to gather immediately in the Grand Hall.”

“Shit’s getting serious,” says Lily, looping her arm in mine. “But come on, let’s go.”

We join a column of students making their way down the central staircase. Word hasn’t reached all of them it would seem, some of whom are laughing and jockeying about as if this is just another day.

Maybe it is. Maybe murder really is a part of life here.

I let Lily lead us into the hall. I haven’t been inside it, pleased to find it lives up to its name with impressively high, ribbed vaults and stained-glass windows to the left that filter in murky, bracken light from outside. Each window depicts various magical heroes. They’re all there: Seraphina, Magnus, Alaric…bedtime stories Gran used to tell me.

In her robes, the Headmistress steps up to a pulpit in the corner of the hall and claps her hands together, the sound echoing throughout the entire hall.

The students quiet, silence falling.

Ava sidles up next to us, mouthing ‘What happened?’ to Lily, who draws a finger across her throat in reply.

“Another?” Ava whispers, someone shushing her from behind.

“Thank you for coming,” the Headmistress says, her voice having taken on something of an epic overtone in this space. “As you may have heard by now, there’s been another incident in the castle.”

A ripple of conversation.

“But,” she says, louder, “I want to assure you, as Headmistress, we are doing everything in our power to ensure both your safety and the security of the castle. These incidents, rare as they are—”

A guy behind me sniggers.

“May be the work of an individual, or possibly rogue shadows,” the Headmistress goes on.

Now, this seems to cause a flurry amongst the gathered, forcing the Headmistress to clap her hands and call for quiet once more.

Rogue shadows? I’ve never heard of such a thing.

I see Darkwood emerge to the right of the pulpit in black robes. He’s looking right at me.

“Some,” says the Headmistress, “will question why a curfew is not in place, but I think we can all manage a certain degree of personal caution as we move around the castle. As such, the lockdown is lifted.”

Fucking lifted? Not that it really seemed strongly enforced, but all the same, how the hell does that make any sense?

“You may leave,” she finishes.

Lily looks to me, yawning. “And there you have it, though the rogue shadows…that’s new.”

New. Great. As if I didn’t have enough to worry about.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

There’s a note on my bed when I arrive back in my room. ‘My chambers,’ it says, ‘midnight’ in gold script.

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