Page 2 of Heir of Shadows

“If this is a trick, I’m going to kill you,” I threatened as I backed toward the gate, fumbling with my phone. The ride was still two minutes away.

As the figures drew closer, I caught a glimpse of their faces in the moonlight—inhumanly pale with sharp teeth that couldn’t be real. This had to be another hallucination: like the ghost, like the mice. But the ring against my chest still felt like it was made of ice, and every instinct screamed danger.

The air beside me suddenly… tore open. There was no other way to describe it—like reality itself had split, showing swirling light within. My eyes darted between the tear and the creatures, my pulse racing.

A woman in a black suit stepped out of the impossible hole. My brain refused to process what I was seeing. Air whooshed around her. I tried to take a step back and almost tripped—my legs weren’t working properly. My heart pounded against my ribs, my breath coming in short, useless gasps.

“Get behind me,” she ordered, but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe.

The creatures—no, monsters—shifted unnaturally, their movements too smooth, too fast. My stomach clenched. They weren’t human. They weren’t anything I had words for.

“What—” I tried, but my voice came out in a broken gasp. The woman’s hand shot out, and light cracked the air like lightning. The creatures recoiled, hissing, their eyes gleaming with something awful.

My body finally obeyed. I stumbled backward, slamming into something solid—her. I barely had time to register her grip on my arm before she was dragging me toward the swirling light, the air around it pulsing with unnatural energy.

“Through. Now!” she commanded.

“Are you insane? What is that—” My voice pitched too high, half a scream.

Another creature lunged. I had never known what pure, raw terror felt like until this moment. My vision blurred, my ears rang, my instincts screamed to run, but I could do nothing.

Then the woman’s hand flared again, and I was falling forward, through the impossible light, through nothing and everything all at once…

…into my living room. My knees hit the carpet hard, my breath still coming too fast. Mom sat frozen on the couch, her mouth open. I clutched my chest, trying to convince myself I was still alive.

The woman stepped through after me and straightened her jacket like this was all perfectly normal.

And I just stared at her.

2

Marigold

My knees achedwhere they’d hit the carpet, but I barely noticed. My breathing hitched, quick and ragged. I was alive. I was in my living room. But the air still felt wrong—like the nightmare hadn’t let go of me yet.

My hands shook violently as I clutched my chest. The last few seconds played on repeat—monsters, glowing light, impossible portals.No, no, no. That wasn’t real. That couldn’t be real.

I turned toward the woman who had pulled me through reality itself. She smoothed back her already smooth hair, as if ripping open the universe was just another Tuesday for her. My pulse pounded in my ears. She had light in her hands. Magic. Real magic. And she was standing in my house.

I scrambled backward until I hit the couch. “Who—how—” My throat closed. “What the hell was that?”

“I’m Ms. Parker,” the woman introduced herself, as if we were meeting for a business lunch rather than… whatever just happened. “From Wickem Academy. And we need to leave. Now. Before more come.”

I stared at her, my heart still racing and my mind struggling to process what I’d just seen. “More what? What were those… things? How did we get here? What—”

“All excellent questions,” she said, checking something that looked like a compass, but glowed unnaturally. “Which I will answer after we get you somewhere safe. Pack quickly. You’ve just drawn a lot of unwanted attention.”

She turned to my mother, who still hadn’t moved. “Ms. Brook. I imagine you have questions too. But right now, your daughter needs to come with me. She needs protection. Training. Or what happened tonight will only be the beginning.”

“Protection?” Mom’s voice shook. “From… from what? What just happened? How did you get in here?”

“Ms. Brook—” Ms. Parker started, but I interrupted.

“Those things at the Conrads’—they weren’t real. They couldn’t be. Like the ghost wasn’t real, like the mice weren’t…” I trailed off as cold settled in the pit of my stomach. If they were real… If I wasn’t crazy…

“All of it is real, Marigold.” Ms. Parker’s stern expression softened slightly. “Just like the incidents when you were younger. Your cat that came back from the grave. Those dead birds knocking at your window during tests.”

“How do you know about those?” Mom demanded.

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