Chapter 1: The Letter
The moving truck pulled away just as the sun dropped behind the hills, and Anna stood on the porch of a house that didn't feel like home yet. Maybe it never would.
"You'll like it here," her dad said. Again. He was already hauling the last box inside, voice pitched with that careful brightness he'd had since everything changed. "New job, new start. Things are looking up for us."
Anna didn't answer. She was looking at the envelope in her hands.
It had come in a few days after her dad received the new job offer in Mayfair. It was a scholarship to a school in Mayfair.
Miss Anna Wells, Ravenscroft Academy.
It was a little bit too suspicious, the timing especially.
She'd never applied to Ravenscroft. Never even heard of it. But here was an acceptance letter, full scholarship and everything, sitting in her hands like it had been waiting for this time to come.
"Dad." She held it up. "Did you apply to this school for me?"
He stopped in the doorway, box on his hip. For a second-barely a second, she almost missed it-something crossed his face. Then it was gone, and the easy smile was back.
"Must be a good school if they're already sending mail," he said. "What school is it?"
"Ravenscroft Academy. Full scholarship." She turned it toward him. "I don't remember filling out anything."
"Lucky you, then." He went inside before she could say more.
Anna stood there a moment, staring at the closed door.
Lucky. Sure.
• • •
The school sat on an old estate at the edge of town-gray stone, ivy crawling up the walls, windows that seemed to track the car as it climbed the drive. Less like a school, more like something out of her grandmother's stories. The kind with locked towers and things that weren't supposed to be real. Myths, she called them.
"Dorm assignment." The woman at the front desk slid a key and a folder across without looking up. "Sycamore Hall, room 214. Your roommate's already in. Second floor, the room at the end"
"Thanks." Anna took the key. It was heavier than it looked-old iron, cold even in her palm.
214 was at the end of a long hallway, second floor. When Anna pushed the door open, a girl was sitting cross-legged on one of the beds, going through a box of books.
"Oh my gosh, you're here!" The girl was on her feet instantly, all warm smile and bright eyes. "I'm Sage. I've been so excited to meet you-is that weird to say? I just had a good feeling about this."
"Anna." A little thrown by the enthusiasm. "Hi."
"Anna." Sage said it like she was trying the name on. "I love that. Okay, come in-you can have the bed by the window, I left you a ton of closet space, and if you're hungry I have snacks, like an unreasonable amount of snacks-"
She kept going, and within ten minutes Anna knew Sage's favorite color (yellow), her favorite subject (history, "but don't ask me why, it's embarrassing"), and that she'd been at Ravenscroft since she was eleven.
"Eleven? That's young for boarding school."
Something moved behind Sage's eyes. There, then gone-same as her dad that morning.
"My family has history here," Sage said, and went back to unpacking.
Anna let it go. She had her own unpacking to do. She found the acceptance letter again, which she shoved to the bottom of her desk drawer where she didn't have to look at it.
• • •
Dinner was in a hall with ceilings so high Anna had to tilt her head back to find the end of them, and Sage led her to a table by the windows like she'd done it a hundred times.
"You're sitting with us," Sage said. "Trust me."
"Us" was two more people already at the table. The first one was on his feet before Anna even sat down-easy grin, the kind of energy that took up more space than his actual body did.
"New girl! Marcus." He held out a hand, then changed his mind halfway and went for a half-hug instead. "Don't worry, I'm not usually this much. Okay, I'm always this much. You'll get used to it."
"He will never, ever shut up," said the girl next to him. Not unkind-more like she found it endlessly funny, like she's had to deal with it longer than she'd want to. "Priya. Welcome to the asylum."
"It's not an asylum," Marcus said.
"It's a little bit an asylum."
Anna laughed before she could stop herself, and something in her chest eased, just slightly, for the first time since the truck pulled away. "I'm Anna ", she smiled.
That's when she saw him.
Two tables over. Alone. A book open in front of him that he wasn't reading. Dark hair, sharp features, and a stillness that made him more noticeable than if he'd been moving around the room.
He was looking at Anna with so much enthusiasm, like she was a puzzle that he needed to solve, like she was the most interesting person in the room at the moment, meanwhile Anna hadn't seen him before. She was sure she'd remember that handsome face anywhere.
"Who's that?" Anna kept her voice low.
Marcus followed her gaze, and his grin dimmed a notch. "Adam. He's-" He glanced at Priya, like he wasn't sure how to finish the sentence.
"Intense," Priya said. "Keeps to himself. Smart, though. Unsettlingly smart."
"He's fine." Sage's voice was quick, and final. "Just quiet."
When Anna looked back a moment later, Adam was gone. The book was still there, the cover had a symbol on it, Anna recognized it.
It was the same one pressed in wax on the back of her acceptance letter. She had seen a fair amount of it since she entered the school so she presumed it was the school's insignia or something.
• • •
That night, Anna lay awake long after Sage's breathing settled into sleep. The room was quiet except for wind against the windows, and somewhere in the walls, a low sound.
Settling, probably.
Or footsteps.
Old buildings make noises, she told herself. That's all this is.
When she finally slept, she dreamed of a woman-the same woman she'd grown used to seeing in her dreams, her face was blurry as usual. In the dream she was saying something to her, fast and afraid, but she couldn't make out the words.
The last thing she saw before she woke was the woman's hand, pressing something into hers.
A key.
Anna opened her eyes in the dark. Her heart pounding in her ears, her breathing rapid. The dream had felt more real tonight, like it wasn't a dream. Anna opened her hand to see the same key from her dream pressed into her palm. That made her blood run cold. It wasn't a dream?.
