Prologue: The Violin
The violin was the last thing to stop.
It played in the dark courtyard long after the music inside the ballroom ended. One thin note, then another, trembling like a girl who had been crying for an hour.
Then the notes broke off.
There was a splash. A scream cut short. A sound of something heavy, once, and then again.
Someone knelt by the fountain, breathing hard, and whispered into a shaking girl's ear in the kindest voice in the world.
Look at me. Say it with me.
By morning, the water in the fountain ran clear. By autumn, no one at Ashgrove Academy would say the name Celeste Vance out loud.
And a girl who remembered nothing was already packing her bags.
