echoing through the room. Sable remained standing, watching him as h

kno

ed. "You.

involving students." His expression remained unreadabl

y am I

the mark

ms. "It reacted bec

because you

as a

ere fu

asily he had seen through her. "Y

dmit. She had been afraid, not of the pain itself but of losing control. The candles hadn't gone out

is this mark

ened a drawer, removed an old wooden box, and

"You're not g

't plan

dozens of old photographs, some faded, others marked by burned edges, and a few so ol

oo

Wren, and Kael. They looked impossibly young, yet their faces we

n't aged,"

N

ld is

d and eight

graph to Kael, then back ag

hould

ckened as the pieces began to fal

rsed pr

ma, only exhaustion. "We stop

at him, struggling to process what he had j

tried l

nd

always brin

smiling young men who had existed long before the gri

moment before answering. "We faile

fore she could ask another, three hurried knocks sounded against the

en. For once, he wasn't

ession shar

l from b

you mea

" Rhys paused to catch his breath, then looked directly at Sable. "There's something

"What? That's impossi

eryone else, she stayed in bed all morning. Ap

ss Sable's skin. "No

what I t

moving toward the

hey passed. When they reached the girl's room on the second floor, Rhys

Evelyn?" K

em frowne

who slee

have th

. No fourth bed, no empty space, nothing to suggest another student had ever lived th

ou saw

d

poke t

es

yone in the

om. He stopped in front of a wall and fixed hi

he

covered the surrounding surface, except for a clean outline beneath the unused hook, as though something had hung there u

ickened. "They'r

d toward h

s. Now they've e

still. "You think som

omeone alr

fact that every window was closed. Sable glanced toward the door, but nobody had ente

them era

red not to have heard anything. Slowly, Sable turned back toward the mirror above the dresser, where five

ARE