The moment my foot hit the ground, the bus was gone.

  No engine revving, no tires kig up dust—just gone. No skid marks, no dust cloud. Just…gone. Like it had never been there at all.

  I turned, breath caught in my throat. Behind me, only a stretch of dead, empty road. The forest stood motionless oher side, as if the trees themselves were holding their breath. The air was wrong—thick, silent, heavy.

  No wind. No birds. No distant hum of is. Nothing moved. I was pletely alone.

  Or… almost alone.

  Ahead, the school loomed behind a-foot wall of gray brick, the kind that looked like it had been standing for a tury. Moss and li dotted the stone walls, maybe the only living thing for miles besides me. A wrought iron gate stood open, leading up a winding path to the main building.

  A sign hung above the entrance, written in kanji.

  Crest Moon Academy.

  I blihen blinked again. I could read it. I could read the damn kanji. I felt lightheaded and took a step forward. I’d read enough manga tnize kanji, but not nearly enough to have uood it.

  You don’t want to be te for your first day of high school.

  “Lana,” I said to myself.

  And now some weird school? I o find her, fast. Had she sent me here? What the hell was she even? And what did she mean I could find her but I’d lose myself?

  I didn’t have any answers, and I wouldn’t find any just standing around. I took a step forward, but I didn’t reize my own pants or shoes.

  I wasn’t wearing my jeans.I wasn’t wearing my fnnel.I wasn’t wearing anything I had put on this m.

  Pid pants. A pressed white dress shirt. A dark bzer. Oh my god…

  A school uniform.

  Lana’s words rang in my mind and I wished she’d show up with a camera crew and everyone ughing at what a clever joke this had been.

  No… I khis was REAL.

  I shoved a shaking hand into my pocket, fingers closing around something familiar—my phone. My st link to reality. I ya out and nearly dropped it when I saw.

  The g was burhe edges charred like it had been through a fire. The s was cracked beyond repair, a web of shattered gss aed pstic. It smelled like smoke.

  I tried to power it on. Nothing. pletely dead.

  A breath hitched in my throat. I fumbled for my wallet, needing some kind of proof that I was still me— but it wasn’t mine.

  Not my wallet.

  A wallet.

  Bck leather, a kached into the side. I knew what it meant the sed I saw it.

  “Dragon.”

  Ryu.

  I swallowed hard, flipping it open with trembling hands. A thick stack of yen ared back at me. I flipped through them in a daze. Bills that shouldn’t be mine.

  And then I saw the ID.

  I lifted the card slowly. In the spot where I’d kept my drivers lise, a new card. No.

  A Crest Moon Academy student ID.

  The fa the ID looked… familiar.

  Nnizable.

  For a sed, I thought they’d been some mistake. My brain refused to process it. The hair was too full. The skihy. The eyes… young, bright. Then it hit me.

  It was me.

  Younger. A kid. Fifteen, maybe sixteen. My hair—thicker, fuller, untouched by time. My skin—unlined, unscarred. My beard was gone.

  I touched my face, firailing over smooth, unfamiliar skin. I ran a hand through my hair, feeling volume I hadn’t had in years.

  My scar.

  I stared at my left index finger, searg, searg—gohe small, faded mark from a careless knife slip in college? pletely erased.

  This wasn’t possible.

  This wasn’t my body.

  My hands shook as I checked the name on the ID.

  Andrew Ryu Kazeyama.

  Kazeyama?

  What the hell? I’m Andy Benjamin Davis!

  My st name had ged. My middle name had ged.

  I moved to my birthdate.

  December 6.

  Same day.Different year.

  Fifteen years old.

  I choked on a breath.

  I was fifteen.

  My entire body was youhe world spuh me, my vision darkening at the edges. I dropped to my knees, fingers digging into the dirt.

  What the hell had they doo me?!

  I forced air into my lungs, g my fists until my nails bit into my palms. This wasn’t a dream. I felt everything—my heartbeat pounding against my ribs, the sting of cold air in my throat, the rough ground under my fiips.

  I puhe ground.

  “Wake up!” I yelled. “Wake up! Wake up! WAKE UP!”

  I punched until my fist hurt and my throat stung and nothing ged.

  This was real.

  And then I saw it.

  Another card, tucked behind my ID.

  I pulled it out slowly, flipping it over.

  Shin’yume-sou.

  Deep Dream Inn. I had residen town.

  Fine, but I still o find Lana.

  I forced myself to my feet, kill shaking. Ahead, Crest Moon Academy loomed like a shadow against the pale sky. Behihe road stretched toward the distant town of Shin’yume.

  Before I could take a step forward something hit me from behind.

  Pain exploded through my ribs as I was knocked off my feet, the breath driven from my lungs. I hit the ground hard, the world tilting sideways.

  I groaned, pushing myself up—only to freeze as a shadow fell over me.

  A girl.

  No.

  She only looked like a girl.

  She stood over me, brushing dust off her skirt, her ft, lifeless eyes locked onto mine. Her skin was too pale, her faooth. Not simply beautiful. Fwless. Like a doll, and just as uny.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, her voice polite. Too formal. Stiff. Hollow. DEAD.

  And then—

  Her entire body stiffened, head bent forward. Her eyes widened. She was looking at something. My leg.

  Reition.

  But not just that. Something deeper. Something almost primal.

  “Oh,” she whispered.

  I looked. My pantleg was torn from the fall, and my knee glistened red.

  A scrape. Just a scratch.

  But her pupils dited.

  And then, slowly, her fangs pushed past her lips. I felt my blood turn to ice as I scrambled to back away, but it was already too te.

  “You’re bleeding.”

  And she took a step closer.