"Tonight, we honor the passing of Finn Delacroix, a bright, hopeful student whose life was cut much too short," Headmaster Hallewell says, his baritone voice filling the gymnasium to the brim as it echoes and reverberates like a massive bell has been rung. "But I can assure you, we are doing everything in our power to find out what happened, until then, curfew is strictly enforced and there have been additional security measures put in place."

  His light eyes skim over me, settling on me for just a moment longer as I look away.

  I can hear the faint sound of other students crying as they sit in the bleachers, packing the stands on both sides. Tears fall down my face without my permission or knowledge and I feel Tessa reach over to put a hand on my shoulder, but I only just barely notice. It's like I've been slapped, my skin tingling with numbness like it would right before the pain would roll in, but the pain never comes.

  I'm just numb.

  "We ask that everyone proceed outside so that we may initiate his final ceremony," Headmaster Hallewell continues and students lift their heads as they look to him from where he stands in the center of the gymnasium in an immaculate, dark charcoal gray suit. "Please head for the doors now and gather on the west lawn."

  I stay sitting for a long moment as other students get up and walk down the stairs of the bleachers, their footsteps heavy and loud in my ears. Tessa helps me to my feet and I walk in-between her and Astrid as we descend the stairs and head for the exit doors that the other people are silently filing through.

  The sun is beginning to set in the distance, the sky growing dark as the color leaches away. It's a fitting sunset, one that is not brilliant, but merely slipping away like water through cupped hands. A quiet, peaceful passing into twilight. We gather on the lawn in front of the gymnasium, which is facing the sunset. Several people mill about, their voices low and murmuring as Headmaster Hallewell stands before us.

  "Students, please raise your wands," Headmaster Hallewell commands, his voice strong as it echoes over the now silent gathering.

  I fumble with the pouch on my hip as I unbutton it and withdraw my wand, the cool, cylindrical crystal warming to my touch. I watch as Headmaster Hallewell raises his own wand, a dark blue crystal that glimmers in the fading sunlight. The students and myself raise our wands, mimicking him.

  "We are gathered here to honor you, Finn Delacroix, and we cast this spell now to release any traces of your soul from this place, so that you may be free to pass to the afterlife," Headmaster Hallewell says before he takes a breath, "we grieve for you, Finn, and we shall remember you as you pass on from us."

  A ripple passes through the crowd, like a fan has been turned on as there is a sudden breeze. In that moment, all of the dread and fear that I've felt over the past couple of days lifts off of me as my wand glows, a beam of light shooting into the sky like a laser as the other wands around me do the same, the colors varying slightly between shades of gray.

  I can sense Finn then, as he was before he passed and tears well up in my eyes.

  Wherever his soul is residing, he's here with us now and gone in the next moment before I can fully realize that there's a change in the air, like someone has said something out loud but no one is sure about what's been said.

  Though maybe no one will ever know what's been said.

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  And maybe, just maybe if everyone had their eyes open at the same time, maybe there was a ghost of a dragon to be seen as it flew above the crowd and disappeared.

  Though maybe it's merely a trick of the eye and wishful thinking.

  ****

  When the last of the beams flicker out, the crowd breaks up slowly, like clouds after a violent thunderstorm that doesn't want to leave yet. Tessa taps my shoulder before I can take a step and I look up at her expectantly.

  "I'm going to go have a talk with Luke, you guys go ahead and go back to the room, you look tired," she tells me.

  I nod in agreement, feeling like the life has been sapped from my soul.

  "Be careful," I warn her.

  She scoffs at this.

  "I'm hardly afraid of him, if anything, he should be afraid of me for what he said to you."

  "I'll go with Kara," Astrid volunteers.

  "Thank you," I murmur, feeling immense gratitude wash over me, "both of you."

  Tessa smiles at this, her lips tipping up as she leans in, scooping me into her arms. She gives me a fierce hug, the breath restricting from my lungs slightly as I fight the urge to panic. Astrid is dragged into it, Tessa squeezing her as well as she turns away from us, her shoulders squaring as she rolls her shoulders.

  "Wish me luck," she murmurs, as she then disappears into the darkness in the direction of the main hall.

  Many of the teachers have left, along with a good portion of the students by now and the air is already beginning to cool since the sun has dipped on the horizon and it's now getting dark. My heel-clad feet are aching furiously with every step I take as I start down the sidewalk for the dorms in the opposite direction of Tessa's retreating form.

  Astrid falls into step beside me, a silent shadow that makes me feel safe.

  Or as safe as I can feel at this school anymore.

  "How are you feeling?" she asks me suddenly, her voice soft enough I could pretend I didn't hear her.

  "I'm fine," I assure her, "I just want to figure all of this out," I swallow as I lower my voice, "and get justice for Finn."

  "We will," she promises me.

  I glance over to see that her face is set in a determined expression.

  "Kara, you've been extremely brave about all of this," she assures me.

  "I don't feel like I have been," I admit as I give an apprehensive side-eye.

  "You've been through far more than anyone should have to deal with," she counters, a glint in her eye flickering before she blinks it away.

  She's suddenly caught off guard as she looks away and makes a low, surprised noise.

  "Did you see that?"

  I pause and look in the direction that she's looking and realize then that there's someone standing in the middle of a sidewalk that branches off from the dorms several dozen paces away. It's a girl in an academy uniform and a chill rushes over me, like an ice water droplet has rolled down my spine as I can only stare at their rigid back. They're too still, too quiet for everything to be okay. A roiling, gut wrenching feeling bubbles under my skin and I so desperately want to flee, but I pause.

  "Sophia?" I call out, recognizing her hair and slender form.

  She remains stock still for a moment longer before she turns around slowly, her feet clumsy before she stands facing me. Her face is revealed to be bloodless and her eyes are wide and unfocused as her mouth opens and shuts several times, much like a fish out of water.

  It's then that I see the blood on her chest.

  Life goes by like a shutter camera, one frame at a time as she stumbles forward and falls to her knees.

  I sprint to her, my heart in my throat as I make it over to her and crouch by her side.

  "Sophia, talk to me, hey," I grab her by the shoulders and try to get her to look me in the eye as she stares right through me.

  It's a haunting, ugly feeling that grips me as her eyes dazedly focus on me.

  "H...h-e did this," she rasps as blood begins to bubble on her lips and stain her teeth pink.

  "Who did?" I pry, even though I can feel the life leaking out of her, like water swirling down a drain.

  "He said...he said that I was safe," she coughs, an ugly rattling sound filling her lungs as more blood speckles her parted lips.

  Her eyes roll up, revealing the whites as she slumps forward and Astrid stoops beside me and hovers her hands over Sophia. I hold my breath as I grip Sophia in my arms, her head lolling limply to the side as her hair falls, the feathered ends brushing my legs as I tip her back.

  "What's wrong with her?" I demand, not knowing what else to do.

  Astrid pales as she shakes her head at me, "It's the same killing curse as Finn."

  "Astrid is there something you can-?"

  She shakes her head at me and it feels like a fist is clenching around my heart.

  "She's gone, Kara, I'm sorry."