13
Alina.
If there's one thing Umbra Noctis has taught me, it's that you don't need locked doors to hide dangerous secrets. All you need is a library and enough whispers to make the walls feel thinner than they are.
It started this morning, when the rain had driven half the academy indoors. Classes were delayed, corridors packed, and the air smelled faintly of damp parchment from the library down the hall. I'd been heading there to avoid another round of Lucien's "constructive criticism" in the dorm when I heard two girls talking in hushed voices by the archway.
"They say he's the fourth one this term," one whispered. "Vanished in the middle of the night."
"Same as the others?"
The first girl nodded. "No note, no body, no trace. Just gone. Like they never existed."
I should have kept walking. I should have filed it under "things that don't concern me." But my feet slowed anyway.
