Vasil came back as the sun was rising. My window wasn’t facing east, but I could see the traces of light shining through the sky. In the distance, the tree tops glimmered.

I looked around when the count entered. He stopped short when he saw me sitting in the desk chair I had pulled up to the window.

“Emerra? What are you doing?”

I managed to lift one shoulder in a shrug. “Just…looking at the sky.”

“Did you get any sleep?”

“Some.”

“Is it jet lag?”

I shook my head.

The vampire let out a sigh and ran a hand through his hair. His hand dropped back to his side as he wandered toward me. “Emerra, I need to apologize to you. Would you be willing to hear me out?”

I felt oddly mute, so I nodded.

Darius Vasil looked in my eyes. “I’m sorry. I know that I can come across as…imperious…but I never meant to imply that you were immature or that you couldn’t handle yourself under normal circumstances. But I would like you to try to understand the situation from my perspective. For almost a hundred years, I’ve been able to lift cars, throw fully grown men across a building with one hand, and when I break a bone, it heals in two days. To me, you seem…a little…”

“Weak?”

Vasil frowned.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I know I’m weak. You can say it.”

“I don’t think I can. But I do know you can’t lift cars, and your healing seems to be only as good as a normal human’s, and it’s my job to protect people, so, yes, I worry about you.”

“Thank you, Darius. Now here’s my apology. I’m sorry for losing my temper. I’d explain why I lost my temper, but it’s probably because I’m immature and can’t handle myself.”

I heard a quiet snort of laughter from Darius, and his closed-lip smile appeared.

“Are we good?” I asked.

“Yes, I think we’re good.”

“Kay. In the meantime, I had a nightmare.”

The count froze, then he moved toward the bedroom door. “I’ll get Conrad.”

I grabbed his pant leg before he could escape. “Hold up. It’s not—just…Look! I heard you out, and now you have to hear me out!”

He stepped back and sat on the edge of the windowsill without saying anything. He was all super-humanly keen ears.

I tried to explain. I’m sure I stuttered and backtracked when I lost my focus or got too close to sounding sad or weird, but I think I got the general idea across. Yes, I was a seer, and yes, some of my dreams were important. But I’d been having nightmares long before I woke up in my casket with the Eyes of the Sphinx. I’d had them on and off my whole life, and I always had them when I came to a new place. I didn’t know how to tell which nightmares were important.

Halfway through my talk, Darius’s hand wandered up to his face. It was still there when I was done. All he did was stare at the floor and rub his jaw. If my hearing had been half as good as his, I could have heard the cogs turning in his head.

“Tell me your dream,” he said.

I told him, then shut my mouth.

He turned to the window.

“It wasn’t this one,” I said.

He glanced at me.

I raised my hand in a half-hearted gesture. “It’s…it’s the wrong shape. And there’s no sign that there were ever bars.”

“You checked?”

I nodded.

“All right. And you only had this dream once?”

“Yeah, but I couldn’t fall asleep again after that.”

The last time I’d had a seer’s dream, it had been kind enough to repeat itself, night after night, for days on end. That was a handy clue I should have picked up on faster. Here, idiot, you get this on repeat until you understand what’s going on.

“Please let me know if you have it again,” Darius said. “For now we’ll focus on our original plan.”

“We had one of those?”

“I certainly did. I’ll have breakfast with you before grabbing a few hours of sleep. This afternoon, we have an appointment with Wuller and Aaron Reisig.”

“Who’s Aaron Reisig?”

“Wuller calls him a ‘psychic consultant.’”

“Is he like a counselor or something?”

“More like a teacher, but they don’t give teaching credentials if you’re mentoring people on how to handle psychic powers. He and Wuller are going to bring in some of the boys to demonstrate their abilities. Until then, I’d like you to start looking around the school.”

“For magic?”

“Or anything that seems unusual. For now, try to stay where it’d be reasonable for you to be.”

“Is that code for ‘I don’t want you doing any breaking and entering?’”

“Well…not yet. And try not to disturb any classes.”

I grinned.

“What’s so funny?” Darius asked.

“We may have to do some breaking and entering, but heaven forbid we disrupt a high school class.”

The count pointed at me. “Education is important. So is finding out what’s going on around here.”

“Gotcha.”

[https://i.imgur.com/f011ZNa.jpg]

After eating breakfast with Wes and the others, I chased Miller down to ask him for a map of the school.

“A map?” he said. “Are you planning on exploring, Miss Cole?”

“Heck, yeah! Dude, I’m from America. Do you think we have buildings like this over there?”

Miller’s smile was asymmetrical. It made him look uneasy, even when he was relaxed. When he was uneasy (which seemed to be most of the time) it made it look worse.

“Would a guide be more useful?” he asked.

My mind glitched from trying to process too many thoughts at once.

Yes, a guide would be more useful. I wasn’t good with maps. I could…probably?…still look around if they were with me. Maybe? It’d look weird though. Of course, I already looked weird. But what if I needed to linger in a room? What kind of an excuse could I make up? Besides, who would be the guide? I thought everyone would be working.

I looked up at Miller. “Do you have work?”

Miller blushed. The pink color crept from his neck all the way up to his hairline.

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I hadn’t meant anything by my comment, but I did get a mischievous kick out of listening to him stammer.

“Why…I…uh. Well, I’m afraid—I don’t, you see…well, I—you want me to do it?”

I could have said “who else is there?” but that wouldn’t be any fun at all, so instead I smiled at him and chirped, “Sure.”

The pinkness intensified.

Oh, this was too cute. Being the only female in a huge school had some perks. Before that moment, I never would have thought of myself as an evil villain character, but I was showing definite signs of wanting to abuse my new-found power.

He cleared his throat. “Well, I’m afraid I can’t. I do have work to do.”

“Oh.” I allowed myself to sound disappointed. “Then I guess I’ll take a map.”

That got him. No man alive, let alone a gentleman wearing a dress shirt and tie, would dream of arguing with the girl he just rejected. Chalk one up for the bald femme fatale.

Miller took me back to Wuller’s outer office, got me a map, and pointed out where the boy’s private dorms were—most likely as a warning to stay away from them. Then he took me back to the staircase off the great hall, and sent me on my way.

I went down without thinking about it, but most of the rooms on the second floor were classrooms or dorms. I decided it’d be a better idea to start on the third floor. While wandering around, I found a set of stairs I hadn’t been expecting. After frowning at the map for almost a minute, I decided to take them. The stairs were going up, therefore they were the right direction. Even if the map didn’t know it.

The stairwell was tall, dark, and silent. The cold stones of the walls seemed to lean in on me as I walked. I emerged from the stairwell onto the third floor. By then even the stragglers had made their way to class, and the staff had retreated to their duties. The halls were as lonely as the stairs. My sneakers made almost no noise as I walked.

If I had been wearing Olivia’s heeled boots that clicked with every step, would that have made the solitude feel more or less intense?

I wished Conrad was with me. Then I beat myself up for wishing that. It was an empty hall! This was not something I needed protection from, and there wasn’t a wolfman alive that could protect me from the nonsense in my own head.

The line of doors on my right were all dark. Hints of natural light snuck out from under the doors on my left, but everything was quiet. Not a single lecturing voice could be heard. I reached out to one of the doors, but my hand fell away before I could touch the handle.

No matter how much I told myself I was being silly, I couldn’t lift my arm again.

I looked around. Halfway down the hall, there was a large patch of natural light.

That’s what I needed! I would get some good light on the map so I could figure out where I was. Starting my search at some random door was no good. I needed to be systematic.

Yeah. That sounded convincing.

The light came from a large set of windows that were set so far back from the rest of the hall, the wall they were put in must have stuck out from the building.

“Is this a tower?” I whispered.

The hall around me whispered back.

Welp! Screw that!

I was supposed to have magical eyes, not magical ears. If I was hearing things, I was still too freaked out by my nightmare to be exploring some ancient manor house.

But first I had to show that building who was boss.

“The grounds,” I said loudly. “That’s what I’m going to explore first. No creepy echoes there.”

I listened and heard nothing. With any luck, I’d offended the place, and it’d leave me alone.

I went back to the stairs, down to the ground level, and walked through the hall until I found the first door that led outside.

When I opened the door, a rush of air hit me. It was brisk and alive with the smell of grass and trees. I didn’t have a plan for where I was going, but away felt like a good option. I went in a straight line from the door and kept my back to the building.

Past the patchy vegetable garden was the manicured lawn. After a few minutes of walking, the lawn transitioned into a wild collection of bushes and trees, and my walk turned into more of a meander. My shoulders relaxed, and I put my hands in my pockets—but I kept my eyes open.

Not that I expected to see something that could explain the boys’ psychic powers hiding under a bush. But you never knew. Some kind of radioactive chuck of Planet ESPer might have fallen from the sky.

I checked the sky.

It was covered in gray clouds.

I was probably going to be seeing a lot of those.

As I lowered my eyes, I saw the wall from yesterday. A glance behind me showed only a part of the building. Most if it was hidden from view by the distance and all the plants, but I could still tell I had come out from the side of the school.

I knew the wall ran along the front, but how far back did it go?

I picked my way through the shrubs and branches until I was standing next to the wall. With the diffused sunlight, there weren’t really any shadows, but the air beside the stones felt colder. I stared at the edge, far above me, where the top of the wall met the sky.

“It wasn’t this tall at the front,” I mumbled.

Was it? Had I misjudged the height from my place in the limo?

When I put my hand on the wall, the chill made it ache. There was texture on the stones because of their age, but there wasn’t anything for a person to grab onto. I couldn’t even dig the tips of my fingers into the gaps between the stones. I put my hand back in my pocket.

It didn’t matter. It wasn’t like I was trying to escape…

I peered down the length of the wall toward the front of the school. By the time it turned the corner in the distance, what little I could see of it, before it got lost in the trees, looked no larger than a sideways pencil. In the other direction, it disappeared because of the curve in the grounds.

I went that way, to see if the wall really did disappear.

It didn’t. No matter how far I walked, the wall grew to meet me and fell away behind me. Beside me, it was always the same unclimbable height. A seed of frustration cracked open and spilled out tiny roots that grew until they were simultaneously breaking up my vague thoughts and clutching them together.

When I reached the back corner, I let out a tsss sound, turned, and picked up my pace.

Twenty minutes later, my phone rang. It was Darius.

I put the thing up to my ear and, without any hello, demanded, “Why is this place built like a prison?”

There was a short silence.

“Emerra, where are you?”

“I’m out on the grounds. I wanted to get some fresh air. Did you know this place has a wall around the entire thing? It’s massive! The only way in or out is through the front gate! Why would they do that?”

There was another pause.

“Given the circumstances—” Darius said.

“What circumstances? It’s a high school!”

The count let out a quiet sigh. I stopped and leaned back on the hated wall.

“Sorry,” I muttered.

“How old does the wall look?” Darius asked.

“Pretty old.”

“As old as the main building?”

“Not that old, but older than some of the buildings.”

“Then it probably came with the manor when Wuller bought it, and they didn’t think it’d be worth the money required to have it torn down.”

“I guess that makes sense.” I moved my phone down to glance at the time, then put it back to my ear. “Aren’t you supposed to be asleep?”

“I am, but Mr. Wes Osborn wanted me to inform you that he’s already checked with his teacher, and you’d be welcome to join his history class during second lesson if you wanted to observe them.”

I smiled. “Isn’t Wes supposed to be in class right now?”

“I didn’t think it was my place to comment.”

“Thank you, Darius. I’m sorry he woke you.”

The vampire grunted. “The message is delivered. You’re on your own when it comes to finding the classroom.”

“Sleep well.”

“I hope so.” He hung up.

I lowered my phone. I had some time before I had to head back to the school—if I decided to head back to the school. I still needed to look around. There was a lot more to the grounds than the wall.

I turned and stepped back to look at it. Then I took a few more steps backward to enjoy watching it shrink.

“Careful.”

My heart skipped, but the voice was only unexpected, not unpleasant.

I turned to see the man behind me. He was crouched over the ground, nearly hidden by the shrub beside him. His gray overalls were coated with dirt, his wide-brimmed hat was pushed back so he could see me, and his face was lined with wrinkles. Gardening tools were scattered around him. I had interrupted his project, so I couldn’t tell if he was putting something in or pulling something out.

He went on, “This isn’t the place to go over, and you’ll back into a branch if you don’t look where you’re going.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“You’re a woman?” He dusted off his gloves, stood up, and walked toward me. The lines around his eyes deepened as he squinted to get a better look. “I’m sorry. My eyes aren’t what they used to be.”

I waved to show no-hard-feelings. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Where are you from?”

“America.”

“Huh. Welcome to Setlan on Lee,” he grumbled. “A fine institution. For however long it lasts.”

He went back to his tools.

I followed him. Maybe I missed Igor’s grumping, or maybe I found him more curious than sinister, despite his grim outlook.

“You don’t think it’ll last?” I asked.

“The only thing that lasts in this world is me.” He lowered himself to the ground and picked up his spade. “I’ve been passed down four times—like the stonework, and the problems with the pipes—but even I’m wearing out.”

I grinned. “Maybe the stonework will outlast you.”

“That’s right. So will the grounds. I don’t know what state they’ll be in, but they’ll be here. The dirt, and the eternal manor.”

“You said this wasn’t the place to go over?”

He hacked at the soil around the root of the shrub. “Huh?”

“Earlier, you said this wasn’t the place to go over?”

“You’re a visitor.” He jerked his head to the left. “You go out the front gate. It’s safer that way.”

“Do any of the boys sneak out?”

“They’re teenage boys, Missy. We may not last, but humans don’t change much either. There are stretches along the front of the wall that are a good two feet shorter than here. There’s still glass along the top, but the boys don’t always know that.”

My mind twisted around the word. “Glass?”

“They find the big tree too. They all do. I laid a folded blanket across the top of the wall there. Wuller might not like that, but it’s my yard they drop into, and I don’t much like bandaging up a lot of cuts. One or two twisted ankles”—he raised a finger—“that I can do.”

“How long has this wall been here?”

“Oh, forever. The original drawings don’t have it, but it was here before my time.”

Good. Darius was right; Wuller didn’t build the wall. That felt…important. Comforting.

“How do the boys get back inside?” I asked.

“The ones that do borrow my ladder. I leave it out—sideways, mind you—and they put it up. That’s how I know they made it back. I go out in the morning, and it’s up against the wall.” He shifted his shoulders in a shrug. “It’s not up to the school how I store my ladder.”

A line of numbness crept along my spine. “What do you mean—the ones that do?”

The old man stopped hacking. He grabbed onto the trunk of the shrub and pushed. There was a series of pops and cracks as it separated from the roots that wouldn’t let go.

“Three so far,” he said. “Three I know of—two I heard, one I had to help. They never came back.”

“What happened to them?”

“Don’t know. People tend to stay out of your business if you stay out of theirs. I don’t want them asking about the ladder, so I don’t ask the school about the boys, and I don’t ask the boys why they’re running.”