—Enzo’s POV—
Ashbourne’s campus was always too quiet in the mornings. Not the peaceful kind of quiet you’d find after a fresh snowfall or when the woods went still before a storm. No, this was something else. A hush that felt too calculated, too intentional. Like the grounds themselves were holding their breath, waiting for something to go wrong. Or remembering all the times it already had.
The stone courtyard stretched wide before me, damp from the morning dew. My boots echoed across it like gunshots in a chapel, too loud for how early it still was. Mist curled along the edges of the old paths, clinging to statues and ivy-wrapped columns like ghostly fingers. I wasn’t even supposed to be out here. Most of the others were still half-asleep or passed out in their dorms, but I hadn’t slept
