Violet
The world around me felt half unreal, as though I was drifting through a corridor between waking and sleep, and every sound came through a thick layer of fog.
The majestic manor loomed over me but I was whisked inside before I could take a good look at the tall, imposing structure.
Someone had draped a shawl around my shoulders and I became vaguely aware of two staff members walking beside me, guiding my steps across polished stone floors that seemed to stretch on endlessly beneath the soft echo of my heels.
Cassie hovered near my side, talking in that bright, bubbling tone she used when she was excited or nervous or both, her words spilling one after another about the history of Ironcrest and the wing we were passing through and how the manor had been renovated three times in
