By the time I made it back to the dorm, my brain was a swirl of confusion and exhaustion. My boots barely made a sound on the stone floors, and all I wanted was to collapse face-first onto my bed and pretend I didn’t exist for a few hours. But as soon as I opened the door, two pairs of eyes shot toward me like arrows.
Elsie and Ferna were perched on the edge of our makeshift couch, which, for the record, was just a long wooden bench we’d stolen from the practice grounds and covered with a blanket. They looked like they’d been waiting for hours, jittery and anxious, their gazes glued to me like I was carrying the results of a royal verdict.
“Well?” Elsie asked before I could even drop my bag. “Good news? Bad news? Medium news?”
I blinked at them, trying to find words. Apparently, my face
