Sasha’s Pov
The ruins just outside the Academy looked almost holy in the moonlight, if holy meant broken and half-swallowed by the earth. Ivy clung to what was left of the old stones like a desperate thing, and the statues, God, the statues, stood frozen mid-prayer, faces cracked and eroded like they’d begged for salvation and never gotten an answer.
I sat on the low wall of what was probably once a chapel, knees drawn up, cloak tight around me. Not for warmth. Just to feel like I was still here. Still solid. The wind didn’t whisper out here, it tore. Sharp and mean, dragging through the bones of the ruin like it was looking for something to devour.
My hands clenched at the fabric, knuckles white. I shouldn't have come. I knew I shouldn’t have come. But the shadows inside were worse, th
