It takes me two hours to find my way back to the dormitories, and another twenty minutes to find my room. I could have asked for help or tagged along with one of the orientation tours. My stubborn ass just keeps insisting it's right around the corner. Or the next corner. Or the next.

By the time I make it into the room, my roommate is done setting up shop. 

The trunk in the middle bed was hers, apparently, and her sheets are light pink. Her desk is already decked out with bottles of herbs and bowls of crystals. A tiny altar to Athena sits in her bookshelf, illuminated by a cinnamon tealight.

All I can see from behind is the bobbing of her hair. Blue headphones peek out from her dark brown coils as she dances on the spot, occasionally changing the placement of her crystals.

I knock on the doorframe.

She yelps and spins around, dropping a chunk of amethyst to the carpet. It bounces with a dull thud, missing her bare foot by an inch. She shoves the headphones down.

She's got a round face and a short nose, with light brown skin and slightly overgrown eyebrows. Her arms are exposed by a bright blue tee, muscle tone apparent in the evening light. We stare at each other for a moment. I'm sweaty and my hair has long since abandoned the idea of a ponytail.

"Hi," I say. "I'm Sadie. Cairn. Your roommate." I gesture vaguely at the bed I claimed along with the half-unpacked items I've strewn across the given space.

Her mouth falls into an O shape. "Hey. Uh -- Jane Peterson."

She's standing in the gap between the foot of her bed and her desk, blocking the way to my third of the room. I realize that my choice in bunk was not the correct one. I glance at her desk. "Potions?"

Jane nods. She looks over her shoulder at my desk, moving aside enough for me to slide past her. "Astrological magic?" 

"What gave it away?" I try my best to seem enthused. It doesn't really work. Then, I'm confused. There are celestial maps rolled up in my desk drawer, but it's closed. I sit on my bed and wait for her answer.

She bites her lip and her eyes go wide. "I --"

"It's okay," I interrupt before she can panic. "I don't care."

She deflates. "I'm sorry, it was just -- I had no idea who you were and my cousin told me that it's good to --"

Jane cuts herself off with a wince. Her eyes are so big and pitiful that I end up smiling and pulling my feet up under me. "I was curious about you, too. Kind of confused as to why you took the middle bed."

She blinks. "Wait -- we're three?"

I scan the room just to make sure I didn't make a mistake. I didn't. Three beds, three desks, three dressers. 

"My cousin said it's always two people per room. I figured they'd take out the extra bed."

"Who is your cousin?" I cock my head. 

Her face flushes and she ducks her head. Time to change the subject, I guess. I glance around, hoping for a new subject. "Your cousin ever told you anything about the Resurrectionists?"

Jane's eyes widen and I half expect her to melt into the carpet. She clutches her headphones so hard that her knuckles pale. "They're a club of necromancers. They throw lots of parties in the woods."

I raise my eyebrows. A thought occurs to me, and I hate myself for thinking it. "You know where?"

☽ ☾

Magic parties are a different beast altogether. It doesn't take me long to figure that one out. There was the cheap beer and bags of candy that seemed like they'd be spiked with something, which was normal, and then there was the fact that the bonfire weaves in ribbons around the trees. 

Jane hadn't wanted to come with me, and I don't begrudge her for it. There must be dozens of people here from all grades. The music doesn't seem to have a source, thrumming through the air and making it impossible to hear what anyone's saying. 

I yelp and reel back as I almost walk face-first into a sizzling rope of fire hovering in mid-air. It crackles and moves like seaweed in water before whipping out of my way.

"Sorry about that!" A distinctly drunk voice calls out. A bare arm slams across my shoulders, closely followed by someone's sweaty body weight. I stagger under it and get a mouthful of thick black hair for my trouble.

Just as fast as it happened, the person is yanked off me. I blink dumbly and stare as two of the most beautiful people I've ever seen giggle into each other. The girl who fell on me is a skinny young woman in her twenties with raccoon eyeliner and curly hair. She lets out a peal of laughter as the boy who'd presumably pulled her off me steadies her. The boy -- tall, dark olive skin, symmetrically dimpled -- has an open-mouthed grin when he looks at me. Holding his drunk friend in the crook of one arm as he leans in to shake my hand. "Sorry -- Dolly forgot some people are taller than she is! I'm Evan. Hartley!"

I force a smile and shake his hand. "Sadie Cairn."

"What?" He practically shouts. My face burns.

"Sadie Cairn!"

Though I didn't think it possible, he smiles even wider. His teeth are distressingly white. "Cairn? Like Petra Cairn?"

I nod, a bit confused. "My sister. Have you seen her?"

He doesn't hear me, instead turning to his friend -- Dolly -- and repeating my name. "She's a goddamn legacy!"

That megawatt grin turns its beacon back to me and I want to shrink away from it. Instead, he hooks me in his other arm and half-drags me along.

We pass by the pit the fire stems from, the glowing mass looking more like a pile of molten lava thank a bonfire. Evan spins Dolly out of his arm like a dancer and releases me from his hold. He leans over the fire and waves his hand with a flourish. A low, heavy roar rises above the din of music and chatter as the fire turns blue. The ribbons of fire webbing through the woods shudder and ease higher so they floated comfortably overhead, mingling with the black branches without burning them.

The newly-blue fire incites a wave of awe through the party, some students even applauding. My lips part slightly. For all the weird and dangerous shit that accompanies magic and its use, there's usually something beautiful to keep us coming back. I clench my jaw. Evan's smile dims a bit when he sees me looking undoubtedly like I just swallowed a lemon.

He beckons me over away from the center of the party, where there aren't as many people. Dolly trails after him before slinging both arms around his shoulders and hiking her legs around his waist. He holds her up like a backpack and keeps walking. He has to bend his head down to talk to me. "What's wrong?"

I fold my arms over my chest and keep frowning. "Have you seen my sister?"

"Tonight?" He shrugs. "No."

"Well, she's --"

"Hang on," he says. He waves his hand again and the sound around us drops. I look around. Everyone else is still walking and talking. Nobody noticed it. He puts his hand back down to adjust Dolly's leg around his waist. "Continue."

"She's supposed to be here tonight. Meeting a professor," I grimace trying to remember his name, "Glass?"

"Glass?" Evan's smile was back. "Yeah, he's our club supervisor. Cool dude. If you stick around I'm sure he'll turn up."

A bitter taste fills my mouth and I want nothing more than to disappear and curl up somewhere warm and dark. I nod and turn away. Evan stops me with a gentle hand on my arm. "Wait -- she's fine. She's Petra freaking Cairn, she can do whatever she wants. Stay and enjoy the party."

"She's leaving?" Dolly squeaks, letting go of Evan's shoulders and barely catching herself on the leaf-covered ground. Dolly dangles off of Evan's arm and leans in close to me. "Why?"

"I don't like parties," I say.

She whines and wraps her arms around me. Her skin is clammy and damp with sweat, totally exposed to the night air by a strappy black crop top. I pat her back and look to Evan for help. He laughs like a breeze and once again saves me from Dolly's clutches. Once she's back between Evan's biceps, she settles down. "Okay, drop by the clubhouse tomorrow, though. It'll be quiet. We'll all be hungover."

She smiles like that's a good thing.

I nod and wave goodbye to the handsy duo. I tuck my jacket tight around my chest and start walking. Evan's bubble of silence breaks when I get a few meters away from him. I stretch my legs and keep walking. The fire's ribbons don't reach this far out, leaving me in the dark woods and the party as a beacon of light and noise behind me.

I exhale a thin cloud of steam. Moonlight filters through the leaves in little medallions of silver. It's a little breezy, but the closer I get to the mountain's base, the gentler it gets. My feet find a well-trodden path and I follow it. I check the time on my phone. It's only eight. I have time to get lost. The path doesn't wind, just leads up the mountain at an easy incline. Crickets and cicadas replace music and voices. I breathe in the cool air and try to let it purge me.

A distant scream breaks my calm. I stop. There's nobody around.

My first thought is that it's someone at the party. Then, I know it could be anything else. Wind in the mountains, a coyote, my imagination.

The second scream lets me know it's none of those.

It's a boy's voice, ragged around the edges and only quiet because of the distance. Help, he screams. It's coming from the opposite direction of the party. More voices join in for a brief and unintelligible call.

My phone doesn't have a signal, and even if it did, who would I call? I haven't gotten the chance to get the campus emergency numbers. I bite my lip. Petra taught me some defensive spells, most of which I can call up with a drop of blood and a whisper. I stuff my phone into my jacket pocket and break into a run.

The smell of burning hair assaults my nose and I swing around a shelf of rocks. My legs lock up.

The scream isn't far away, it was a long time ago.

It looks like a house at first. A big, mansion-like house. Then, I spot the black cross at the very top of the burnt-out skeleton of a building. It was too sprawling and complex to be a church, the three floors and multiple half-destroyed staircases leaving no room for pews. My heart sinks down to my knees. I get closer. A sign sits on the rotted front steps, half covered by weeds. I move a rough stalk aside to read it.

St. Sebastian's Home for Boys.

I don't need to check inside to know that people died here. Kids died here.