Chapter 23

• Zara’s POV
• Saturday dawned cold and bright, frost silvering the grass beyond my dorm window. I woke up shivering under thin covers, my breath fogging in the dim dawn light. Wolf sports day. Great. The entire academy was buzzing about it all week, but all I cared about was calling Aunt May. My mind burned with questions — about Mira Blackwood, about the journal hidden under my pillow, about why my name kept popping up in places it didn’t belong.
• But calls weren’t allowed until after sports ended. I clenched my fists under the blanket. Why does everything here feel like a cage?