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I'd been climbing out of my dorm window to go hang out with some people. It was after hours,<br />
and we were all supposed to be in our rooms, fast asleep. Such escape tactics were a regular<br />
practice for me. I was good at them.<br />
But I fell that time. I had a second-floor room, and I lost my grip about halfway down. Sensing<br />
the ground rush up toward me, I tried desperately to grab hold of something and slow my fall.<br />
The building's rough stone tore into my skin, causing cuts I was too preoccupied to feel. I<br />
slammed into the grassy earth, back first, getting the wind knocked out of me.<br />
"Bad form, Rosemarie. You should be more careful. Your instructors would be disappointed.”<br />
Peering through the tangle of my hair, I saw Ms. Karp looking down at me, a bemused look on<br />
her face. Pain, in the meantime, shot through every part of my body.<br />
Ignoring it as best I could, I clambered to my feet. Being in class with Crazy Karp while<br />
surrounded by other students was one thing. Standing outside alone with her was an entirely<br />
different matter. She always had an eerie, distracted gleam in her eye that made my skin break<br />
out in goose bumps.<br />
There was also now a high likelihood she'd drag me off to Kirova for a detention. Scarier still.<br />
Instead, she just smiled and reached for my hands. I flinched but let her take them. She tsked<br />
when she saw the scrapes. Tightening her grip on them, she frowned slightly. A tingle burned<br />
my skin, laced with a sort of pleasant buzz, and then the wounds closed up. I had a brief sense<br />
of dizziness. My temperature spiked. The blood disappeared, as did the pain in my hip and leg.<br />
Gasping, I jerked my hands away. I'd seen a lot of Moroi magic, but never anything like that.<br />
"What…what did you do?”<br />
She gave me that weird smile again. "Go back to your dorm, Rose. There are bad things out<br />
here. You never know what's following you.”<br />
I was still staring at my hands. "But…”<br />
I looked back up at her and for the first time noticed scars on the sides of her forehead. Like<br />
nails had dug into them. She winked. "I won't tell on you if you don't tell on me.”
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