Page 45 of Marked By His Hunger

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Like it recognized something in me.

And for the first time in my life I felt like maybe I wasn’t all alone in the world.

Maybe it wasn’t just me and my dark little secret.

No, I hadn’t told anyone what I could do yet. Didn’t really understand it myself.

Necromancer.

That’s what the admissions letter had called me, but what was it? What did it really mean?

I hadn’t a clue. But experience had taught me not to mention my so-called gifts unless I wanted people to shun me.

Or worse.

My fingers tightened slightly around the mug.

“You okay?” Ursula asked softly.

I blinked, forcing myself back to the present.

“Yeah,” I said, quieter this time. “Just adjusting.”

Adjusting to magic being real.

To Monsters being real.

To the fact that I was one of them.

And to the unsettling, impossible truth that something in this place?—

Something powerful—something broken—had made itself known to me the moment I arrived.

I hadn’t imagined it.

I knew I hadn’t.

And somehow, I had the feeling—it knew me, too.

The dorm door opened, and two more women entered the dorm, dragging luggage behind them.

Apparently, admissions week was a whole thing. Because of the scarcity of portals and the need to space everything out, new arrivals would be filing in for days.

And this was a four-person suite. Not the double I had envisioned.

Great.

Not.

I valued privacy.

Silence.

Locked doors.

But here we were.

“Hi, I’m Sapphire. Empath.”

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