“There is a ghost among us,” the headmistress announced a few days ago. It was the first day of school, and this was the first thing she said. “Be on the lookout. Watch for the chills. The sounds. Remember, the dead can only hide among the living so long as we let them.”

The rumors started to fly almost immediately. Expected, when one suddenly tells about a thousand teenagers that one of their own isn’t actually one of their own.

Case in point: I’m asking my best friend, Iona (who has kept herself glued to my side since that first day of school) as we walk through the corridors, “Who do you suspect?”

Iona scoffs. “No one. This is all ridiculous. How did the school even detect a ghost in the first place?”

I shrug. “Charms, I guess.”

She rolls her bright hazel eyes. “Wake up, Laurie. The answer is, they didn’t.”

“But why would they lie to us?”

“Simple.” She stops at the edge of the hallway in front of her locker. She snaps her fingers, and the door pops open; she begins digging inside for one of her textbooks. “It’s a distraction.”

“From…?”

She pauses. “Isn’t is obvious? You!”

“Oh.” I look down awkwardly. “Right.”

Another thing. All children who are accepted into Mirror Academy, the school for those with magical abilities, receive a letter before they arrive. The letter tells them they’ve been accepted, and explains all their magical powers, what they can and can’t do, that they must fight always for good, et cetera.

But then there’s me.

I’m not actually a magical child. At least, the headmistress doesn’t think so. She doesn’t really know what I am. I don’t have any of the normal magic. Mine is… different. While all the other students can do things like cleaning spells and summon objects and make flowers grow and talk to animals, I can— read minds. Move shadows. Control monsters. That sort of thing. Apparently I have a soul more dark and powerful than anyone the headmistress has ever known.

So you can imagine how everyone reacted to the school accepting someone like me.

Iona nods. “This is a good thing, don’t worry. People will be so caught up in all this ghost nonsense, they won’t have time to think about a thing you can do.” She snaps her fingers again, and the locker doors slam closed.

We continue walking through the corridors. We pass a group of girls who whisper vehemently at each other when they see us, cupping their hands to one another’s ears.

I furrow my brow. “What do you think they’re—“

Iona shoves a hand over my mouth. “Shh. Don’t worry about it! Remember what I told you. This’ll all be over soon.”

We round another corner. More people are whispering.

“So,” I ask Iona as a boy stares at us wide-eyed, “What would be the danger of having a ghost in the school anyway?”

“It doesn’t matter. There isn’t one.”

“I know. But hypothetically.”

She sighs. “Well, hypothetically, ghosts know how to haunt people. Some say they can kill you. Some say they desire nothing but to suck out your soul…but really, let’s face it.” She throws an arm around my shoulder, and her skin feels cold. “These are all rumors spread by the headmistress. Rumors meant to protect you.”

I nod. Iona is right. The headmistress only wants the best for me.

We stop again, at my locker this time. I have to snap my fingers a few times for the locker door to work. As I’m rummaging around inside, I hear a strange noise.

I perk up. “What was that?”

“What was what?”

I glance around. “That weird hissing noise.”

Iona shakes her head. “I didn’t hear anything. My, all this pressure must be getting to you. First finding out about your magic, then coming to Mirror on only a few days’ notice, then all these people being terrible to you… do you need to lie down? I could take you back to the dormitory.”

“Um, that’s okay—“

“Then let’s go.” She takes my arm and starts pulling me down the corridor again. Gods, why are her fingers so freezing?

More murmuring erupts as we pass though the next few clusters of students. Though it’s not me they seem to be looking at…

“Ignore them,” Iona says quickly, jerking me past the murmurers. “We’re going to be late for class. Come on.”