Page 74 of Foresyth Conservatory
My eyebrows knitted together, and my intuition flared. “Gabriel,” I breathed.
I opened the door to see the familiar face of Richard. “I’m sorry to disturb you, Ms. Blackburne, but you have a visitor,” he said. I pushed past Richard and rushed downstairs. And there he was—my childhood best friend, standing in the foyer with his hands shoved into his pockets, glasses slightly askew.
“Gabriel!” I ran to him, my breath catching in my throat. His face brightened at the sight of me, and he lowered his satchel to return my embrace. I hugged him tightly, inhaling the familiar scent of parchment, leather, and rain—the smell of Greenwich, the smell of home. A longing sadness settled into my chest.
“What are you doing here?” I pulled back, panic rising in my chest. Gabriel didn’t belong here. He’d be in danger. The Meister could walk through the doors at any moment and see him, breaking Foresyth’s strict code of no visitors.
“Dahlia, it’s so good to see you. I got your letters.” He smiled, missing the urgency in my tone.
“How did you find this place? You can’t be here. It’s not safe,” I whispered, searching his eyes for understanding, willing him to realize the danger he was in.
“Is there somewhere we can talk?” he asked, his voice gentle but firm.
I sighed, leading him into the breakfast room and closing the door behind us. The hour was late, and no one should be coming in. Being with Gabriel felt like being back in the world I knew—safe, familiar. But it also felt uncomfortable. He hadn’t changed a bit, whereas I had. His presence couldn’t change that fact.
“How’ve you been, Dahl?” he asked, his eyes scanning my face.
“Fine.” I forced a smile.
He wasn’t convinced. “Come on, I know you better than that. You look . . . different.” His gaze lingered on my clothes—a bright sweater Sequoia had picked out for me, paired with a black skirt that hit my hips just right. “More feminine.”
“There’s a stupid dress code here,” I said, sitting down at the breakfast table.
“So . . . you don’t like it here?” He leaned closer, concern etched in his brow.
“I . . . I don’t know. It’s confusing. I came here, well, for Julian. But I’m getting tangled up in this place. Managing research assignments, papers, relationships.” The last word tumbled out of me before I could reconsider it. What did I even mean by that, relationships? Of course they weren’t real, they were lies.
“Sounds like going undercover for your first assignment isn’t as easy as you thought,” Gabriel teased, but there was a seriousness beneath his words.
“Fine,” I admitted, my voice quiet. “I’m in over my head, okay? I keep following the rabbit hole, and it just gets darker and deeper every step.” My voice faltered as I leaned closer. Gabriel brushed a strand of hair behind my ear, the gesture familiar, yet unsettling.
I’d grown out of the version of myself he’d known in Greenwich. I was different, even though I couldn’t quite explain how. But Gabriel couldn’t recognize that I had changed, at least not in the ways that mattered to me.
“Is Estelle doing all right?” I asked, breaking the silence between us.
“She’s fine. I’ve been checking in on her. She misses you.” He paused, then added, “I’m the one who’s a wreck, Dahlia. I haven’t slept a full night since you left.”
I lowered my eyes to my forearms, avoiding his gaze. I had barely slept, either, but for entirely different reasons that had nothing to do with Gabriel.
“Come back home with me,” Gabriel said softly. His hand jerked to touch my cheek, but paused mid-air, as if he sensed my hesitation. “There’s something wrong with this place.” His tone darkened.
I lifted my head to meet his eyes. “I can’t, Gabriel.” His jaw tensed, and I saw the hurt ripple across his face. No matter how much I missed home, I couldn’t leave now. Everything at Foresyth was connected—my father, Julian, and now me. If I didn’t figure out what was happening at Foresyth, others could get hurt. Not just the current students, but the others after them. I had to stay, no matter the cost.
“Is it because of someone else?” Gabriel asked, his tone sharper. The wordelsefelt like a dagger, implying that he was the one I was saying no to.
I furrowed my brows. “It’s not like that.”
“Have they tricked you? Brainwashed you?” His voice cracked, betraying the fear behind his question.
“No,” I said, my voice too high-pitched. “It’s not like that. The students here . . . they’re under the Meister’s spell. I agree that there’s something wrong with this place, Gabriel. But I’m so close to figuring it out. I just need more time.”
He clenched his jaw, his lines of frustration deepening. I could see how crazy I sounded, how reckless I appeared, staying in a place that was essentially a trap. But I couldn’t abandon the investigation. I couldn’t abandon my peers.
“This place—it’s even more sordid than I thought,” he said, opening his satchel. “I found this in the archives. Dahl, it wasn’t just Julian. There’s been a student every year for two decades.”
My eyebrows knitted together. “What do you mean?”
“A student has died under mysterious circumstances, gone missing, or unenrolled inexplicably, for the lasttwentyyears. Julian was just the last one.”
