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Prologue

FROST BEGAN TO CREEP UP THE WALLS

Transfixed, I watched lines of frost lace their way across the stone of the north tower’s records roo the wall, even icing the ceiling with so flaky and white A few s in the air

It was all delicate and ethereal—and completely unnatural The room’s chill cut deeper than my skin, down to my marrow If only I hadn’t been alone If soht have been able to believe it was real I ht have been able to believe I was safe

The ice crackled so loudly, I ju in thin, quick gasps, the frost etching its way across theobscured the view of the night sky outside, blocking the ht, but soht now All the many lines of frost on thebroke this way and that, not at randonizable shape

A face

The frost ry eyes were so detailed that it see back at e I’d ever seen

Then the cold stabbed intoback at me

Once, I hadn’t believed in ghosts—

Chapter One

AT MIDNIGHT, THE STORM ARRIVED

Dark clouds scudded across the sky, blotting out the stars The quickening wind chilled me as strands of my red hair blew across my forehead and cheeks I pulled up the hood ofbeneath it

Despite the gathering storht still weren’t co less than total darkness would do Evernight Acadeh the wind All vampires could

Of course, at Evernight, the teachers weren’t the only vaan in a couple of days, the students would arrive, most of them as powerful, ancient, and undead as the professors

I wasn’t powerful or ancient, and I was still very much alive But I was a vampire, in a way—born to two vampires, destined to become one myself eventually, and with my own appetite for blood I’d slipped past the teachers before, trusting in ht I waited for that darkness I wanted as much cover as possible