Novels by Glowree22

The laugh stopped as soon as Ethan sat up.He held his breath and listened. Gravel snored in the next kennel. Pebble breathed slow and deep beside him like a bellows. Wick's wings ticked softly against the straw.Nothing else."Hello?" Ethan said. No answer. He got to his feet, swaying, and walked on shaky legs to the water barrels at the end of the hall. He looked behind each one. There was no one there. There was only a damp patch on the floor, and in the middle of it, a thin skin of frost in the shape of a hand.It melted while he watched. "That's not funny," he whispered. The lamp buzzed. The frost was gone.Ethan stood there for a long time with his arms wrapped around himself. Then he went back to the straw and lay down against Pebble's warm side and did not sleep.Morning came gray and slow.By the time the first bell rang across the campus, Ethan was sitting on an upturned feed bucket in the training yard behind the kennels, staring at his own hands. They were still faintly bl

Ethan opened his mouth to answer, and found that he did not have the words yet. He was about to find out. He went to the kennels that night, because he could not sleep and because the Remedial Wing was the only place on campus where nobody watched him.The long hall was dim and quiet. A few lamps buzzed at the far end. Somewhere a sleeping dog huffed and rolled over. Gravel, the gray dog with the missing ear, lifted his head when Ethan walked past and thumped his tail twice against the straw."Hey, you," Ethan whispered. "Go back to sleep." He was heading for the water barrels when he heard it. A thin, dry scratching, like a fingernail on stone. It came from the last kennel, the one nobody used. Ethan crouched by the gate. Inside, in a corner of cracked cement, lay a small gray lump the size of a loaf of bread. It had a hard, ridged shell, six stubby legs, and a crooked horn on its head. One leg was bent the wrong way. Its shell was split down the middle by a long, ugly crack.A Stone

"How long have you been there?" Sera demanded. "Since before you came up. This is my spot." Kaida took a sip. "You walked right past me. Very scary. Very Rank S.""Go away, Voss." "No." "I'm not in the mood." "I noticed." Kaida tilted her head. "You've got the face. The one people get when someone hands them a prize they didn't ask for."Sera stiffened. "What would you know about it?""Everything." Kaida's smirk did not reach her eyes. "Third generation Voss. My grandfather founded the Western Guild. My mother runs it. They put a fire hound in my arms when I was six, and I've been destined ever since."She said the word like it tasted bad. "You're not going to tell me you're not proud of it," Sera said. "Oh, I'm proud." Kaida shrugged. "That's what makes it so annoying. I'm good at it. I'm really good. And every time I win a duel, there's a little voice that says, Of course you won. You're a Voss. Nobody ever says, Kaida won. They say, "The Voss girl won." Sera blinked. "You're being

The figure in the gray coat was gone before Dean Okoye reached the window. "Lights," she snapped. "Now."The Great Hall flooded with white light. Outside, the courtyard sat empty under the moon. No footprints. No shadow. Only a single dead leaf turning slowly on the stone."I saw two of them," Sera said. "So did I," said the Dean."Then why does it look like nobody was ever there?"The Dean didn't answer. Her knuckles were pale around her staff.Behind them, Ethan was still kneeling by the stone, one hand pressed to his chest. Wick had crawled into his collar and gone dark, like a candle someone had pinched out."Professor Brandt," the Dean said quietly. "Take Mr. Cole back to the infirmary. Say nothing to anyone. Not the staff, not the proctors.""And Miss Linden?" The Dean looked at Sera for a long, tired moment. "Miss Linden and I need to talk." The Dean's office smelled like black tea and old paper. Sera stood in front of the desk with her arms folded. Rime, her Frost Wolf, sat be

The heat on Ethan's chest turned into light.It burst through his shirt in a thin silver-blue line, then spread outward in a pattern like frost growing across a window. Lines crossed lines. Circles linked to circles. A mark Ethan had never seen before burned on his skin, and it did not hurt.That was the strangest part. It felt like a door opening.A voice spoke inside his head. It was calm and clear, like someone reading from a very old book. [Infinite Evolution System: Activated] Host detected. Evolution Path unlocked: Cinder Moth → ???The Venom Stalker froze mid-lunge. Ethan stared at the air in front of him. Glowing words hung there, floating just above Wick's wings, and beneath them a tree of branches began to unfold. It had one branch, then three, then ten, then dozens, each ending in a shape that shimmered and changed."What is that?" Ethan whispered. Wick turned in the air. The little moth was glowing too, a soft ember-orange that matched the light on Ethan's chest. "You can

The Venom Stalker came out of the trees without a sound.Ethan didn't see it first. He saw Darius's face change. It happened fast. The easy smile Darius had worn all morning dropped off his face like a plate slipping from wet hands. His mouth stayed half open. His eyes went wide and fixed on something behind Ethan's left shoulder."Darius?" Ethan said. No answer. "Darius, what is it?"The two other teammates had already stopped walking. One of them dropped her water bottle. It bounced twice on the mossy ground and rolled away, and nobody picked it up.Ethan turned around. The creature was long and low, with a spotted green hide that matched the leaves so well he had looked straight at it and seen only a bush. Its tail curled over its back like a hook. Yellow drops fell from its fangs and hissed where they hit the dirt. It was looking at him. Not at Darius. Not at the others. At him. "Nobody moves," Darius said. His voice came out thin and strange, higher than normal.Ethan realized hi