Acting as if I'd just arrived, I burst through the doors of Necromancer Academy. Heads turned. Jaws dropped. I'd struck everyone speechless. Well, not me exactly...

"Headmistress Millington!" An elderly mage in a black cloak and cloudy eyes rushed forward to take my hands. "Where have you been all these months? While you were gone, a student and a professor both d - "

"I know," I said louder than I needed to so the others gathering around could hear. "I had to be ...